Latest news with #WSLFinals
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
World Surf League revamps Championship Tour format, putting Pipe Masters in the spotlight
The World Surf League is changing its Championship Tour format, namely moving its most prestigious event, the Pipe Masters off Oahu's North Shore, from the beginning of the season to the end to determine annual world champions. 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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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. Lexus WSL Finals Caity Simmers, John John Florence give U.S. sweep of world surfing titles in thrilling finals The U.S. won the men's and women's world championships in surfing for the first time since 2011.
NBC Sports
02-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
World Surf League revamps Championship Tour format, putting Pipe Masters in the spotlight
The World Surf League is changing its Championship Tour format, namely moving its most prestigious event, the Pipe Masters off Oahu's North Shore, from the beginning of the season to the end to determine annual world champions. 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,
CBC
05-04-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Canadian surfer Erin Brooks finishes 9th at El Salvador event
Social Sharing Canadian Erin Brooks finished ninth at the Surf City El Salvador Pro on Saturday after being edged out by American Bella Kenworthy in a tight round-of-16 battle. It was a battle of teenage rookies on the World Surf League's elite Championship Tour in La Libertad, El Salvador. Brooks is 17 while Kenworthy, a former elite skateboarder whose father is well-known surf photographer Jason Kenworthy, is 18. It was a back-and-forth heat, with both surfers looking to put together the highest-scoring pair of waves. A 7.00 moved Brooks ahead with a combined 11.77 score but Kenworthy answered with a 5.83 that, combined with an earlier score of 6.33, put her in the lead at 12.16. Brooks then ran out of time to catch her. Kenworthy moved on to face American Gabriela Bryan in quarterfinal action. The event is the fourth stop of the season on the Championship Tour. Brooks came to El Salvador sixth in the standings after finishing third last time out at the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal in March, fifth at the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro and ninth in the season-opening Lexus Pipe Pro in Hawaii. Brooks became the first Canadian to earn full-time status on the Championship Tour by finishing in the top five of the second-tier Challenger Series last year. She won in her only previous appearance on the Championship Tour as a wild card, defeating Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil last August in the final of the Fiji Pro. After El Salvador, the tour shifts to Australia (for three straight events), the United States, Brazil, South Africa and Tahiti before closing with the WSL Finals in Fiji from Aug. 27 to Sept. 4. The season opened with 18 competitors on the women's side — the top 10 finishers from the 2024 Championship Tour, the top five from the 2024 Challenger Series, two WSL season wild cards and one event wild card. The field will be cut to 12 after seven events and then five for the season-ending WSL Finals. The 36-competitor men's field will be reduced to 24 at the midseason cut and then five ahead of Fiji. The winning prize money ranges from $80,000 U.S. in the season opener to $100,000 after the midseason cut and $200,000 for the WSL Finals. Brooks started surfing at nine when her family moved to Hawaii from Texas. She has Canadian ties through her American-born father Jeff, who is a dual American-Canadian citizen, and her grandfather who was born and raised in Montreal Brooks gained her Canadian citizenship last year after a lengthy legal battle that limited her Olympic qualifying opportunities to the ISA World Surfing Games last March in Puerto Rico. Brooks, whose family also has a home in Tofino, B.C., fell short and had to watch the Olympic surfing competition in Tahiti from afar.
