The Pipe Masters Returns As Season Finale Plus More
Just over twelve months ago Ryan Crosby was hired as the WSL CEO with a remit to get the gig back on track. We may not see or hear much from Ryno but he is, as they say in the trade, getting things done.
The latest restructuring news from the WSL was announced overnight. It's big and it's comprehensive. Let's break it down piece by piece.
1) As of 2026, the Pipeline Masters will return to close the Championship Tour season. The Woz and Vans - who own the Pipeline Masters IP - have broken bread and there's no more 'Pipe Pro'. The Masters heritage returns.
2) The Pipeline Masters will be weighted 1.5 to all other contests - i.e the winner will receive 15,000 points, runner-up 11,700 points
3) The Top 5 system will be scrapped and the world title will be decided on a cumulative points system again. However, there'll be a shadow of the old system in the new one.
4) In the new system, nine 'regular season' events will be held before the 36 men and 24 women are cut to 24 men and 16 women for the final two 'post-season' events - at this stage Abu Dhabi and Supertubos.
5) Results from the two post-season events will decide a Top 8, who will then be seeded deeper into the final contest of the year, the Pipe Masters. All 36 men and 24 women who started the season - so including those cut for the two post-season events - will compete at Pipe.
6) The final season rankings, and the World Titles, will be decided by a surfer's best nine of twelve results.
7) Lastly, the non-elimination round will be scrapped for all events.
(WSL/Heff)
That's it, for now. There's much to take in. Essentially, Pipe returns in its traditional slot, but with greater weighting, and the two contests preceding it - one of them ironically a wavepool - establish the seeding system. The Top 8 have the biggest seeding advantage, however a greater points weighting opens up the options and increases the drama.
Also, the surfers cut after the regular season may compete on the Challenger Series, however they return for Pipe meaning the possibility exists of a great finish which, despite being relegated for two events, elevates them above the end of season cut line.
This final point is contingent upon changes to the Challenger Series which the WSL has signalled but won't announce for a few months.
The 2026 CT calendar will consist of the following locations (no dates announced yet):
- CT1: Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia
- CT2: Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia
- CT3: Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia
- CT4: Punta Roca, El Salvador
- CT5: Saquarema, Brazil
- CT6: Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
- CT7: Teahupo'o, Tahiti
- CT8: Cloudbreak, Fiji
- CT9: Lower Trestles, Calif., USA*
- CT10: Surf Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- CT11: Peniche, Portugal
- CT12: Pipe Masters, Hawai‘i, USA**
*End of regular season, start of postseason
**Full CT fields rejoin postseason surfers to compete for Pipe Masters Titles
Comments
no indo and abu dabi instead is a failure . big improvement otherwise.
Yep add Indonesia and bring back the triple crown… this is the way
If vans and wsl are friends maybe the triple crown will come back and the other 2 will be CS events, can only hope
This is the way
Rebellions are built on hope.
This is the way.
Actually the more I think about it (after a couple of arvo beers), the WSL is the empire of the surfing universe.
And maybe Crosby is a Jedi sent to fight the Sith Dirk from the inside.
haha
Jordy is Chewy
JMD is Jabba the Hutt
Feels like it’s getting better.
Pipe as the end is a massive one, (please come back John John), and getting rid of the elimination round is also a good move.
Bells, Margaret’s, Punta Roca, Jeffrey’s, Snapper all rights and only Fiji and Tahiti lefts?
Yeah I get Margs is a peak but it might as well be a right.
A rippable left in South America or Indo would be a nice addition.
On the whole though it’s looking pretty sick. It’s a tour I’d like to surf on.
Finally....
Wait, so cloudbreak will still be the finale for this year, then we will skip pipe at the beginning of the 2026 year and push it back to December?
I have holiday plans locked in already. The Woz should really consult me on these things before they make changes!
I don’t think you can describe any of this as a failure. Sounds like a huge positive step. Will be so interested to see how the challenger/as dovetails into this they obviously have some plans. Hopefully indo fits in there
Agree. It's a big step forward.
so when does it kick off with Bells first up? and does it mean if you bomb first round your out of that contest?
I'm not convinced Bells will be first. Tellingly, there are no dates announced, just the stops.
Hoping it returns to Snapper as season opener.
Makes sense if the Aussie stops switch depending on when Easter falls
The one locked date is that Bells covers Easter, I would imagine. It would make sense to bring Snapper before that as you say.
