Photo: WSL
Jessi Miley-Dyer will be stepping aside from her role as Commissioner of the World Surf League. The move was announced Friday with her departure coming at the end of this month’s Lexus Pro Trestles.
“With the 2025 regular season complete, and our postseason qualification and expanded women’s field now set, I feel this is the right moment for me to step aside,” Miley-Dyer said in a statement. “It’s been the honor of my life to help guide this sport that has given me so much. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved together, from raising the level of competition to breaking new ground in gender equality. I’ll always be the WSL’s biggest fan, and I’m excited to see what comes next for both the WSL and our athletes.”
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Miley-Dyer competed on the ASP World Championship Tour before leaving competition in 2011. She transitioned to a role in the organization and eventually was named WSL SVP, Tours & Head of Competition in 2021, succeeding Pat O’Connell. She was soon named “Chief of Sport,” and then appointed to her current role as League Commissioner in 2024. It was the first time the league had a commissioner since Kieren Perrow (who preceded O’Connell) in 2019. In her time with the WSL, Miley-Dyer has been a key player in several moves that reshaped the competitive landscape. In 2018, the league instilled its equal prize money policy across all men’s and women’s events. In 2022, the men’s and women’s Championship Tours were combined into one schedule, which brought the women’s CT to Pipe for the first time ever (The women’s CT season had traditionally competed at Honolua Bay while the men competed at Pipe until the 2021 event was interrupted by a shark attack at the contest site. They completed that contest at Pipe). This year, the WSL announced an expansion of the women’s field from 18 to 24 in 2026. A statement from the WSL acknowledged Miley-Dyer for playing a key role in those changes, saying she was “ instrumental in shaping the modern era of professional surfing and advancing equity within the sport.”
“Jessi has been incredibly influential in competitive surfing, not just as a competitor, but for her vision and commitment to fairness and excellence,” added WSL CEO Ryan Crosby. Her impact on the WSL and the sport as a whole is profound, and she leaves the organization in a stronger, more inclusive place. We’re grateful for her years of service and wish her nothing but success in what comes next.”
No specific plans for a successor have been shared by the league, nor did it share further details of Miley-Dyer’s transition from League Commissioner.
