Join us for some special screenings of the “The Cigarette Surfboard”
In May Ben Judkins and Taylor Lane will be in the UK and Ireland touring with their now world famous and award winning environmental Surf Documentary “The Cigarette Surfboard”.
You will be able to see the boards, watch the film and and attend a special Q+A with the film makers.
The film follows Taylor Lane as he builds a functional surfboard with 10,000 cigarette butts collected from California beaches. The Cigarette Surfboard becomes a platform to learn from professional surfers who are working to protect the ocean, and the symbol of a grassroots campaign to hold Big Tobacco accountable for their toxic, plastic waste. Surfing is the medium, but the message is universal.
The boards are ridden by Jack Johnson, Mikey February, Fergal Smith, Easkey Britton and a host of others, with a section on the founding of Surfers Against Sewage amongst many tales.
Dates and links to tickets below
MAY 6, 2025 (8pm) — Kenny’s Pub in Lahinch, Ireland
And that’s three! After Italy and Portugal, the European Rip Curl GromSearch tour made a stop in Spain for two action-packed days of competition. Held in collaboration with the Federación Cántabra de Surf, the event took place in Somo on May 2 and 3.
The competition kicked off on Friday, May 2, with the Under-16 categories in solid conditions—clean, consistent sets ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 meters allowed the older groms to showcase their full potential. On the following day, the swell eased slightly, but under bright sunshine and in fun 1-meter waves, the Under-14 and Under-12 surfers put on a great show.
Between heats, the kids enjoyed the Oakley and Sun Bum booths, took part in a treasure hunt, and even answered English interviews by Robbie Vincent, better known on social media as @letsspeakenglish.
Each day, one grom was awarded the Oakley Best Heat Score prize: Carla Morera De La Vall on May 2, and Nel Raposo on May 3. Both surfers took home a €500 prize.
Since its creation in 1999, the Rip Curl GromSearch has revealed numerous talents who now shine on the global stage. Former participants include WSL champions and Olympic medalists like Gabriel Medina (3× World Champion), Stephanie Gilmore (8× World Champion), Kauli Vaast and Caroline Marks (2024 Olympic Champions).
Winners of this Spanish stop have secured a spot in the European Final. Next step will be at Croyde Bay, UK, on June 7–8!
Here are the results from the Rip Curl GromSearch Spain:
The tour you loved is back and the season will end at Pipe!
As well as much loved destinations like Chopes, Fiji, J Bay in the mix the Pipe Masters will now award 15,000 points, 1.5 times more than a standard CT event, making it the most consequential stop on Tour.
The 2026 WSL tour locations are:
CT1: Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia CT2: Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia CT3: Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia CT4: Punta Roca, El Salvador CT5: Saquarema, Brazil CT6: Jeffreys Bay, South Africa CT7: Teahupo'o, Tahiti CT8: Cloudbreak, Fiji CT9: Lower Trestles, Calif., USA CT10: Surf Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates CT11: Peniche, Portugal CT12: Pipe Masters, Hawai‘i, USA
Kelly Slater: “Pipeline has shaped the history of surfing more than any other wave, especially in competition. Many of the most defining moments of my career happened there. I wanted to win the Pipe Masters almost as much as I wanted to win the World Title and it’s great to see those two things now reconnected. Putting Pipe back where it belongs on the CT, with added weight, honors the past while setting up something really special for the future.”
Stephanie Gilmore: “The CT has seen a lot of change during my time on Tour, especially for the women, and it just keeps getting better. Introducing equal pay and aligning the men’s and women’s Tours were both big steps forward. I’m thrilled to see the 2026 schedule include elements of the current format, a connection to the past and what will no doubt be an exciting chapter ahead.”
Press release below
The 2026 season will mark the 50th year of professional surfing, a milestone that comes alongside a significant evolution of the Championship Tour (CT) calendar and competitive format. Today, the World Surf League (WSL) is announcing major schedule and format changes to the CT for the 2026 season and beyond. Anchored by the return of the iconic Pipe Masters as the closing event of the season, the CT will culminate on the North Shore of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, at Pipeline, the sport’s most revered location.
