We’re getting into the endgame of the 2026 Championship Tour season. With Portugal complete, there’s only one more event before a winner is crowned at Pipeline. With the added pressure of a yellow jersey in tantalizingly close reach, two surfers managed to climb to the top of the pile at Supertubos: Griffin Colapinto and Molly Picklum.
This is Colapinto’s third win in Portugal, and boy did he have to work for it. The San Clemente native’s path to glory was riddled with former champions, starting off with a matchup against Gold Medalist Kauli Vaast, then a quarterfinal against Seth Moniz and semifinal vs 2025 CT champ Yago Dora. Then it was a main event against none other than Gabriel Medina, who took an early lead and seemed poised to shut down Griff, before he posted a massive 9.43 to seal the deal.
“The battle with Gabriel was unreal, just to go back and forth like that,” he told Kaipo Guerrera afterwards. “I was thinking back to looking up to Andy and Kelly and all that generation, just watching them and hoping that one day I could be doing that. It felt like we were doing it.”
On the women’s side, Molly Picklum reminded us why she’s currently wearing a yellow jersey with a win against Caity Simmers. The Australian established her lead early in the heat, with a 7.83 backed up by a 5.50. Though Picklum would never earn a score worthy of replacing either of those waves as Simmers steadily closed the score gap, the ocean never provided the American ample opportunity to actually pull ahead. Picklum’s path to the final carved through Lakey Peterson, Trestles winner Erin Brooks, and Yolanda Hopkins.
“I wanted to do well, here. It was a dream of mine,” said an excited Picklum in her post-heat interview. “For me, Portugal, here in Supertubos, it’s like a cross between the Brazil energy and Pipeline. Those together are my two favorite things. I’m so grateful to win here. It was literally a dream of mine and dreams come true. It’s so baffling.”
The rankings saw mostly jockeying amongst the top five, but with so few events remaining, any change on that front can be seismic. Though Yago Dora remained in the top men’s spot, Italo moved up to second, Griffin leapfrogged to third and Medina ascended to fourth. For the women, Picklum’s win catapulted her to pole position, followed by Carissa Moore, Gabriela Bryan, and Erin Brooks.
On to the next one. The Philippines Pro takes place at Cloud 9 in just a week, before the long-awaited final showdown at Pipeline in December.