Yes. Before or during a cyclone swell not after the banks been smashed
I don’t mind the point loading for pipe.
As long as it’s 6ft minimum
Wow! Huge news……so basically making it as it was.
Only thing I can neg on is the cut - what is the point of an arbitrary cut for two events? I’d cut the cut.
So start the tour at snapper March and finish at Pipe - Bingo.
I’m surprised they can afford so many events.
At a guess I'd say it'll allow the back markers to compete on the CS just in case they don't succeed at Pipe. Which means the WSL can do away with the messy mid-season cut but surfers can still get relegated off the CT yet be back the next year if they qualify through the CS.
Some people don't like that but I think it's a good safety net for surfers who fire hot and cold like Morgan Cibilic and Joao Chianca.
It’s official Fil finishes his career with 2 besides his name
Fil can still bank a lot of points at the RH performance waves
yep i reckon you could say Pipe becoming a weighted event is the Toledo effect.
Not necessarily depends how he goes in other events and pipe isnt always solid.
Either way two tittles is more than most pro surfers will ever get and the guy rips just has a weakness in waves of consequence.
Whoah there Indo, watch the gendered language - there are heaps of surfers out there with two tittles.
Just as an addendum: remember WA signed there contract on the proviso it would be the cut venue for *X* no. of years (it was quite a few, perhaps length of their deal).
Must’ve been a few fine points at the bottom of the contract
Must have been some intense negotiations that went into this. And cloudbreak was signed for 3 years of the finals. So lots of changes to navigate.
Make surfing great again ;-)
Seriously but it demonstrates what a clusterfuck wsl had become that they’ve returned to similar to what they had. Great to hear a changa review is on too. Tip of the lid to SN journo and readers comments for whatever part it’s played in this decision unless it’s‘fake news’
You really think the Woz gives a turd about what some commenters on an Australian website think!?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-03/australia-to-host-first-three-eve...
This article quotes Crosby saying fans and players were consulted and part of the decision mix. I dunno how much but yeah if you’re looking to make such wholesale changes you do the homework
Thanks for the link. I’m impressed if they did actually listen to surf punters and the pro surfers themselves. It’s a big shift from their typically arrogant behaviour which caused a lot of fans to switch off. Either way they’ve made a raft of positive changes which could make 2026 epic viewing.
WORLDWIDE........ @ARTSOAP
The biggest change for mine is the removal of the non-elimination rounds.
This. How many hours does it remove from a comp? More time to pick/run in better conditions.
That’ll reduce run times by a third? way better opportunity to score. Maybe less push to doggedly finish rounds long after the wind/tide has wrecked it…. Massive win.
I really like this. It's been well thought through and I can see the logic in it. As soon as they removed the non elimination round then they had to go best of and enable some dropped results. I would have preferred keeping some form of non elimination or at least maybe dropping last place getter from each heat round 1. We still don't know the format of each event yet apart from the number. And the changa is going to get completely revamped too I would think. Can see standard QS events dropping out completely. Can't afford 3 tours in this climate and the costs of running an event are horrendous and the surf industry isn't there to sponsor. Looking forward to what happens here too. Go Ryno. And at some point the WSL needs to be self sustaining if it's going to be around long term. Can't rely on a benefactor forever
Pipe final - good
Elimination round scrapped - good
Other stuff - meh
I thought they were working towards equal number of men and women?
Bit boring I reckon. I think I'm in the minority in saying I liked the cut and the finals day. Way more drama than a tour that can be over 1-2 events before the finale.
Seems the surfers whinged enough about getting the sads cos they got booted half way through, and a few couldn't handle the pressure of the final day (which is no different to the years it did happen to come down to the final event anyway).
I reckon any poor ratings for the wsl during the finals day era were more to do with the shit luck with swell than the format.
Definitely in the minority, benskii.
With the point loading at pipe, opens up heaps of drama and possibilities in the final event.
This is what I particularly like. The week leading up to Pipe will be spreadsheets at ten places - who needs what to survive?
Stinky Wes, get your calculator ready.
Living in this minority, that's what I don't like. It's a pseudo final. And watch the year that someone is 12000 points ahead coming into pipe and has a crappy opening round and goes out.
Suddenly it's unfair like when Carissa didn't win at trestles.
Everything that people complained about with finals day was possible in the old style and now will be more so with this bet each way thing they've gone for.
Anyway, all good live sport is the best kind of tv and I'm still gonna watch it. I'll just forever silently judge the whingers as not being able to handle the pressure of a grand final
But people didn’t want world champs being decided at Trestles was more the issue.
