Oscar Berry found the winning formula. Photo: Pat Nolan//WSL
No one has struggled with WSL’s new-look 2026 Championship Tour format more than Oscar Berry. Before the Trestles Pro, the Australian rookie had surfed eight round-one heats and lost eight times. He finally broke through the round-one barrier by defeating Joel Vaughan at the Trestles Pro on Saturday.
“Kinda feels awkward writing this having it taken so long to get a heat progression, but I really am stoked to have put a solid performance together today,” Berry wrote on Instagram.
Trestles was Berry’s last chance to win a heat before the postseason cutoff narrows the men’s CT field down to 22 for Portugal and Cloud 9. Even if Berry won Trestles, it wouldn’t be enough to make the postseason. He’ll wait for Pipeline when the entire roster returns to compete in the season finale.
The WSL’s modified format in 2026 did away with non-elimination rounds. Every heat mattered. Many rookies struggled with the lack of heats to start the year. While some figured it out, Berry remained in round-one purgatory.
He came painstakingly close to winning a heat on several occasions. He lost on the Gold Coast by five one-hundredths (.05) of a point. Then he lost at Raglan by seventeen one-hundredths of a point.
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According to VORTEX, a surf stats startup, Berry’s surfing has matched his results. He’s only completed one air and one tube this season. He completes his turns with an 86 percent success rate, the worst mark on the men’s or women’s tour.
The 23-year-old still has room to grow. Barring a miracle at Pipeline, he probably won’t requalify for the 2027 tour, and he hasn’t had much luck in the two Challenger Series events he entered this year, currently ranked 53rd overall.
However, the current tour leader, Leo Fioravanti, is a perfect example of how a surfer can mature over time. The Italian fell off the tour early in his career, requalified, and is now in the midst of a title race.
