Caio Ibelli in the single-fin division of the Four Season Maldives 2026 Surfing Champions Trophy
Of all the invitees to the 2026 Surfing Champions Trophy at the Four Seasons Maldives, Caio Ibelli’s performance was certainly going to be one of the most intriguing. Yes, every athlete invited to this year’s event had some dust to shake off, so to speak. Half the field are former Championship Tour surfers who’ve retired from competition. But only Caio walked away from tour life and transplanted to Queensland’s Mount Isa with his wife and son, which is about 2,000 kilometers from the ocean.
It turns out the Brazilian didn’t have much dust to shake off, though, because he showed up at Sultans and took wins in the single-fin and twin-fin divisions on the first two days of the contest window. It was another former CT pro, Bede Durbidge, who finally got on the leaderboard on day three and won the thruster division.
The event opened on September 4 and Sultans delivered three straight days of rippable surf right away. It’s the first time in the 14-year history of the Surfing Champions Trophy that the event completed all three divisions of competition with zero lay days. The only thing left by the end of Durbidge’s thruster win is the Overall Final Heat against Ibelli. That matchup will go down “when Sultans deems it worthy,” organizers said Monday night.
“I don’t surf that much these days and just to be able to know that I have this in the bag somewhere, it’s pretty cool,” Ibelli said after back-to-back wins to open the event over the weekend. The nine-year CT vet admitted after his twin-fin win that he didn’t even know if he was able to do an air again. It turns out he can, because he pulled one off in his twin-fin final against Travis Logie.
“Airs shouldn’t be allowed on the twin fin,” Logie joked afterward. “I’m going to put a protest in. He’s too young and he’s doing airs. It’s not right.”
On Monday, Logie had another duel with a former CTer in the thruster division, Bede Durbidge. Monday’s surf was still plenty rippable by any surfer’s standards, but the swell had dropped off over the weekend. Tropicsurf Founder Ross Phillips executed the morning surf check at first light and was greeted by the smaller surf, but he had a hunch the morning lull wouldn’t last. Phillips knew an increase in the period was coming and that some size would come along with that change.
“The conditions were probably a little bit tricky, but when you got them, I actually got some of my best waves today,” Durbidge said after taking the win Monday. “It felt like there was this current moving with the waves where you could really slingshot into your turns. It was super fun.”
Editor’s Note: You can watch all Surfing Champions Trophy highlight reels here.
