Bar none, a first place finish in a men’s CT event will make you the most money than any other form of professional competitive surfing.
Yesterday, we published an article highlighting the ride of the year nominees for this year’s Big Wave Awards. The category has the biggest cash prize – $75k – and is a decent chunk of change, or so we thought. Looking into this year’s BWA prize money, we grew curious. Sponsorship contracts and endorsements aside, how much do professional competitive surfers make in various categories? The answer might surprise you.
Men’s and Women’s Championship Tour
Bar none, the biggest payday in competitive surfing comes from winning a men’s CT event, which earns the lucky surfer a cool $100,000. By comparison, the winner of a women’s CT event makes $65,000 for their efforts. In the age of #metoo and gender parity, and out of context, that comparison sounds like a raw deal for the gals. As it happens, the WSL ascribes to the notion of purse parity or prize money parity – which is actually fairly progressive compared to other sports like golf, but still not immune to criticism.
The total prize purses for men and women on the CT actually break down to the same value per surfer. According to the WSL rulebook, every men’s CT has a total prize purse of $607,816 divided among 36 surfers. The women’s tour has exactly half the number of surfers among which to divide the prize money, so that number is split in half: $303,908. So why the differences in allocation? According to the Daily Telegraph, the women on tour have a say in how prize money is allocated and have chosen to spread it more evenly than their male counterparts. For instance, the difference between a win and equal 13th for the women equates to a $55,000 difference in prize money. Between 1st and equal 13th on the men’s tour, however, is a total difference of $88,500 in prize money.
Men’s and Women’s Big Wave Tour
We’ve already addressed the fact that winning a Ride of the Year at the Big Wave Awards will win a surfer $75,000, but a look at the Big Wave Tour itself yields some interesting insights. Unlike the CT, prize money for BWT events depends on the size of the surf. First place in an event with 25-35 foot waves will earn a surfer $12,500. In 35-45-foot surf that number increases to $18,750. And in 45-foot-plus surf that number maxes out at $25,000 for a win. The WSL rulebook doesn’t call out specifically how much the women make for a BWT event, but if the Pe’ahi Challenge is any indication, Paige Alms won and took home $10,000, second place earned Keala Kennelly $6,000, and third earned Justine Dupont $5,000.
Men’s and Women’s Longboard Tour
Like the men’s and women’s CTs, the respective Longboard Tours also have purse parity – total prize money for a men’s event (36 surfers) gets $80,000 and a women’s event (18 surfers) gets $40,000. First place for the former gets a $15,000 cash prize and the latter gets $10,000.
Qualifying Series
Last, let’s jump into the QS, which for all intents and purposes is technically made up of amateurs but still worthy of examination. As one might imagine, just as different QS contests have different point values, so to do they have different tiers of prize money. First place at a QS1000 earns surfers between $2,000 to $6,000 while a first in a QS10000 could earn max $40,000. An 81st place finish in even the highest valued QS, on the other hand, will earn you close to nothing – a whopping $500.
When all is said and done, and according to the numbers, being a talented high-performance shortboarder (and also, male) has the highest earning potential of any form of competitive surfing looking at prize money alone. On the other side, being a female big wave surfer or longboarder has the least earning potential.
Surfing isn’t about the money, you say? Maybe not entirely. But, shit, it sure helps.
