Number two in the rankings, Miguel Pupo, may have to face the local wildcard, Bryan Perez. Photo: Rambo Estrada//WSL
Can you believe it’s been half a decade of Championship Tour events in El Salvador? Not too long ago, bringing the world’s best surfers to the once war-torn nation seemed like a pipe dream. Now it’s just business as usual, and likely a longterm staple given that the mastermind behind the country’s surf investments, President Nayib Bukele, can now run for reelection indefinitely.
The first four years of the event have largely been a success. The cobblestones of Punta Roca gobble up Southern Hemisphere energy and create a canvas that is arguably the most high-performance on the tour. And looking at the long-range forecast, there will be plenty of swell on tap. There is no risk of having a Raglan repeat, where some heats had to run in nearly un-contestable slop.
Here are five heats worth watching when competition kicks off on Friday.
Miguel Pupo vs the winner of Eli Hanneman and Bryan Perez
In the four years that Bryan Perez received a wildcard to the El Salvador Pro, last year was the first time he managed to do some damage to the CT ranking. He took out Italo Ferreira and then narrowly missed out on eliminating John John Florence. No one on tour knows Punta Roca as well as Perez, and I’d wager that the top guys don’t want to cross paths with him early in the event.
Perez will face Eli Hanneman in round one, and Miguel Pupo will be waiting for the winner in round two. After falling off tour in 2024 and having to earn requalification in 2025, the 34-year-old Pupo is having a renaissance on the tour, currently ranked second. But Perez already beat Pupo in El Salvador in 2024. He has another chance to leave his mark on the tour if he can take down Pupo, one of the rankings leaders.
Gabriela Bryan vs the winner of Erin Brooks and Yolanda Hopkins
Gabriela Bryan had a shot at the title last season. She went into the Final 5 ranked second, but fell to Caroline Marks at Cloudbreak, finishing the season third overall. Through the first third of 2026, she’s shown that last year wasn’t a fluke. She’s leading the women’s rankings heading into El Salvador, an event she won last year.
To start her run for a repeat at Punta Roca, she’ll tee off against the winner of Erin Brooks and Yolanda Hopkins. Those two also faced off in the first round of Raglan, with Brooks taking the win. Brooks has shown the world what she’s capable of in movie parts and on the Challenger Series. But it hasn’t translated to success yet on the CT, as she’s currently ranked 15th. If she is to have a breakout performance in El Salvador, she’ll have to get through the rankings leader first.
Griffin Colapinto vs Al Cleland
Al Cleland has undoubtedly been the most unlucky surfer on the tour this year. His first round matchups thus far have come against Gabriela Medina (twice), Jack Robinson, and Griffin Colapinto. As a result, he is among the surfers who haven’t passed a heat yet this season. And his reward for poor performances is another first-round matchup against the older Colapinto brother — the reigning tour runner-up.
Cleland took out Filipe Toledo in El Salvador last year, so he knows he’s capable of logging a result. He’ll have to start taking down the titans if he wants to draw lower-ranked surfers in the opening rounds.
Sawyer Lindblad vs the winner of Steph Gilmore and Anat Lelior
I recently anointed Sawyler Lindblad as one of the big surprises of the season. After dropping off tour in 2024, she requalified and is in the early running for the title, ranked fifth overall. Now the 20-year-old is loaded with confidence, coming off her best CT performance ever with a runner-up at Raglan.
She’ll look to build off that result with an opening heat against Steph Gilmore or Anat Lelior. If it’s Gilmore, Lindblad will have her hands full in a right-hand point break against the eight-time champ. Gilmore has already won in El Salvador back in 2022.
Jack Robinson vs Cole Houshmand
The Australia and New Zealand leg of the season was forgettable for Jack Robinson. Having finished top-five in the past four seasons, now he’s sitting in the middle of the rankings at 15th. He’s coming off three 9th-place finishes in a row. Logic would say that it’s only a matter of time before he finds his footing, although he’s never made it past the quarterfinals in El Salvador.
He’ll go up against Cole Houshmand, who made the semifinals last year at Punta Roca, and is coming off a season-best performance at Raglan. If Robinson is to turn his season around, he’d better start sooner rather than later.