The CT season will run from April to December, starting in Australia and concluding in Hawai‘i. The 12-stop schedule welcomes a new evolution of the CT, reimagined to meet the ambitions and momentum of surfing’s next chapter. Based on surfer and fan feedback, along with considerations of partner and permitting components, the CT will utilize a cumulative rankings format that combines a high-stakes finale with the depth of a full-season Title race.
As the WSL honors five decades of iconic moments, it also looks forward, ushering in a new era of progression, innovation, and opportunity. With a reimagined format, the return of the Pipe Masters as the season finale, and a calendar that spans the world’s most legendary waves, this season celebrates the legacy of generations past while proudly shaping the future of surfing’s global stage.
New Path to the World Title: Pipeline Returns as The Ultimate Event with Elevated Points System and New Seeding Format
In the new design, nine “regular-season” events will be held before the 36 men and 24 women are narrowed to 24 men and 16 women for the final two “postseason” events. Surfers will carry only their best seven of nine results from the regular season into the next stage. The final season rankings, and ultimately the World Titles, will be determined by a surfer’s best nine of 12 results.
The final stretch of the Tour will include two “postseason” events followed by the reimagined Pipe Masters, where the rankings and performances in each will shape the World Title race. The top eight men and women heading into Pipeline will earn the competitive advantage of deeper seeding in the draw. The Pipe Masters will now award 15,000 points, 1.5 times more than a standard CT event, making it the most consequential stop on Tour. These changes reflect the importance of Pipe and ensure the finale delivers elite performances, meaningful consequences, and defining moments in the World Title race.
The full 2026 men’s and women’s CT fields from the start of the season will rejoin the postseason competitors to compete in the season’s final event, allowing the world’s best surfers to battle for the prestigious Pipe Masters event Titles while challenging World Title contenders for their place in history.
“Pipeline has always held a special place in surfing history, and our fans have made it clear they want to see our sport’s most critical moments unfold there,” said Ryan Crosby, WSL CEO. “We are thrilled to return the final event of the year, where World Champions will be crowned, to this iconic proving ground.”
The move underscores the WSL’s commitment to honoring surfing’s rich heritage while simultaneously evolving the competitive platform that awards World Titles.
“These changes represent a new era for the WSL,” Crosby continued. “By bringing the finale back to the North Shore and strategically innovating the format, we are celebrating surfing’s legacy and creating the ideal stage for the sport’s most unforgettable moments.”
Additionally, all CT events will feature a streamlined format that removes non-elimination rounds. This change raises the stakes from the outset and creates greater opportunities for high-impact heats to run in optimal conditions.
As previously announced, the women’s CT field will expand from 18 to 24 surfers in 2026, creating more opportunities and further global representation.
Under an agreement with Vans, the intellectual property rights to the Pipe Masters title will be transferred to the WSL Championship Tour. Vans will serve as the exclusive footwear and apparel partner for the Pipe Masters.
Surfer qualification for the CT will continue through the three-tier pathway, the regional Qualifying Series up to the Challenger Series. More information about these competitions will be shared in the coming months.
2026 Championship Tour Schedule Showcases Surfing’s Premier Locations
The 2026 CT calendar will consist of the following locations:
CT1: Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia
CT2: Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia
CT3: Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia
CT4: Punta Roca, El Salvador
CT5: Saquarema, Brazil
CT6: Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
CT7: Teahupo'o, Tahiti
CT8: Cloudbreak, Fiji
CT9: Lower Trestles, Calif., USA*
CT10: Surf Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
CT11: Peniche, Portugal
CT12: Pipe Masters, Hawai‘i, USA**
*End of regular season, start of postseason
**Full CT fields rejoin postseason surfers to compete for Pipe Masters Titles
With these changes, the WSL is welcoming a new chapter for the Championship Tour and redefining what it means for the world’s best surfers to compete for the World Titles. By rewarding full-season performance, supporting the continued progression, and bringing the world’s most iconic wave back to the heart of the World Title race, surfers will have more opportunity than ever to showcase their talent and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Starting in 2026, the CT will honor the past while pushing the sport forward, elevating the global stage where every event matters and every performance has the power to define history.
