“Farewell Final Five. I shall miss you,” wrote Steve Shearer in his last CT recap of the year, yet it’s not a sentiment that’s shared by many.

Since it was introduced in 2021 the Final Five system has attracted much criticism - mostly that it torpedoes the idea of a world champ being decided in all conditions, not just the conditions at one spot, on one day.

Despite having a ‘first past the line’ system since 1976, the WSL did away with it in favour of theatrics. The decision highlighted the difference between the operations of the old ASP - who were tour administrators - to the modern media company that is the WSL.

“The opportunity to win [the world title] in the water, in the arena, is a really unique opportunity in surfing that really hasn’t happened,” said ex-WSL CEO and Final Five architect Erik Logan, alluding to the entertainment value of the spectacle, not the fairness of the system.

It smelt like an incoming CEO leaving a legacy mark and it also showed an incomplete appreciation of the tour showdown - something I’ll explain later.

Erik Logan with Carissa Morre and Gabriel Medina, the winners of the inaugural WSL Finals in 2021. The two subsequent years, 2022 and 2023, Moore wore the yellow jersey but was beaten on Final's Day (WSL)

Starting in 2026, the Final Five has been replaced by a later mid-year cut, two post-season events - Portugal and Abu Dhabi - and the re-introduction of Pipeline as the season-ender, replete with a 1.5 points weighting.

This last addition - the 1.5 weighting - is ingenius from the WSL, as not only does it give due consequence to the wave, but it creates a de facto Final Five system within the traditional tour structure

You see, with a 1.5 points weighting the winner of the Pipeline Masters will get 15,000 points and the surfers who come last will get just shy of 400. If we’re to hypothetically apply those numbers to every year the Finals Five format has run then leading into the last event there’s been five surfers - give or take - with a mathematical shot at the title.

Some years are exactly five, other years not, but in every case the possibilities increased to include more than just the front-runners.

This also means the odds of those vying for the title surfing against each other is increased - meaning the title may very well be decided with the winner in the water.

This year's Final's lineup (WSL/Sloane)

What Erik Logan overlooked when he introduced the Final Five system is that Pipeline was always about more than the world title. Sure, not all surfers were in the hunt but requalification kept their skin in the game. Win this heat and follow the dream tour again, lose it and suffer the ignominy of the Challenger Series.

The fabled mainstream audience may not appreciate the distinction but surf fans understood what it meant, and what it will mean again when surfers in the draw fight for survival. Like the pointy end of the comp, a 1.5 weighting puts more surfers on the bubble and at risk of relegation.

With the 2026 CT calendar beginning to resemble its pre-Logan layout it’s worth mentioning the two non-regular season contests - Portugal and Abu Dhabi - sitting like lost orphans between the cut-line and the finale.

It’s my guess that this is a temporary arrangement, to be used in 2026 as the WSL winds down the half-yearly schedule of the Challenger Series - another thing I'm suspecting will happen. At some point soon they’ll shift the Challenger Series to run off the calendar year with no mid-year cut. Meaning, if you get relegated from the CT, you’re off for a year, and if you get promoted to the CT, you’re on for a year. The way it used to be.

This move, if it happens, will do away with the weird Challenger Series scheduling, which has been putting constraints on CT scheduling.

It will also do away with the legacy of Erik Logan.

//STU NETTLE