With the Olympic Games Paris taking place in 2024, on
September 20, the
World Surf League (WSL) announced that there will be a break in the 2024
Championship Tour (CT) in July and as a result, there will be no Corona Open J-Bay event.
In addition, the WSL also released the CT schedule for 2024. The calendar will continue
to showcase a combined women’s and men’s schedule featuring nine regular-season
events, a Mid-season Cut after CT Stop No. 5, and the fourth-annual WSL Finals.
The 2024 will also see Fiji return to the schedule for the first
time since 2017 as the final stop of the regular season. Next year, surfing
will also make its second appearance in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.
2024 WSL Championship Tour
Schedule
- Banzai
Pipeline, Hawaii, USA: January 29 – February 10 - Sunset
Beach, Hawaii, USA: February 12 – 23 - Peniche,
Portugal: March 6 – 16 - Bells
Beach, Victoria, Australia: March 26 – April 5 - Margaret
River, Western Australia, Australia: April 11 – 21 - Mid-season Cut: 36 man and 18-woman fields
reduced to 24-man and 12-woman fields. - Teahupo’o,
Tahiti, French Polynesia: May 22 – 31 - Punta
Roca, El Salvador: June 6 – 15 - Saquarema,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: June 22 – 30
2024 Paris Olympic Games: July 26 – August 11
(Surfing scheduled between July 27 – August 5)
- Cloudbreak,
Fiji: August 20 – 29
WSL Final 5 determined to battle for the men’s
and women’s World Titles.
- WSL
Finals (Lower Trestles, San Clemente, Calif., USA): September 6 – 14
The
2024 CT will include nine regular-season events in seven countries, starting in
January at Pipeline, Hawaii. The Mid-season Cut will come into action following
Stop No. 5 in Margaret River, Australia. Surfers who make the Cut will compete
in Tahiti, El Salvador, and Brazil before a break for the Olympic Games Paris
2024.
The final event of the regular season will see the world’s best
surfers return to the iconic Cloudbreak in Fiji and battle for a place in
the WSL Final 5.
Cloudbreak is a world-renowned reef pass located offshore the island
of Tavarua in Fiji. It is one of the most awe-inspiring left-hand barrels
and can hold waves anywhere from two-to-20 feet. Due to its fast and
powerful nature, it is known as a highly advanced and heavy wave.
For 2024, the WSL Finals will return to Lower Trestles in San
Clemente, California, where the men’s and women’s Top 5 surfers will face
off for the World Titles in the one-day, winner-take-all format.
The waiting period will run from September 6 to 14, 2024, which is
the ideal time of year for favourable Southern Hemisphere swells at one of
the most high-performance waves in the world.
Held earlier this month on September 9, the WSL Finals shattered the
record for the most-watched day of professional surfing in WSL history.
With 10.7 million video views on a single day, the WSL surpassed the
2022 viewership numbers by 29%. The competition was also distributed via
the WSL’s linear broadcast partners, whose audiences elevated the
viewership even further.
For example, viewership on Globo/SporTV, the WSL’s broadcast partner
in Brazil, totalled over one million viewers, an increase of 16% from 2022.
In the lead-up to the competition, the WSL delivered 25 million
video-on-demand views, marking a 58% increase from the previous year.
Carrying the success of the 2023 CT finale, the WSL will continue this
momentum into the 2024 season, where the world’s best surfers will compete
on the world’s best waves.
With the Olympic Games Paris
2024, a break has been added to the schedule in July to allow time for qualified
athletes to travel to Tahiti ahead of the Games, where the line-up will be
closed for Olympic athletes to practice. With this break, the Tour will not
host an event in J-Bay or Surf Ranch this season. The CT event in Tahiti has
been moved earlier to May to accommodate the Olympics and will be the last
opportunity to watch the world’s best surfers in competition at Teahupo’o ahead
of the Games.
Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL Chief of Sport said, “2024 is set to be a big year
for surfing, and our schedule is designed to support that.”
“I’m stoked that we’re bringing Fiji back. It’s
such an iconic wave, and it’s the perfect place to test our surfers as they
battle to secure their place in the WSL Final 5.”
“We’re also really happy to
confirm that the WSL Finals will return to Lower Trestles next season. We’ve
hosted three exciting WSL Finals at this high-performance wave, which has
proved to be an incredible showcase for the WSL Final 5 to crown our World
Champions. The Olympic Games represents one of the biggest stages in the world,
and we want our surfers to have the opportunity to perform at their best, which
is why we’ve instituted the scheduled break and updated CT dates in 2024.”
After a thrilling conclusion to the 2023 CT season that saw Caroline Marks (USA)
and Filipe Toledo
(BRA) claim the World Titles and 18 surfers qualified for the Olympic Games
Paris 2024, the focus shifts to those surfers fighting for a place on the CT
next season via the WSL Challenger Series.
The next event is the EDP Vissla Pro Ericeira Presented by Estrella Galicia, which holds a competition window from
October 1 to 8, 2023. The final event of the Challenger Series will be the Corona Saquarema Pro Presented by Banco do Brasil, which holds a competition window from
October 14 to 21, 2023.
For more information, visit WorldSurfLeague.com.
