Of the 10 surfers ranked in the top five across the men’s and women’s Championship Tour, half lost their first heat at Cloud 9. It opened up the door for those left in the draw to improve their standings before the season’s final event at Pipeline.
Italo Ferreira, Griffin Colapinto, Miguel Pupo, Erin Brooks, and Gabriela Bryan exited early at the Philippines Pro. But Gabriel Medina, Yago Dora, Carissa Moore, and Caity Simmers are still in the running for the 10,000 points awarded to the winner.
With Molly Picklum falling in the quarterfinals, Moore can retake the rankings lead if she beats Simmers in the semis. However, if Simmers wins that heat, Picklum will narrowly retain the lead heading into Pipeline. Simmers is looking for an event win to move into third overall and have a realistic shot at the title.
Brooks made an admirable late-season push with three wins in a row at Tahiti, Fiji, and Lower Trestles. But her round-one loss all but keeps the title out of reach.
On the men’s side, Yago Dora continues to be a machine, able to perform in any conditions. By making the semis, he’s guaranteed that he’ll have the rankings lead at Pipeline. Still, his semifinal matchup at Cloud 9 against Gabriel Medina will be pivotal.
With a win, Dora could build a sizable, nearly 10,000-point lead over second-place Ferreira. But if Medina wins the semifinal and wins the event, he would move into runner-up position and be nipping at the heels of Dora on the North Shore.
Remember, the season finale at Pipeline is weighted 1.5 times the rest of the CT events — a new wrinkle in the 2026 format. There is more potential to make up ground for those trailing in the rankings. Finals day at Cloud 9 will narrow down the field of who is still mathematically in the running for Pipe.
It’s also worth noting that, since Cloud 9 will finish with a week to spare in the event window (if finals day runs as planned), the CT surfers will have ample time to fly to Peru to represent their country in the World Surfing Games, an Olympic qualifier .
The World Surfing Games start on November 6, but when the WSL announced that Cloud 9 was added to the schedule, the dates overlapped. The ISA had already determined that CT surfers would get a free pass into round three. Then they announced that they would delay round three until November 11 to give CT surfers time to get to Peru in case Cloud 9 used the entire window.
As it turns out, the CT surfers will have plenty of time to get to Peru, rest, and attempt to earn their countries an Olympic slot.
