Gabriel Medina’s 10-point ride capped off the Fiji Pro. Photo: Cait Miers//WSL
Coudbreak produced more 10-point rides (three) than the other seven Championship Tour events combined this season (two). The WSL’s decision to lay low for several days in anticipation of a swell at the end of the Fiji Pro waiting period paid dividends.
First, Erin Brooks surfed the first perfect wave of the women’s season. Then Kauli Vaast showed his Teahupo’o expertise seamlessly translates to Fiji with a perfect wave of his own. Finally, Gabriel Medina added to the legend of his already storied career at Cloudbreak and notched a 10 in the final, even though it wasn’t enough to win the heat.
All three perfect rides had one thing in common: They were unanimous 10s with long, running lefts where the surfers had to pump multiple times in the tube to achieve the extreme velocity required to exit.
Gabriel Medina – men’s final
Medina came out of a long tube already imploring the judges to give him a perfect score, all ten fingers extended on his hands. It was his 23rd excellent wave scored at Cloudbreak, but not enough to overcome the two excellent scores that Cole Houshmand notched in the final. Medina never came up with the necessary backup score.
Kauli Vaast – round three
The 2026 Fiji Pro was the first time we got to see how Kauli Vaast performs in competition at Cloudbreak. As expected, the Teahupo’o specialist and Olympic champion had no problem leveraging the knowledge gained growing up in Tahiti to excel at another South Pacific reef pass. Vaast backed up this 10-point ride with a 9.07, nearly a perfect heat. But he fell victim to an on-fire Medina in the quarterfinals.
Erin Brooks – round one
Erin Brooks kicked off the action at the Fiji Pro with a glimpse of what was to come. Before she was eventually crowned champion of the event, she started her campaign with a perfect wave in women’s round one, adding an eight-point ride for a heat total of 18. The teenager knows how to ride the tube, especially on her forehand. She has a long career of Cloudbreak tubes awaiting her.
