That style is back. Photo: Andrew Shield//World Surf League
Stephanie Gilmore will return to the World Surf League’s Championship Tour in 2026 after a two-year hiatus. Gilmore, who last surfed on the CT full-time in 2023, has accepted the season wildcard. The eight-time world champion shared a screen-grab of her short message to the league formally accepting the wildcard.
“I’m really excited that I’ve accepted the 2026 WSL Championship Tour Season Wildcard,” Gilmore said. “The last few years, I’ve enjoyed time off to do some exploration and other things, but I’m looking forward to heading back to the CT in 2026, and seeing how I compete against the young talent on the tour. I’m mostly excited just to see how I go in these challenges again. When you step away from competing full-time, you can really switch off, and it can be hard to get back into that headspace, but I’m excited to feel that energy and that challenge again. I’m definitely excited to get back to all of those locations.”
News of Gilmore’s return comes a week after Carissa Moore announced she’d be returning to the 2026 CT as well, throwing a combined 13 world titles and an Olympic gold medal back into the women’s field. The women’s CT has seen a wave of younger talent take over since both Moore and Gilmore were on tour, making their return in 2026 all the more intriguing. It also locks up both season wildcards for the 2026 tour year. Moore and Gilmore will be full-time competitors, which marks a departure next year from the unpopular mid-year cut that ran from 2021 until 2025.
“I look back on my time on tour and all of the events that I did well at and my performances and think, ‘I definitely could have surfed better there,’” she says. “Then there are places like Pipeline and Tahiti and Fiji that are such thrilling places to surf, and to be able to go and compete there in great waves is part of the goal for me to do well in these locations where I don’t have great results yet. The whole schedule looks like so much fun, and I’m really excited about it all.”
The 2026 Championship Tour kicks off at Bells Beach in April.
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