Edouard Delpero and Rachael Tilly take ISA for longboard titles
France win team medal
Ben Skinner (England ) finishes 6th
Tom Breen (Ireland) 13th
Team England 11th
Ireland 18th
Wales 35th
France claimed an unprecedented fourth team gold medal to win the 2025 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Longboard Championship (WLC). Finals Day was greeted with clean, three-to-five-foot swell gracing the long right point of El Sunzal, offering pristine conditions for the individual and team World Champions to be crowned.
After appearing in the previous three gold-medal winning French teams, Edouard Delpero (FRA) was finally able to break through and win his first individual gold medal. Two-time Silver Medalist Rachael Tilly (USA) also claimed her first individual gold medal, having been a part of the gold-medal winning Team USA in 2018. In a repeat of their 2024 performances, both winners progressed from the Main Round into the Final in the top spot, but improved upon them today by taking the victory.
In a hotly contested teams race, the last few heats of the event saw the possibilities for gold narrow by the minute. Tilly’s win delivered the team silver medal for USA, while the Philippines held onto the bronze medal and Brazil earned copper.
Having placed runner-up in the very first ISA women’s WLC Final in 2013 in her first ever international event at the age of 15, along with the most recent event in 2024, it was sweet relief for Rachael Tilly (USA) to at last take the win. The 27-year-old won her second WSL World Title at El Sunzal in 2024, before claiming victory today in a major strengthening of her already deep connection to the waves of El Salvador. Tilly has now further etched her name into the history books, standing as the reigning ISA and WSL World Longboard Champion.
“Oh my gosh, I’m absolutely speechless,” Tilly said. “Obviously this was the goal. I’ve gotten two silver medals and I really, really wanted to win gold. But I knew that was going to be a really tough heat with the competition. And then Alice [Le Moigne] opened up with a nine and I backed up with an eight and I was like, OK, it’s on. So, yeah, I can’t believe it.”
Tilly and two-time ISA World Champion Alice Le Moigne (FRA) both opened with scores in the excellent range. The larger wave of Le Moigne’s gave her the upper-hand with a 9.00 to an 8.33 from Tilly. A notable paddling exchange between the two saw Le Moigne sell Tilly on a wave she couldn’t catch, leaving Le Moigne with the pick of the lineup headed into the final exchange. Tilly picked up a wave under priority, displaying her trademark flow through exceptional nose and rail work to earn a 6.80 from a smaller wave, while Le Moigne opted for a set wave that didn’t allow her to find a critical nose-ride on the outside. Both surfers stood on the sand for an extended period waiting for Le Moigne’s score, before Tilly was announced as the champion, Le Moigne the silver medalist.
The pair shared the Final with two surfers who also have extensive El Sunzal experience, 2023 Silver Medalist Maria Fernanda Reyes (PER) and 2023 WSL Surf City El Salvador Longboard Classic event winner Sophia Culhane (HAW), who earned the bronze and copper medals, respectively.
A release of emotion from Edouard Delpero (FRA) after his highest scoring wave in the men’s Final told the entire story. Delpero was appearing in his fourth WLC Final in a row, his third in El Salvador. Across every year the event has run at El Sunzal, Delpero has moved into the Final in the top spot from the Main Round, but has been unable to walk away with the victory. Today that story finally changed, with the 35-year-old standing atop the podium, to join his brother Antoine Delpero (FRA) as an ISA World Champion.