If you fail at Pipe to lose your lead, I think surf fans are fine with that.
Exactly.
Plus, finishing at Pipe with cumulative totals means there are many showdowns for survival, not just the world title race. Much more entertaining.
Definitely that's why I reckon they should have persisted with the format but not at trestles.
The number of years that there were five surfers with a genuine title shot at pipe was very rare. It was somewhat frequently already decided by then.
I enjoyed watching the pressure at margs (noting it was too early in the season) and then the last couple of events to see who made the final five.
I enjoyed the cut too.
But I think this is a big improvement.
Most years the Title was decided at Pipe.
Pipe has the surfing cultural significance but they can’t have a finals contest there.
It is an awesome spectator spot.
It doesn’t particularly favour one stance or the other for who wins there.
The whole circus is in town having all the surfers compete.
I think it’s a great decision.
It's ok if the the most consistent surfer all year actually wins it,which i think has been the case every year for the men and a couple of the women.
But Carissa Moore was robbed of 2 world titles in my opinion with that format.
There's just no way it's fair at all that a surfer who had the title all wrapped and packed up an event or two before the final one,should lose it after that fact.
Carissa and Steph would've been both 7 time world champs too,which would've made their rivaly much more interesting in the last 3 or 4 years than it ended up being.
5 to 8 probably hastened Carissa's exit from the tour,knowing it'd be too many more years trying to overtake Steph in the world title at her stage of life now.
And Steph just coasted after that, knowing she'd highly unlikely never get caught up with.
I don't understand the "she was robbed" thinking.
Not winning the title after going into the final event ranked number 1 has always been a possibility on the tour. And I'd bet it's happened a fair few times.
The format was the format and if a surfer couldn't handle the pressure of it, that's on them. Everyone was surfing by the same rules.
I personally liked the pressure aspect of the final five. Apparently the surfers didn't but winning and losing the title on the final day has always been a possibility, and will continue to be. So I think the final five got a lot more hate than was logical. Trestles was the problem not the format I reckon.
Imagine the most consistent surfer all year gets a really lully first round heat against a local wild card at pipe and goes out. One heat, no elimination round anymore so season over, and they can lose the title. Exactly the same outcome as the final five.
The most consistent surfer all year should win the world title,especially if they led all year and had won it before the final event by a large margin.
That was the format since 1976,and they're going back to it after 5 years away from it.
There nothing to argue about really,i'm in the majority with that and you're in the minority with the other format.
What's the percentages there anyway i wonder,like 99.9% to .01% or something lol.
I like most of what i read but i cannot see the point of excluding the lower surfers from two events apart from giving them the space to compete more freely on the Challenger series. The old format was fine, when the CS events were slotted between the WCT events. The 15,000 points for Pipe is cool, cutting the elimination round is cool, the top 8 having higher seeding (starting in round 16) for Pipe i guess is a good reward.
Yeah, that's the only weird thing about it for me- this post season thing at the Tub and Supertubos.
We come off this beautiful, beautiful grand slam of J-Bay, Chopes, Cloudbreak and Trestles and then with Pipe looming have these two weird events which seem like dags to me.
Agreed. Is it a better time of year surf wise for peniche?
Historically they got better surf for Supertubos in autumn, rather than spring.
(Northern hemisphere)
Good. Might be a positive change.
Hit the nail on the head. It’s going to be very anti climactic for the pool and Portugal after that run. At least with less heats to run in Portugal they should be able to pick the eyes out of the forecast a little more.
So the post season events are just for seeding not for points ? I could see a few people skipping those with cough cough Kelly like ilness
I think it’s both?
They say best 9 of 12 results so the post season events count to the final points tally.
The seeding perk is the cherry on top - all the more important cos of the x1.5 loading.
What is the point of the relegated surfers coming back for the masters tho? If they loose 2 more comps for points they’ll have to go psycho and at least final to stay on tour, no? That’s the drama, damn that could be cool,
Ah ok that makes more sense - so they are just regular season really with seeding bonus (to encourage them to show up)
The Wozzle; who own Kelly Slater wave pool technology are likely trying to some kind of return on investment and to keep the hype on wave pools fizzing. That's about the only reason I can see for running a post season comp.
Maybe this is why JJF took this year off knowing this was coming???
I like it. Confusing, but all heading in a better direction.
Next move get rid of the head judge setting the score for judges to follow.
