Surfing
Surfing
5 reasons why Supertubos is the most brutal event on the Championship Tour
Spot Check: Supertubos. Ahead of the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal we take a closer look at what makes the Portuguese Pipeline such a wild wave to tame, and why the event is such a satisfying one to win.
Welcome to Peniche, home of the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, the third stop on the 2025 World Surf League's Championship Tour. Not only do competitors fly to Europe expecting a barrelfest of the highest order, they head to Portugal knowing that a good result is a key box to tick on a world title-winning checklist.
Watch every day's action, including the finals, LIVE on Red Bull TV. Choose between English and Portuguese commentaries. (Not available in USA, Australia, New Zealand or Brazil.)
WSL MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Day 1
The world’s best surfers take on the Championship Tour’s only European event, the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal.
The jewel in Peniche's crown is Supertubos, a world class beachbreak that can go from serving up some of the best waves on the planet to some of the worst in a matter of minutes, such is the nature of this high-maintenance beast that requires sand, wind and tide to align perfectly. Unlock the code and glory awaits, mess up and it's a long shuttle back to Lisbon, and an even longer flight to get home.
Kanoa Igarashi putting his foot down in Peniche
© Damien Poullenot/World Surf League
Peniche is sick, it has some of my favourite waves in the world.
Here are five reasons why Supertubos is the most brutal event on the Championship Tour.
01
It’s a beachbreak that thinks it’s a reef – heavy, hollow and fast
Griffin Colapinto on his way to winning the 2024 MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal
© Damien Poullenot/World Surf League
You don't get compared to the most famous wave in the world without good reason, and Supertubos more than lives up to its billing as the Portuguese Pipeline. While the Hawaiian version breaks over jagged slabs of volcanic reef, Supertubos relies purely on shallow sandbanks to produce world-class barrels and send unprepared surfers home with their tails between their legs.
In Peniche's very first outing as a Championship Tour event in 2009, Supertubos served up a legendary week of tuberides and takedowns. Teenage Australian wildcard Owen Wright was a man on a mission in the heavy-duty conditions, and his hard-charging ways saw him win his quarter-final despite being in an ambulance on the way to hospital when time ran out, a burst eardrum ending his giant-killing run.
Rip Curl Pro, Portugal
© ASP/Cestari
Like most of Portugal's best waves Peniche sits on the west coast, and as the Iberian Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic it opens itself up to swell and storm activity from all directions. The result? Heavy, unpredictable waves breaking meters from the sand along the length of the beach, serving up some of the fastest barrels on tour.
02
The tide changes everything, good heats can turn bad in a flash
Supertubos in full cry, breaking metres from a packed gallery on the sand
© ASP/Damien Poullenot
Any surfer knows that at beachbreaks the tide is as important as the winds and the waves, and given the magnitude of the swells that strafe Peniche this situation is amplified further at Supertubos. Too much tide and the waves can fill up and get sluggish and slow, yet on larger swells this can be helpful. Not enough tide and the waves can break too quickly, and close out, though this can also be when they get hollow. Like most things, finding the balance is key.
Mick Fanning and his pit crew study the Supertubos lineup with intent
© Ryan Miller
How to find balance? Study, watch, observe, tap into the local rhythm. While Supertubos might serve up the occasional shock victor, they're never a surprise to those at the events, who see which competitors are on the sand from dark to dark. To win in Peniche means to put in time surfing at all hours and on all tides, experiencing the waves moving up and down and across the sandbars, and getting in synch with the Atlantic.
There are very few surprises for those who expect the unexpected, and whether the waves are perfect pits or windswept ramps, a solid game plan and adaptable skillset, paired with a thorough knowledge of the current bathymetry, will see even the lowliest ranked surfers primed for success.
03
Surfing's eternal debate – tubes, turns or airs? – rages strong in Peniche
Welcome to Peniche
© ASP/Cestari
It's no secret that the tube ride is surfing's North Star, but as the sport gets ever more athletic, and as turns power up and aerials get ever more acrobatic, the degree of difficulty required to take to the sky can often surpass that which is needed to thread a tube. This then asks the question of the judges and the fans, which is best?
