Eight Australians will compete on this year’s men’s World Surf League Championship Tour after five — George Pittar, Oscar Berry, Morgan Cibilic, Callum Robson and Liam O’Brien — secured qualification at the final Challenger Series event at Merewether Beach in Newcastle. For most it marks a return to the CT, with Oscar Berry’s finish described as a breakthrough; Levi Slawson and Dimitri Poulos also pushed close to qualification at Newcastle.

Australia has not produced a men’s world champion since Mick Fanning in 2013, and Brazilian surfers largely dominated men’s world surfing over the past decade, with Hawaiian John John Florence a notable exception. Organizers say the expanded Australian contingent brings proven firepower to the Tour even if not every qualifier is viewed as an outright title favorite, and combined with a revived full-year points system the influx of qualifiers could make the title race more open and increase expectations for an Australian resurgence. Liam O’Brien singled out Jack Robinson and Ethan Ewing as the Australians most likely to end the title drought under the revived system.

Liam O’Brien became the fifth Australian man to qualify through this season’s Challenger Series after a shaky Round of 64 heat that left him nervously awaiting his fate. He is preparing for his fifth full CT season and said he does not set “massive goals,” remaining unsure exactly what to expect from the upcoming year. O’Brien also released a 10-minute surf edit titled “Amalgam” that stitches together clips from South America, heavy slabs in Western Australia, footage from Cyclone Alfred and a solo run at XL Burleigh, spotlighting his precise forehand rail work and making a case that he can contend for and win CT events.

A World Surf League preview of the Meo Pro Portugal (stop #3 of the 2023 Championship Tour) led with a focus on contest conditions: Supertubos was described as a cold, semi-mobile beachbreak with both left- and right-hand barrel sections and launch zones, and Pico do Fabril, Pico da Mota and Piscinas were listed as backup sites. Forecasters expected plenty of swell but unfavorable winds that could create waiting days.

The preview also summarized roster movements and competitor form. Filipe Toledo arrived in Portugal with a 90% heat-win ratio and carrying a Sunset title, while Sophie McCulloch made her Championship Tour debut after recovering from injury. Ramzi Boukhiam and Jadson Andre withdrew and were replaced by Carlos Muñoz and Joan Duru, and Gatien Delahaye was replaced on the roster by Tiago Carrique. Portugal’s entries included Teresa Bonvalot and wildcards Frederico Morais and Yolanda Hopkins; the preview additionally referenced the Hawaiian leg, noting Jack Robinson and Molly Picklum wearing yellow jerseys.

On fantasy guidance, the article highlighted Italo Ferreira as a prime pick based on strong past results at this venue and recommended John John Florence, Jordy Smith and Kelly Slater as solid choices. Players flagged as riskier fantasy picks included Zeke Lau, Frederico Morais, Kolohe Andino and Ryan Callinan, while Kanoa Igarashi, Yago Dora and Jackson Baker were suggested as potential sleepers. The preview combined surf-condition scouting, roster updates and fantasy strategy to help fans set lineups and anticipate how the stop might influence the mid-season standings.

The World Surf League restructured the 2022 Championship Tour, combining the men’s and women’s schedules and moving the Pipe Masters to the season opener. It replaced the traditional world-title decider with a one-off Final Five event, reinstated a midseason cut after five events that halves the field, mirrored men’s and women’s schedules across all stops, and created a Challenger Series to give top regional Qualifying Series surfers and CT rejects a pathway back to the Tour — including a slot for the 2023 Championship Tour. League officials said the changes were intended to stage more contests in better conditions and to drive progression; at the time of reporting the Final Five location had not been announced.

Those structural changes reshaped competition and the pathways for athletes. Critics argued the revisions reduce opportunities for late-season comebacks and surprise upsets, citing Jack Robinson’s drop from 12th in 2021 to 26th as an example of a result that could be affected by a midseason cut. Wildcards and replacement surfers strongly impacted event outcomes, even as veteran competitors such as Kelly Slater continued to win amid increased flux, and former champion Mick Fanning made a wildcard return to Bells Beach after retiring. Reporting also referenced Simon Anderson’s invention of the thruster as part of the sport’s ongoing technical progression.

