Caio Ibelli after a heat in Brazil. Photo: Thiago Diz//World Surf League
Caio Ibelli will not pursue another season on surfing’s professional tour. The 31-year-old Brazilian Championship Tour veteran announced on Instagram that he will willingly surrender his spot on the 2025 Challenger Series, where he could re-qualify for the CT, lamenting the up-front investment required to compete on the circuit with uncertain returns.
“Where to begin?” Ibelli wrote in his native Portuguese. “Let’s talk about surfing. Surfing is growing, it’s an Olympic sport. Brazilian athletes dominate the world tour and we became a reference on the global stage. But where is the financial incentive? Being a professional surfer is being able to live from surfing. Today, at 31 years old, I can’t put my future at risk to reinvest in something so uncertain. I am giving up the Challenger Series spot for now.”
“There is no way I can invest more than 100,000 reals (USD $17,600) to ‘try’ to live from this again,” Ibelli continued. “At the end of the day, we have bills and commitments. I think it’s wrong to pay to work. Anyway, cycles open and cycles close. Is this the time? I don’t know if it will be a goodbye or a ‘see you soon,’ but something has to change! In the meantime, I will reconnect with my essence and look for my path.”
Ibelli first qualified for the Championship Tour in 2016. Aside from a season missed due to injury in 2018, he remained a tour surfer until 2024 when he fell victim to the mid-season cut. Ibelli is also a kitesurfer, which helped sculpt his unique surfing style and he was widely admired for his competitiveness. He has always been willing to meet the sport’s best head on. He twice finished an even third at Pipeline and was a runner up at Bells in 2017. In 2019, he drew a controversial interference call from Gabriel Medina, beating him in a heat that put Medina’s title hopes on pause and threw the Brazilian fanbase into an uproar.
But injuries were always an issue for the Sao Paulo native, and led to the biggest controversy of his career. In 2018, Ibelli broke his foot during a freesurf at Margaret River. Unfortunately, John John Florence and Kelly Slater were also injured that year. JJF and Slater received injury wildcards and many thought it had a lot to do with politics as the WSL cited “career achievement factors” as one of the reasons Ibelli was denied the wildcard. Ibelli was the first replacement that year and eventually was able to re-qualify. But he wasn’t afraid to call out Slater, who he (and many others) thought took a nonchalant approach to his injury while Ibelli worked hard to rehab and keep his place on tour
“I’m definitely fighting for the injury wildcard, I don’t want anything short of that,” he told The Inertia at the time. “I think I deserve that. I gave my injury time to heal. Whatever Kelly did, some of his decisions (with his injury) weren’t very smart: he was going to Fiji, surfing on and off in some events. I think in the eyes of everyone, nobody was happy that he was playing the system a little bit.”
Many of Ibelli’s current and former peers on tour left comments on Instagram to support his decision.
“The truth is, it’s difficult to process all that,” said Adriano de Souza. “I really hope that you are happy with that decision.”
“God bless you and your family, brother,” wrote Filipe Toledo. “Be happy in this new phase. Let’s go.”
“Phase two will be more fun and more rewarding!” said Josh Kerr. “Family/surfing/business.”
“You’ve inspired many and thank you for inspiring me,” added Matt McGillivray.
“Caio, you are an inspiration to so many including me, not just for the legend you are in and out of the water, but how you constantly lead with your heart,” wrote Brisa Hennessy. “Keep leading with your heart and everything will align.”
The first of five Challenger Series events kicks off June 2 in Newcastle, Australia. The series will then pass through South Africa, California, Portugal, and Brazil to determine the 2026 CT rookie class.
