Photo: Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy
Bede Durbidge will be joining Kai Lenny, Mason Ho, and Victor Bernardo as competitors in the 2026 Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy. Durbidge is the fourth competitor announced for this year’s invite-only event, which takes place in just under a month (September 4-11) at the famous North Male right-hander, Sultans.
The 43-year-old former Championship Tour competitor hasn’t veered far from competitive surfing over the past decade. Durbidge last wore a CT jersey in 2017 and was quickly tapped by Surfing Australia to coach and prepare prospective Olympic surfers for the 2020 Games. He’s been coaching the sport’s top talents ever since.
“Being a coach, I guess I’m still living and breathing it in an indirect way, so I’m still ticking over with all those strategies to be able to perform under pressure,” Durbidge said, admitting it feels like a lifetime ago since his tour days. “It’s going to be a bit of a trip, to be honest, getting back in the jersey and surfing heats again.”
Coaching aside, his own competitive resumé will be the most stacked of this year’s Champions Trophy invitees. Durbidge won three events on the ASP World Tour between 2006 and 2008, including the 2008 Pipe Masters. That same year, he finished runner-up in the world tour rankings, highlighting a three-year stretch of season finishes inside the top-five.
The Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy is nothing like the world tour, of course, competitively. The event requires athletes to compete on a single fin, twin fin, and thruster. Durbidge said in a press release he’s most looking forward to the single fin division of this year’s event because there is so much variation in the designs.
“I’m definitely nervous with the lack of time on the twins and single fins,” he said about the other divisions. “I’m just going to go in open-minded and embrace the novelty, fun side of riding those styles of boards.