The video above is of the best waves in recent competition history and it clearly demonstrates that Supertubos does not play favorites when it comes to dishing out high scores. If it's offshore, put your head down, paddle hard and thread the tube. Wind has come in? Find your feet quickly and race down the line searching for a suitable section to launch from. Do either successfully and you've got one foot in the next round.
Italo Ferreira is Portugal's perennial threat
© Damien Poullenot/World Surf League
Recent aerials of note include Griffin Colapinto taking to the skies to hoist a pair of trophies, and Filipe Toledo, Jordy Smith and Gabriel Medina repeatedly stomping huge rotations for big points. The most memorable Supertubos sky walk, however, was Italo Ferreira's perfect 10 to win the final in 2019. Not only was it the icing on an incredible Portuguese performance, it gave him the momentum he needed to go on and win his first world title at the next event, the Pipeline Masters.
04
From shock wins to world champs, Supertubos is predictably unpredictable
While certain surfers have made Portugal one of their pet events over the years – take a bow repeat champs Italo Ferreira, Griffin Colapinto, Carissa Moore – Supertubos has also shown a propensity to crown first-time winners like no other wave on the Championship Tour.
Californian Caity Simmers hoisted her first WSL CT trophy in Portugal
© Damien Poullenot/World Surf League
While the perennial contenders clearly have the tricky and temperamental conditions dialed, at the other end of the spectrum there is something to be said about the joys of naiveté, and surfing without overthinking, as everyone from Coco Ho to Caity Simmers, Julian Wilson to Kai Otton, and even Griffin Colapinto and João Chianca have all hoisted their first, and in some cases only, CT trophies on the sands of Supertubos.
Julian Wilson celebrates his win
© ASP/Cestari
Last fun fact? Success in Peniche has long been the hallmark of a successful world title run. This is skewed by the fact that until 2019 Supertubos was the penultimate event of the season, so the world-champ elect was generally hitting the home straight with a head of steam, hellbent on getting the job done, but it’s still a statistic of note.
John John Florence hit the high notes at Peniche in 2016
© Trevor Moran
Mick Fanning won the very first Rip Curl Pro Search Portugal event in 2009, before winning his second world title at the next event in Hawaii. A year later Kelly Slater took out Portugal before claiming a historic 10th world title in Puerto Rico, and in 2019, Italo Ferreira won Portugal before winning his maiden world title in Hawaii. John John Florence is the only surfer to claim a world title while in Portugal, doing so in 2016 after Jordy Smith lost in the semis and left Florence to celebrate his world champ run in style with a sweet Supertubos victory.
05
The fans in Portugal are like nowhere else on tour
Portuguese fans crowd the sands at Supertubos
© Thiago Diz/World Surf League
After Hossegor lost the annual Quiksilver Pro France during the pandemic, Supertubos suddenly found itself as the only European stop on the Championship Tour. This all but marked a passing of the baton between the two countries, as Portugal now runs countless WSL events every year, while the south-west of France seems largely left behind.
France still has more competitors, however, and it is this that makes the Portuguese crowds so noteworthy. Not only are the numbers on the beach knowledgeable, enormous, often braving freezing conditions, and completely raucous and rowdy, but the fans rarely have a dog in the fight, they're assembled on the sand simply for the love of surfing.
Jack Robinson keeping calm amongst the chaos
© Thiago Diz/World Surf League
Yes, the Portuguese-speaking Brazilians are somewhat adopted as hometown favorites, but the incredibly successful and popular event is put on every year more-or-less as a gift to the surfing world from the ocean addicts of Portugal, further confirming their legendary status in the global surfing community. Competitors are all supported in equally loud amounts and their performances feed off it, and the positive spiral continues.
The MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal is the third event of the 2025 WSL Championship Tour, and runs from March 15-25 at Supertubos, in Peniche, Portugal.
You can tune in and watch every day's action, including the finals, LIVE on Red Bull TV. Choose between English and Portuguese commentaries. (Not available in USA, Australia, New Zealand or Brazil.) There will also be full replay of all the action, including the finals, available globally after 24 hours (except Brazil, which will available after 48 hours).
