The 2025 WSL season closed with such joy for Yago Dora and Molly Picklum and they are already training for the new season which will be a completely different story, without the highlight of a Finals Day!
WSL 2026 Season Rewritten
The World Surf League has torn up its playbook for 2026. After years of tinkering with the Finals Day format, the league has decided to bring the season back to where it belongs—ending in the ocean, not in a one-day shootout. The last event of the year will now be at Pipeline, in December, with the heaviest wave in the world once again deciding the world champions. It means no one will be crowned by a single heat at a skate-ramp wave like Trestles. Instead, titles will be settled in thick, spitting barrels at Pipe, with all the risk and consequence that entails.
The schedule itself has been reshaped. The tour stretches to twelve events, nine of them making up the regular season. After that, the fields are cut and the surviving surfers move into a post-season gauntlet in Abu Dhabi and Peniche, before the Pipeline finale. For the men, the regular season begins with thirty-six competitors, trimmed to twenty-four after Trestles. The women start with twenty-four, cut to sixteen. Every mistake carries more weight.
The points system has shifted too. Surfers can drop their worst results, but not too many. The best seven of nine regular-season finishes count for qualification, while the best nine of all twelve events decide the title. The finale at Pipeline will carry one-and-a-half times the points of a standard contest, guaranteeing drama even if the rankings look settled heading into December. Gone too are the safety nets of non-elimination rounds. Every heat is live or die.
Who to Watch: Men‘s CT
On the men’s side, the defending champion Yago Dora enters with both the confidence of a crown and the target on his back. He proved last year that he can win in different conditions, from Supertubos to Cloudbreak, and his sharpness at Trestles showed he can handle technical walls as easily as he can handle power. But the shift to Pipeline as the title decider raises the stakes for everyone.
Griffin Colapinto, so close to the title in 2025, will be desperate to make amends. He has the precision and composure to thrive in the post-season events, but he will need to show his mettle at Pipe if he wants to shake off the nearly-man tag. Ethan Ewing looms as another contender, his smooth lines and consistency making him perfectly suited to a format that rewards steady results across the season rather than a single finals burst. And then there is Italo Ferreira, unpredictable, dangerous, and still capable of taking over an event when he catches fire.
Jack Robinson will also be a factor. With victories at Bells and Tahiti in recent years, he has shown he can handle both big, powerful rights and deadly reef slabs. A season that ends at Pipe feels like it could have been designed for him.
Who to Watch: Women‘s CT
On the women’s side, Molly Picklum carries the momentum of her breakthrough world title. She handled the pressure of Cloudbreak in 2025 and now faces the challenge of defending with the weight of expectation. What makes her a favourite is not just her power and technique but her ability to rise in the big moments.
Gabriela Bryan will again be in the thick of it. Her wins at Margaret River and J-Bay last season proved she has the heavy-water grit to handle both power and precision. If she can put together a steadier run through the mid-season, she could easily be the one lifting the trophy at Pipe. Caity Simmers, though inconsistent at times, remains one of the most dangerous surfers on tour—her fearless approach in hollow waves could serve her well with Pipeline as the finale. Isabella Nichols and Bettylou Sakura Johnson are the dark horses, both capable of wins when the conditions line up. Tyler Wright, with her experience and early-season strength in Australia, cannot be discounted either.
What It Means – No Finals Day
The changes mean the title race will no longer hinge on a single Finals Day performance. Instead, it will demand resilience across an entire year, from the cool water of Bells to the tropical power of Teahupo’o. It will reward consistency but also require surfers to stand tall in the heaviest water on Earth when everything is on the line.
If last season was about survival and sharp peaks, this one will be about endurance and conviction. Pipeline is no stage for pretenders. In December, with careers, legacies, and world titles hanging in the balance, it will decide who really deserves to be called champion.
And if you thought the men’s CT tour was exciting, wait till you read what went down in the women’s Championship!
