Who’s going to Fiji? Photo: Beatriz Ryder//World Surf League
A lot of surf fans hate the WSL Finals. Well, to be specific, they hate that world champions are decided in a single event. The event itself has actually been pretty entertaining when taken out of that context, and the drama of surfers getting their spots in the Final 5 each year has often been entertaining too.
Anyway, this week’s Tahiti Pro will be all about locking in those final spots for the men’s and women’s WSL Finals. And assuming the WSL doesn’t hatch up a scheme to bring this format back to life when fans are reminded that the old way of determining champions was usually pretty anticlimactic and boring, it’s the last time we’re going to see surfers jockey for position in an event like this.
Just one surfer in the men’s draw has clinched a spot in the WSL Finals, Yago Dora, leaving four others (three, really, but technically four) still up for grabs. Here’s what every surfer in contention can do to punch their ticket to Fiji.
Men’s Final Five Contender Scenarios
Jordy Smith
Jordy’s made surfing’s biggest comeback this year. Two months after turning 37, he won his first contest since Bells Beach in 2017. A month later he doubled down and accomplished something he’d never done in his career: win a second contest in one CT season. Jordy Smith simply has to surf in a single heat to qualify for the WSL Finals now, but if Yago Dora somehow endures an early exit, Smith can technically make up enough ground to steal the yellow jersey back and earn himself a massive strategic advantage.
Kanoa Igarashi
Kanoa returned to form this year too, which is why he’s been steady in the top five all season long. Now, Kanoa Igarashi goes to Fiji if he makes it into the quarterfinals at Teahupo’o.That’s not a lock. Igarashi has only made it that far at Chopes once in his career, but the one time he did, it was on a wild 9.7 in the dying moments of a 2022 heat that propelled him into his first WSL Finals appearance.
Italo Ferreira
Italo is the only former world champion currently holding down a spot in the top five of the men’s CT rankings. The title he did win was literally the spark for creating the WSL Finals, a winner-take-all heat in the Pipe Masters Final against Gabriel Medina in 2019. It was an incredible moment and in hindsight it’s tough to blame the league for trying to manufacture those kind of high-stakes battles. Time proved that you can’t force those things though, so here we are, and here’s Italo still in the mix. Ferreira will clinch a spot in Fiji by making the Final at Teahupo’o, which he could be one of the favorites to do. After all, he did win the event last year.
Ethan Ewing
Ethan Ewing is right on Italo’s heels in the rankings. Less than a thousand points separate the two surfers, so while Ewing also needs to make it to the Final at Teahupo’o in order to qualify for the WSL Finals, he’ll be jockeying for position as well.
He’s in a dangerous position though. Ewing’s results at big left-handers took a big step in the right direction last year after mostly struggling to win heats in big lefts early in his CT career. This time around he has five surfers within reach of his fifth and final position above the cutoff.
Who’s On the Outside Trying to Get In?
Griffin Colapinto
Griff is less than a thousand points behind Ethan Ewing. If he can best Ewing by a heat and manage to outlast everybody else on this list, he’s in. He could also leave nothing up to chance by making the Final and locking in his spot. It would be Colapinto’s third consecutive trip to the WSL Finals.
Jack Robinson
Jack’s year has been a mixed bag of results, if we’re being honest. He’s exited contests before the quarterfinals six times this year, but his position just outside of the top five is propped up on two semifinal appearances (Abu Dhabi and Trestles) and ringing the bell back in April. This is an event he’s won before, though, and Robo is a surfer you just can’t really ever count out.
Barron Mamiya
Barron plus a big barreling left? It goes without saying he’s swinging for the fences.
Filipe Toledo
Filipe plus a big barreling left?…..Could be trouble for the Brazilian.
Leo Fioravanti
Leo nearly won at Pipe to kick off the season and he failed to make it as far as the quarterfinals again until last month’s Corona Cero Open J-Bay. Leo has qualified, fallen off tour, re-qualified, and fought to be sitting in this position now. While he’s never won an event on the CT, it’s not tough to see the guy putting together a magic run and taking it all in Tahiti for his first-ever win.
Connor O’Leary
Speaking of career first wins, Connor O’Leary snagged his last month in South Africa and now he has a Hail Mary shot at sneaking into the WSL Finals. If you know anything about gambling, you know you never ignore a hot hand.
