By Lincoln Feast
SYDNEY, March 30 (Reuters) – Surfing’s elite world tour kicks off this week at Australia’s Bells Beach with Stephanie Gilmore, Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina returning to the circuit to face off against a new guard that has raised the performance level in their absence.
The trio, who stepped away for a variety of different reasons, might find a different level of competition on the 12-stop tour, now in its 50th year – particularly on legs that feature large, powerful waves.
“I am so stoked to be back,” five-times world champion Moore, who had her first child last year, told Reuters.
“Being away for two years really gave me a renewed sense of appreciation for the sport – getting to do something that pushes me out of my comfort zone every day and challenges me and takes me around the world and meet great people.”
Moore won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and took 2024 off the tour to focus on defending her title on the intimidating reef break of Teahupo’o in Tahiti.
Competing while pregnant with her daughter Olena, Moore missed out on the medals and has since been focused on raising her family and enjoying the sport from the sidelines.
“Yeah, it’s been fun to be a fan the last two years, I’ll tell you that,” the 33-year-old Hawaiian said.
“I’ve been super impressed with how everybody’s been competing and raising the level of the sport, especially in waves of consequence.”
Moore and Australian Gilmore, 38, dominated professional surfing for more than a decade and have 13 world titles between them.
In their absence, a crop of twentysomethings led by 2025 champion Molly Picklum, Olympic gold medallist Caroline Marks and 2024 number one Caitlin Simmers have laid down some of the most impressive surfing seen in powerful waves at Teahupo’o and Hawaii’s Pipeline.
Even they, however, might be looking over their shoulders at a new, even younger threat in the shape of French teenager Tya Zebrowski, who will be the youngest surfer to join the elite world tour having just turned 15.
MEDINA RETURNS
On the men’s side, Brazilian Medina returns from injury but will not have the opportunity to resume his great rivalry with Hawaiian John John Florence, who has opted to spend another year sailing around the world with his family.
That leaves the 32-year-old and his countrymen Yago Dora, the reigning champion, and two-times champion Filipe Toledo to do battle against Californian Griffin Colapinto and Australians Jack Robinson and Ethan Ewing for the title.
Starting on Wednesday at Bells, the tour runs through nine countries before culminating at Pipeline in surfing’s spiritual homeland in December.
New to the tour schedule is New Zealand’s Raglan, which provides the kind of high-performance left-hander many on tour have long hankered for, while Australia’s Gold Coast and California’s Lower Trestles make their return.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran remains a cloud over the wave pool event scheduled for Abu Dhabi in October.
In a change announced last year, the WSL has scrapped its controversial winner-takes-all finale and returned to a cumulative points system to determine the titles.
The season-ending leg at Pipeline will be worth 1.5 times standard championship tour events to reflect its elevated status.
A more recently announced change is the award of a maternity wild card to kick in from the 2027 season — an innovation by the World Surf League that delighted Moore.
“I hope that I can inspire other moms to keep doing what they love too,” said Moore.
“I am excited about and motivated to push myself in ways that I haven’t before, and see who I can become and how I can become a better person, a better mom, a better wife, a better sister, friend, daughter, all those things.”
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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