Newcastle, Australia. Photo: Aaron Hughes//World Surf League
The WSL announced a five-stop Challenger Series (CS) schedule for the upcoming 2026-2027 season. The announcement comes as the 2025-2026 will wrap up with its final of seven events at next week’s Newcastle SURFEST.
The upcoming CS itinerary will look more like past iterations of the Championship Tour (CT) qualifier series with just five events at some of the WSL’s familiar locations. The 2025-2026 schedule was an outlier in large part because the CT abandoned its late-January/early February start at Pipeline and returned to starting its season at Bells.
Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: July 12 – 18, 2026
Huntington Beach, California, USA: July 27 – August 2, 2026
São Sebastião, Brazil: September 26 – October 3, 2026
Ericeira, Portugal: October 6 – 12, 2026
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia: March 1 – 7, 2027
“This year has already seen such an exciting season on the Challenger Series,” said Travis Logie, WSL Senior Tour Manager, Challenger Series. “There is incredible talent coming through on both the men’s and women’s side, and we can’t wait to see what the next crop can achieve at these locations, as well as some extra opportunities for points coming through the QS 6,000 International events.”
A notable change from this year’s schedule to the upcoming one is the subtraction of Hawaii, which has been an on-again-off-again part of the CS since its launch in 2020. This year’s Lexus Pipe Challenger had taken the place of the CT’s Pipe Pro. The WSL pointed to limited Pipe and Hawaii permits available. The League’s tentative January 29-February 8, 2027 permit window does fit within the upcoming season start in July, 2026 and its close in March, 2027, but the league says that permit will instead be used for QS 6,000 Regional event on the North Shore.
