Six-Stop Tour with Events in Australia, South Africa, USA, Portugal and Brazil

The 2023 Challenger Series gets underway following the conclusion of Stop No. 5 on the CT (the Western Australia Margaret River Pro), with two events in Australia: the Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro and the GWM Sydney Surf Pro. Surfers will then reconvene in July in Ballito, South Africa, followed by the US Open of Surfing Presented by Pacifico, which returns to its regularly scheduled spot in late July. The Series rounds out in October with events in Portugal and Brazil, after which the top 10 ranked men and top five ranked women will qualify to join the world’s best surfers on the 2024 Championship Tour. Competitors will count their four best results out of the six events.

• Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro Presented by GWM (Queensland, Australia): May 6 – 13, 2023
• GWM Sydney Surf Pro Presented by Bonsoy (New South Wales, Australia): May 17 – 24, 2023
• Ballito Pro Presented by O’Neill (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa): July 2 – 9, 2023
• US Open of Surfing Presented by Pacifico (Huntington Beach, USA): July 29 – August 6
• EDP Vissla Pro Ericeira Presented by Estrella Galicia (Ericeira, Portugal): October 1 – 8, 2023
• Corona Saquarema Pro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): October 14 – 21, 2023

For 2023, the Challenger Series fields will be reduced from 96 to 80 men and 64 to 48 women, enabling competitions to take advantage of more optimum swell cycles at each location. Most of the reduction comes from the prior allocation for CT surfers who made the Mid-season Cut. Starting this season, those CT surfers will not be required to compete at two Challenger Series events, though, they can apply for an event wildcard if they wish to compete. The 12 men and seven women on the CT who fell below the cut line and missed CT requalification at the start of the season will automatically qualify for all Challenger Series events.

“After an exciting start to the 2023 Championship Tour season, it feels great to announce the schedule for the Challenger Series,” said Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL Chief of Sport. “These six events play a big role in determining the lineup for the 2024 Championship Tour, by offering a pathway for new talent to join the CT and a second chance for CT surfers who missed the Mid-season Cut to rejoin the Tour. With the new field sizes, everyone competing will be focused on CT qualification and we’re also going to be able to make the most of the best conditions at each location, so I’m excited to see how these events play out.”

• 12 men and seven women from the CT who did not make the Mid-season Cut,
• 10 men and five women from the previous year’s Challenger Series rankings,
• Three men and two women who were CT surfers in the prior season that did not requalify for either the CT or the Challenger Series,
• 49 men and 30 women as allocated by the seven WSL regions (Australia/Oceania, Asia, Africa, Europe, Hawaii/Tahiti Nui, North America, and Latin America), and
• The men’s 2022 World Junior Champion,
• The women’s 2022 World Junior Champion, and
• Five men’s and three women’s wildcards per event.

About the WSL
The World Surf League (WSL) is the global home of competitive surfing, crowning the undisputed World Champions since 1976 and showcasing the world’s best surfers on the world’s best waves. WSL is comprised of the Tours and Competition division, which oversees and operates more than 180 global competitions each year; WSL WaveCo, home of the world’s largest high-performance, human-made wave; and WSL Studios, an independent producer of unscripted and scripted projects.