And make judges drop scores within 30seconds of wave ridden based on first impression, not vid replays. (unless two surfers up at once).
Good move it should always finish at Pipe
Having more women on tour (which I like) adds more heats, is this negated with the removal of the Elimination round?
Guess it depends on things like whether the Opening round heats are 2 or 3 person.
Removing this round gets rid of 6 heats = ~ 3 hours, not insignificant
great to see pipe back as the final contest. 1.5 weighting will take some getting used to but i like it. the cut though... feels like a strange compromise to please all parties. keep the "cut" proponents happy, whilst ditching the idea in principle. bit forced. either way, looking forward to the update!
With all heats suggest the priority system is dropped for the last 5 minutes of the heat giving all surfer's equal opportunity to hassle for a wave like in the start of the heat.
Nothing worst that watching a champion surfer unable to compete for a wave because blocked
Confirmed... Bells is the first event of the tour.
So assuming they're sticking with the Bells/Easter time frame, looks like the first event of the 2026 season will kick off Thursday April 2nd.
Remember: the 2025 Finals finish by Sep 4th (if not earlier).
So that's seven consecutive months with no CT activity. Wonder how they'll fill the void?
They should kick off with snapper in march, pretty well guaranteed swell for that time of year .
Good chance to revive the BWWT through the northern hemi winter.
Whack a slab tour in conjunction with it and bingo.
Good thinking!
Just on the BWWT/slab tour. Paddle only. And I reckon it would work better as a nation v nation event.
For example, one country takes home the world title after 8 events, and in each event the surfer that scores the highest score is the gold medalist of that event....2nd, 3rd are silver medalists and bronze. Tally up the surfers highest scores at end of the tour and whoever has the highest score of tallied single individual waves from each event is the gold medalist for the year and world champ. I reckon bringing the team element into it would create way more interest. Just riffing though. Could also suck and probably lots of reasons why that doesn't work.
Indeed
Will Toledo be screaming that it’s unfair favouritism to JJF , JR , EE , YD , IF , GM if the comp worth 15,000 points is pipeline ? Fark I hope Toledo makes the final 5 this year & its 10-12 ft CB . I actually like the guy & his small wave surfing but believe he had a huge advantage when trestles and final 5 was the format . Can’t see him winning another WT .
Would love to see an advertiser sponsor a different "wildcard wave" event every year - something completely different, eg - Kiwi land, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Puerto Rico/ Bahamas, North Cal etc etc
Rip Curl search series. Mexico, New York couple of others
Sorry to sound stupid, but does getting rid of non-elimination round means losing surfer will be out of the contest beginning with the very first heat?
If so, this is what I have been asking for since 2007.
Yes and about bloody time. Warm up round gone.
I'm happy with most of this except for the 'dud in the tub' Abu Dhabi contest. Especially as it's one of the 'post season' stops. A left hander in Indo would've been golden in that slot.
Shout out to Steve and team for being a noisy wheel. Even if it’s a small pebble in a big pond the WOZ have heard.
Was a closeout in December 24;
Better tubes in January 25
Points could be multiplied by metres (wave height ) well surfed, making Kirra, Bells, Marg's, Jbay Pipe or Cloudbreak the highest potential scoring WSL competitions.
Season start at Bells Easter April, end in Jan..?
The tub comp results influencing Pipe seedings is the one big flaw. Lots of positives, though.
Definitely fair call, but possibly it's the tub that's paying for the freedom of changing the paradigm of pro surfing back to what it should be.
Necessary evil? Unfortunately probably so.
Such a good change from the current format, somewhere like Lakey Peak would be the perfect performance setup seeing as there are already two heavy barrelling lefts. Indo deserves a spot !
Great wave but I reckon keep it to Bali (eg Ulus and/or Keramas) where the spots are already blown up.
Ulus is as consistent and ripable of a left as anywhere, gets solid too. Would be a good wave for the goofies seeing as there are so many non barrelling rights on tour.
Hiw good would Lakeys be for a contest though
almost.... i don't like point 4 & 5.
hopefully they have a big window for the Pipe event to reduce the risk of being skunked on swell.
I don't get the logic of a cut for events 10 & 11 (i.e. a small proportion of all events), but bringing those surfers back in for event 12. Any insights?
I'd say it's to allow the backmarkers a shot at re-qualification via the Challenger Series, which runs through the back half of the year.
The WSL mentioned changes to the Challenger Series so all might be revealed when those changes are made public.