“I don’t realize what’s happening actually right now, but yeah, I made it,” Delpero said, fighting tears. “It’s been the last four years I did the Final and I couldn’t reach that goal. In the 2023 edition, with Antoine [Delpero] winning, that was such a beautiful moment and last year he wasn’t there, but this year he came back as a coach and I won.”
Delpero was one of three of the medalists from 2024 to appear in the Final, with the defending silver and bronze medalists, Taka Inoue (JPN) and Rodrigo Sphaier (BRA), joined by 2023 Copper Medalist Rogelio Esquievel Jr. (PHI). Delpero opened in the excellent range and stayed there for the remainder of the heat, increasing from an 8.50 to a 9.17, before finishing with a 9.07 for an excellent 18.24 heat total. Delpero’s dominance left the rest of the field requiring a combination of two waves to defeat him, which was narrowly broached by Sphaier, whose 8.60 was the only other excellent score of the Final.
In the end, Sphaier added a silver medal to his 2010 gold and 2024 bronze, while Esquievel and Inoue earned their second medals, bronze and copper, respectively.
Oscar waving for help while holding on to the paralysed SUP'er. Photo: Neil Phillips
A 14 year old surfer from Saunton has been praised for saving the life of a paralysed SUP’er.
Oscar who is also junior surf lifesaver at the Saunton SLSC, saw the casualty who had been hit on the head by a board and lost feeling in arms and legs in trouble and paddle over to help.
"I saw someone had been injured on their board and just instinctively went over to them to see if they were OK, which they weren't and then I helped them. I was quite scared at the beginning that I wouldn't be able to lift him because he's quite a big guy but I just had the determination to help him."
"I knew he had a big board strapped to his leg and if I tried to go in and a wave came and he gets hit off, he'd get dragged in and I might lose sight of him - it could've just got so much worse."
Oscar flipped the SUP over and got the man on the board.
The man, Mr Boden said "He was trying to hang on to me and trying to wave and I was saying 'don't leave me kid, don't leave me' and he was saying 'I won't leave you, I won't leave you'."
Oscar reassured him,
"I started to calm him down because he almost started panicking and he was worrying about what was going to happen next but I just tried to keep him calm whilst waving to my dad and Neil."
Danny his dad said: "The first way we realised something was wrong was when we just saw two dots close together and a small arm waving frantically with the correct signals of a surfer in distress in the water."
Coastguards and other surfers weren't able to reach them so a RNLI inshore lifeboat was called.
Neil Phillips of Saunton SLSC said: "Oscar's rescue was just textbook.
"I'm really proud of Oscar. He was just amazing, he saved a life."
Roland Lefeuvre (FRA) progresses ahead of defending champion Kai Sallas (HAW) to win the heat of his life
Skindog through to round 5
Excellence from Japanese teammates Taka Inoue (JPN) and Natsumi Taoka (JPN) tops day’s heat totals
Maria Fernanda Reyes (PER) claims victory in stacked, medal-filled battle
The penultimate day of action in the Surf City El Salvador ISA World Longboard Championship (WLC) was greeted with yet another stunning El Sunzal lineup, with corduroy four-to-five-foot swell lining the right point. Men’s and women’s Main Round 4 was completed, along with Repechage Rounds 4 through 7 in both divisions.
The Philippines maintained an extremely narrow lead on the team rankings, sitting just 15 points ahead of France in second place. The team nearly managed to be the only nation to hang on to all four members heading into Finals Day, but lost Daisy Valdez (PHI) in the last heat of the day in a nail-biter. Similar to the Philippines and France, Japan is holding onto three surfers to remain a close third, while Brazil, Hawaii, USA, and Australia sit below in a tight pack, each carrying two surfers in the draw.
Surfing against three longboarders with extensive competitive history, relative newcomer Roland Lefeuvre (FRA) claimed a 7.83 within the final two minutes of the opening men’s Main Round 4 heat to jump from third to first and take a massive heat win over two-time ISA World Champion Kai Sallas (HAW), as well as Johnny Van Hohenstein (HAW) and Jeferson Silva (HAW), who were both sent to repechage, where they were eliminated in back-to-back heats.