The format changes intersected with other storylines on the Tour: Bells Beach returned to the CT for the first time since 2018 after COVID-related breaks, and Italo Ferreira’s 2018 Bells win was noted as a precursor to his 2019 world title and Olympic gold. The WSL’s revisions produced headline championship outcomes — reporting cited both Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina as entering finals ranked No. 1 and claiming world titles — while raising questions about whether the new format will accelerate performance and innovation or erode underdog narratives and unpredictability. The preview also flagged mental-health leaves for Gabriel Medina and Caroline Marks as a notable subplot affecting top competitors.

The World Surf League announced adjustments to its 2026–27 schedules, condensing the Challenger Series to five stops and establishing a four-stop Longboard Tour that will run from July through March. The WSL said the Longboard Tour will use a cumulative-points model to decide the 2026 world title, while the Challenger Series returns to a smaller itinerary modeled on past Championship Tour qualifier series.

The Challenger Series will feature five familiar stops but excludes Hawaii — including this year’s Lexus Pipe Challenger — after the WSL cited limited Pipe and Hawaii permits. WSL said those permitting constraints followed the Championship Tour’s decision to move its season start from Pipeline to Bells, which reduced available windows at Pipeline. Senior Tour Manager Travis Logie highlighted the depth of emerging talent on both the men’s and women’s sides and noted additional qualification pathways via QS 6,000 International events.

The Longboard Tour’s four stops are the Huntington Beach Longboard Classic (July 25–29), the Bioglan Bells Beach Longboard Classic (Nov 25–29), the La Union Longboard Classic in the Philippines (Jan 20–24) — which replaces the previously scheduled Surf Abu Dhabi stop — and the Surf City El Salvador Longboard Championships in El Sunzal (Mar 13–21). The first three events will each field 24 surfers and award 10,000 points to each winner; the season-concluding El Salvador event will feature the top 12 men and top 12 women and award 15,000 points to winners. WSL Longboard Tour Director Will Hayden‑Smith said returning to a cumulative-points model while concentrating points at a smaller final-field championship is intended to reward season-long consistency and create a high-stakes finale.

The International Surfing Association announced an IOC‑approved LA 2028 surfing qualification system that sharply reduces automatic World Surf League Championship Tour Olympic spots. The move drew formal rejection from the WSL and World Professional Surfers, the surfers’ representative group. WSL CEO Ryan Crosby said the WSL had not been properly consulted, accusing the ISA of canceling meetings, ignoring emails, and pursuing back‑channel discussions. Championship Tour surfers publicly protested, and leading competitors, including reigning world champion Yago Dora, Filipe Toledo, Caity Simmers, and Lakey Peterson, called the changes unfair and urged a return to a system that guarantees top‑ranked competitors qualify.

The ISA’s updated proposal would shrink the CT pathway. One report says available CT places would fall from 10 men and 8 women under prior arrangements to five men and five women. It proposes to determine CT‑based Olympic qualifiers using results from the first four to five events of the 2028 CT season with a June 15, 2028, cutoff, instead of relying on full 2027 season rankings.

Under the ISA framework, the overall qualification table allocates 48 athlete places (24 men, 24 women). The plan reserves ten athlete places from the 2028 WSL Championship Tour (top five per gender, capped at one per nation) and ten places from the 2028 ISA World Surfing Games; continental slots would be earned via the 2026 Asian Games, the 2027 Pan American Games, and the 2027 European Championship. Africa and Oceania slots would be awarded via the 2027 ISA World Surfing Games with a top‑25 requirement, and team slots would be allocated via the 2026 and 2027 ISA World Surfing Games. The proposal also reserves one host‑nation slot per gender for the United States and one universality slot per gender, which requires a top‑40 finish at the 2027 or 2028 ISA World Surfing Games. Lower Trestles near San Clemente, California, has been named as the site for the LA 2028 competition. Reports vary on the national quota, but one source describes a maximum of three athletes per gender per National Olympic Committee. However, other reporting says the updated rules cut per‑country Olympic quotas from two athletes to one. ISA president Fernando Aguerre defended the framework as fair and aligned with IOC objectives. The announcement highlights an ongoing governance conflict between the sport’s global federation and the professional tour over Olympic access for elite surfers.