Two new additions to the WSL Big Wave Tour in 2016: a Women’s Championship and Nazare. Here, Maya Gabeira takes on Portugal’s monster left. Photo: Red Chargers
The WSL’s Big Wave Tour will look very different this year. Very different. And it’s thanks to a laundry list of changes that were announced today with the release of the tour’s 2016/2017 schedule. The most notable additions to the Big Wave Tour docket are the BWT Women’s Championship and the BWT Qualifying Series.
The Women’s Championship will consist of one of two possible event locations between Ocotber 15, 2016 and February 28th, 2017. It will either run in conjunction with the Big Wave Tour’s existing Pe’ahi Challenge or Todos Santos Challenge. The WSL commissioner’s office will be picking the pool of athlete’s for the first year of the event and then use a ratings system to select athletes in the future. Whether or not this means a full women’s tour will be added in the future, with more stops and multiple contests, isn’t mentioned. But it’s definitely fair to speculate if the sport will head down that road over time. For now, the lone challenge will have a $30,000 purse.
The new Qualifying Tour will consist of 24 surfers in two events: Nelscott Reef’s Oregon Challenge and the Punta Galea Challenge. The top two ratings leaders after both events will qualify for the 2017/2018 Big Wave Tour season.
As for the Big Wave Tour itself, the WSL is adding Nazaré to its six-stop schedule. Starting at the end of this month, the windows for the Southern Hemisphere stops will run until August 31st, 2016. In that timeframe they will run the Quiksilver Punta Lobos Challenge, Billabong Pico Alto Challenge and the Puerto Escondido Challenge in Mexico. From October 15, 2016 – February 28, 2017 the tour will move on to its Northern Hemisphere schedule, featuring the Pe’ahi Challenge, Todos Santos Challenge, and the new Nazaré Challenge.