Lefeuvre has only been competing for a few years in longboarding, and is appearing in his very first ISA event. The 36-year-old surf instructor from Biarritz couldn’t contain his excitement after the final scores were announced.
“It’s pretty amazing, maybe the best heat of my life,” Lefeuvre said. “I was not stressing. I was like, I have to surf on my best, and not make a mistake. Normally I watch, I know every surfer in front of me, so I know how they surf, and I try to do what they don’t do. I have no plan, just surf, enjoy. The waves are perfect again today. That was the perfect size, and yeah, the perfect weather.”
Lefeuvre will next face teammate Edouard Delpero (FRA), the multiple-time medalist, along with Taka Inoue (JPN), in Main Round 5. Inoue, the defending silver medalist, posted the highest single wave score of the day for the men for the second day in a row. The 24-year-old’s 17.34 heat total, which included the day-topping 9.17, stands second only to Delpero’s Round 1 total in Main Round scores.
Fellow medalists Ben Skinner (ENG) and Rogelio Esquievel Jr. (PHI) also progressed into Main Round 5, where they will meet Sallas, the defending gold medalist, in the second of the two heats in the round.
Inoue’s teammate Natsumi Taoka (JPN) claimed the highest heat total of the day for the women. Since collecting the best score of women’s Main Round 1, the two-time medalist has been building on her performances through the week, today posting her first excellent two-wave total, 16.10. Taoka progressed ahead of Mara Lopez (PHI), who was one of six women to advance into Main Round 5.
WSL Longboard Tour competitors Tully White (AUS) and Sophia Culhane (HAW) were also able to move through to Main Round 5. It was all style and grace for White, whose patient footwork and well-drawn rail carves earned her the heat win over Culhane, who claimed her biggest career victory at El Sunzal in 2023.
Four of the six women in Repechage Round 7 competed in four heats today; Daisy Valdez(PHI), Kaitlin Mikkelsen (USA), Liv Stokes (CAN), and Hiroka Yoshikawa (JPN). Half of the four, Mikkelsen and Yoshikawa, kept their hopes alive. Joining them in moving onto Finals Day was Clinton Guest (AUS), who surfed through another three men’s repechage heats today, the only surfer to survive the repechage draw all the way from Round 1.
Maria Fernanda Reyes (PER) claims victory in stacked, medal-filled battle
Women’s Main Round 4 opened with two-time ISA World Champion Alice Le Moigne(FRA), two-time WSL World Champion Rachael Tilly (USA), Santiago 2023 Pan American Games Gold Medalist Maria Fernanda Reyes (PER), and Brazil’s Kate Brandi (BRA) facing off. The tit-for-tat battle finished with Le Moigne, Tilly, and Fernanda Reyes all separated by just 0.56.
After a long lull to start, Fernanda Reyes claimed the early advantage, posting an opening 6.83, before Tilly and Le Moigne caught waves back-to-back. A shorter ride for Tilly garnered a 6.17, while Le Moigne capitalized on a long wall to earn an 8.33. Fernanda Reyes then upped the ante with an 8.73, before a final exchange saw Brandi, Le Moigne, and Tilly on subsequent set waves. An extended fade into a critical hang-ten from Tilly set up the best score of the event for the women, a 9.23, enough to move her into second behind Fernanda Reyes. Needing a 7.08, Le Moigne’s score landed as a 6.67, pushing her into repechage, along with Brandi.
“It was a heat that felt almost like a final,” Fernanda Reyes said. “Competing against Alice [Le Moigne], a two-time medalist, and also Rachael [Tilly], honestly it was incredible. I just went out there to have fun and catch some good waves at El Sunzal, and I think that’s what helped me advance. I’m grateful to God for allowing me to be here, in such a wonderful place, with people I care about deeply, doing something I love so much that I wouldn’t even call it work, because I truly enjoy competing.”
