World Surf League revamps Championship Tour format, putting Pipe Masters in the spotlight
Starting in 2026, the Pipe Masters will be a WSL season-ending event for the women for the first time. It was previously a season-ending event for the men through 2019. A women's WSL competition at Pipe Masters was first held in December 2020 at the start of the 2021 season.
Beginning with that 2021 campaign, the WSL shifted its season-long world title race to a one-day, surf-off event — the WSL Finals — for the top five men and women from the regular season.
The new format starting next season, what the WSL bills as the 50th year of professional surfing, will be nine regular season events starting in April, two postseason events in Portugal and Abu Dhabi and then the Pipe Masters as the finale in December.
'The 12-stop schedule welcomes a new evolution of the CT (Championship Tour), reimagined to meet the ambitions and momentum of surfing's next chapter,' according to a WSL press release. 'Based on surfer and fan feedback, along with considerations of partner and permitting components, the CT will utilize a cumulative rankings format that combines a high-stakes finale with the depth of a full-season title race.'
The nine regular season fields of 36 men and 24 women will be narrowed to 24 men and 16 women for the two postseason events. The full regular season fields will rejoin the competition for the Pipe Masters, the 12th and final event.
The final season rankings that determine world champions will be made up of surfers' top seven of nine regular season results plus the last three contests.
The Pipe Masters will award 1.5 times the rankings points of standard Championship Tour events and will 'ensure the finale delivers elite performances, meaningful consequences, and defining moments in the world title race,' according to the WSL.
The top eight men and women heading into Pipe Masters — determined by the two earlier postseason events — will earn an advantage of deeper seeding in the draw at the finale.
'Pipeline has always held a special place in surfing history, and our fans have made it clear they want to see our sport's most critical moments unfold there,' WSL CEO Ryan Crosby said in the release. 'We are thrilled to return the final event of the year, where world champions will be crowned, to this iconic proving ground.'
Non-elimination rounds have also been removed from all Championship Tour events.
This new format is for '2026 and beyond.' It is expected that 2028 Olympic qualifying will be similar to previous cycles, meaning that most of the top surfers would earn spots at the LA Games through the 2027 WSL standings.
In that case, the Pipe Masters in 2027 would not just decide world champions, but also be the final Olympic selection event for the top surfers.
Through five of 11 regular season events this year, Brazil's Italo Ferreira and Hawaiian Gabriela Bryan lead the season's standings. The WSL Finals are four months from now in Fiji.
Last season, Olympians Caity Simmers and John John Florence gave the U.S. a sweep of the women's and men's world titles for the first time since 2011.
Americans also won the first two Olympic women's surfing gold medals — Carissa Moore in Tokyo and Caroline Marks in Paris.
The 2028 Olympic surfing events will be at Lower Trestles off San Clemente, which held the WSL Finals from 2021-24.
Nick Zaccardi,
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