Thanks Stu, good to hear there might be some sensible logic to it that benefits the contestants. Hopefully this approach will be an improvement for both contestants and followers. I kind of got the finals play-off approach as trying to bring in viewers if there had bean a clear leader towards the end of the series. But compared to footy, it seems like surfing is far more susceptible to luck on the day and whether the location better suits certain surfers, so seems like a fairer approach. I recall the incredible graciousness of both Stephanie Gilmore and Carissa Moore in 2022. Gilmore: "You can come from the bottom, come from fifth and win a world title. That’s freaking cool. But Carissa is really the world champ to me this year. She’s had the best season ever."
With the removal of the non-elimination rounds, it will be interesting to see what heat structure they invent to reduce the 36 men and 24 women to a number somewhere on the geometric progression: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, which is needed get to a series of 2 person heat rounds leading to one winner.
Yeah, interesting.
I ran a couple scenarios to find their likely solution.
Rd 1 is 3 man with one loser, so 36 becomes 24.
Rd 2 is 3 man again (or womens rd 1) with one loser, so 24 becomes 16.
Rd 3 is round of 16 man on man, then quarters from there...
35 heats total for men, 23 for women, which is 58 heats, down from the current 70 we are seeing at Burleigh. So 4 days become 3.
By the way, have not double checked all that but I think it's right
Well done, shoredump. I think you’ve nailed it.
Yep Shoredump that looks the most likely way to get there. No other easy way unless they even messed around with highest place or lucky loser situations.
The other likely thing though is that heat length may well be longer due to no loser round so I would expect they would go 35 or 40 minute heats in those 3 person heats so probably not as much time saving as people think. Would still be a stretch to get done in 3 days I would think.
The surfers themselves will likely push for longer heat times if they've flown half way around the world and could be out heat 1
Lots of positives there, not sure on the post season events!!!!
Drop the pool bring back France!!!
Hopefully the CS will have a couple Hawaiian events and the Triple Crown is back on!!!!
Anyone know how the pipe format would work with top 8 seeded in rd 3? What’s not stated is that they’d have to exclude all 4 wild cards for the event to work, ie 24 (8 heats of three, last place eliminated. 16 go head to head to join the top 8. 28 in rd 1 and 2 can’t be whittled down.
I like how the gatekeeper to the Pipe final is cold closeouts. Round one - you are cold, closed out on, and out. Have a poor seeding.
About time! The new CEO seems like a winner.
Rights vs lefts need to be balanced out but this is a good start.
Ideally it should be equal stops in rippable points R/L and heavy spots R/L.
Wish list item... I always think about a peak specialty event with format where your 2 scores must be a left and right combo. Would be a true test and open up all sorts of tactical scenarios.
Love it @ron. And I've always thought something that would be epic would be for one of your scoring rides,(best 3 waves format) you must swap boards with your competitor for one ride. Imagine the tactics that would bring into the mix, especially with an Italo V Jordy heat! haha.
You could halve the board swap ride and add it to your normal two wave total but damn it'd bring some spice into it. Blow a conch shell at the 12min30sec mark, give them 5 mins to swap boards and catch a wave each, and then straight swap back to finish out the heat. Imagine the drama, the mindgames, the laughs, the outbursts. Tellin ya, it's a winner. This sport isn't done like other sports. Gotta embrace the shit that we do as surfers. It'd actually effect the choice of boards the surfers choose to ride in their heats based on who they're surfing against. So much strategy!
Put the check in the mail Woz.
Along with my shark watch that buzzes when there's a creature bigger than 2.5m within 100m of you, and my inflatable seat of your pants cushion, perfect for those long waits at bus stops and on cold southern rock ledges. Yew!
Man! You're on a roll!! Keep going!!!!
Common sense has prevailed. Not sure about wave pools. Novelty has worn off.
The extra Women is a big plus.
Finish with Pipe a win !
Mid year cut gone. And should be.
No requal round gone. Thank God.
And i do wonder if the Worlds top surfers not competing this year applied some subtle pressure ?
That was needed ! To be honest.
Overall i like it !
Swap Margs for Bells and they could surf the same low pressure system for the first 6 events :)
CT6: Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
CT7: Teahupo'o, Tahiti
CT8: Cloudbreak, Fiji
CT9: Lower Trestles, Calif., USA*
CT10: Surf Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
The last one makes the list reads like a bad joke - or one of those old tourist t -shirts I had as a kid emblazoned with:
Paris! London! New York! Adelaide!