Samuel Pupo might finally be able to break the cycle of bouncing back and forth from the CT to the CS and back again. Photo: WSL
For nearly a decade, Samuel Pupo has been seen as part of the Brazilian generation expected to follow the path of Gabriel Medina, Italo Ferreira, and Filipe Toledo.
He’s 25 now. He’s been with Rip Curl for more than a decade. When he finally cracked the Championship Tour in 2022, it felt like the natural next step. In his rookie season, Pupo finished inside the Top 10, highlighted by a runner-up result at the Rio Pro — still the best CT finish of his career.
But since then, his journey has looked less like a steady climb and more like a competitive rollercoaster: miss the mid-season cut, drop to the Challenger Series, dominate the Challenger, requalify, return to the CT — and repeat. For three seasons in a row.
Now, he heads to Newcastle, Australia, the final stop of the 2025-26 Challenger Series, ranked fourth and once again on the brink of returning to the elite tour. So how did he end up stuck in that cycle year after year? Ask anyone who has followed Sammy closely, and the answer is usually the same: the issue was never his surfing.
But if it wasn’t his surfing, then what was it? The pressure of the mid-season cut, widely disliked by surfers across the Tour? I put that question directly to him.
“I think my first year already answers a lot of that,” Pupo says. “In 2022, I was also close to falling below the cut line, but in the second half of the season I ended up finishing in the Top 10. That already reflects a lot of what the other years might have looked like. It’s hard to say because I never actually lived that scenario,” he continues. “But I personally believe that after the cut, if I had stayed, I would have been one of those guys climbing a lot in the rankings.”
For Pupo, the real challenge wasn’t his level of surfing. It was finding the rhythm of a season quickly enough under the constant pressure of the cut.
“I think every year I struggled to start the season already at 100 percent,” he says. “It’s pretty clear that when the cut gets closer, my performance starts rising and the results start coming, but then it ends up not being enough.”
This time, however, the context could be very different. If Pupo qualifies again, 2026 will be the first season without a mid-year cut — something that could finally allow him the time to build momentum over the course of a full year.
“Even the events after the cut are usually the ones I like the most,” he added. “The last few years, there was J-Bay after the cut; Rio. Those are events that really suit me, so hopefully I can come back and finally have a full season to test that theory.”
Despite the frustrations of the last few seasons, the setbacks haven’t shaken his confidence. Each time he dropped to the Challenger Series, he responded in dominant fashion — finishing runner-up in 2023 and being Challenger’s champion in 2024.
Heading into Newcastle, Pupo might finally be able to get past the mid-season cut — because it doesn’t exist anymore. Photo: WSL
According to Pupo, that response was planned. “The biggest message I took from falling off was that I couldn’t let my level drop,” he explains. “Watching the CT and QS over the years, you see that when guys fall off the CT, their confidence drops and their level drops too. So even though it’s a big hit mentally, the thing I held on to the most was that I couldn’t let my competitive level fall.”
That mindset shaped the way he approached the Challenger. “I try to surf every heat as if I’m competing against John John, Medina, Italo, Filipe,” he says. “I push myself to that point where I tell myself I can’t make mistakes — maybe one or two at most.”
This season followed a similar pattern. Pupo’s results were inconsistent in the first four Challenger events. But when the pressure arrived, he delivered, winning in Saquarema and defeating Eli Hanneman in the final. The Hawaiian had arguably been the standout surfer of the entire event, making Pupo’s victory a reflection of the competitive mindset he has carried throughout the Challenger Series.
The victory launched him up the rankings, and even after an early loss at Pipeline, he arrives in Newcastle with his destiny in his own hands. A fifth-place finish would mathematically guarantee his return to the CT — though qualification could come with an even lower result depending on how the rankings shake out.
“I like to be very realistic at this time of year,” Pupo says. “I’m in a very good position. Before Pipe I didn’t expect things would end up this tight, but I lost early there, and a lot of guys around me improved their results. So everyone got really close.”
Because qualification isn’t mathematically secured yet, Pupo says he’ll arrive in Australia in what he calls “attack mode.”
“Newcastle will be very important,” he says. “Being in a good position is a privilege, but at the same time, there are a lot of people who want your spot, so you still need to be in attack mode.”
Another key factor this season has been his partnership with Matt Myers, a relationship that began earlier, but has become more structured recently.
“We always wanted to work together, but it never really lined up before,” Pupo says. “He used to be Rip Curl’s team manager in California when I was about 15. When he left that role and became a coach, things started to make more sense for us.”
According to Pupo, the biggest difference has been communication. “I’ve always felt communication was one of my weaknesses, especially in surfing. So having someone I can speak openly with about what I’m thinking has made a big difference. I’m really happy to finally have someone by my side that I can work with like that.”
If Pupo finishes the job in Newcastle, 2026 may finally give him the chance to break the cycle and show the level of surfing many have believed in since he was a teenager.
