The Californian coast set the stage for an extremely consequential event in the WSL CT season, with the Trestles stop reshaping the rankings as the postseason approaches.
Conditions were tough all week, but the mix of veteran excellence and youthful brilliance set the tone in both the men’s and women’s brackets. Miguel Pupo won his second event of the season after opening the year with a memorable performance at Bells. After a terrible start to the year, Erin Brooks has risen from the ashes and now sits fifth heading into the postseason. By my reckoning, the Canadian is the first surfer to lift three trophies in a row in the same season since Kelly Slater in 1996 and Steph Gilmore in 2008. Yago Dora and Gabriela Bryan are back on top heading to Portugal. Under the WSL’s new post-season format, only 24 men and 16 women will compete in the next two events, in Portugal and the Philippines. Then everyone is invited back for the final event at Pipeline to try to dodge the season-ending cut. It’s confusing, we know, but the mathematical scenarios will be interesting, with 1.5 times the regular points on offer at Pipe.
The defending world champion could be in a much more comfortable position after his rivals had an event to forget: both Leo Fioravanti and Gabriel Medina lost in their opening heats, while former leader Italo Ferreira could manage no better than a ninth-place finish. Meanwhile, Yago opened up a gap of more than 2,000 points over the Leo Fioravanti and missed out on roughly 4,000 additional points by failing to go all the way at Trestles. The Brazilian sensation was stopped by local boy Kanoa Igarashi, a Huntington Beach native, in the semifinals, missing his final chance to match a seven-point ride when the ocean went flat.
Pupo, on the other hand, entered the season thinking about retirement but might have to delay those plans a little, as he is having his best calendar year on Tour, with only one first-round exit. Miguel had to deal with a mix of emotions as he climbed to the top of the podium. On Finals Day, he beat fellow Brazilian Mateus Herdy in the quarterfinals, making the rookie’s life extremely difficult — Herdy is now out of the postseason and will have to go big at Pipe to climb back into the Top 22 and survive the end-of-year cut. Surfers cut from the CT season will now focus on international QS and CS events.
Hawaii has a new leader to cheer for, as Gabriela Bryan added 7,800 points to surpass Carissa Moore. 2025 World Champion Molly Picklum is close behind the duo, while Sawyer Lindblad, sitting third, and Picklum both lost in the semifinals in Californian waters. San Clemente gem Eden Walla finished fifth in her first CT appearance, while other Californian surfers, headlined by Caitlin Simmers and Lakey Peterson, gave the home fans little to cheer, bowing out in the opening round.
At this stage of the season, after nine stops, it seems the season champions will be decided by whoever wakes up feeling better on Finals Day at Pipe Masters, as no surfer has been able to create much separation at the top. The reduced field could have a big impact here: losing in the opening round will matter less, with the top surfers automatically earning 3,320 points. It will, however, be tougher to overtake rivals, since a single win already guarantees most of them quarterfinal points.
The midseason cut crushed some dreams while giving others a lifeline. Filipe Toledo, for example, was surfing practically at home but couldn’t build any momentum, extending what has been a nightmare season with yet another 17th-place finish — his sixth of the year. He ended the regular season 21st in the rankings. Anat Lelior, meanwhile, had a rookie season to remember thanks to a runner-up finish at Teahupo’o, but struggled to build on that breakthrough. Consistency eluded her for the rest of the season, and back-to-back opening-round exits at the following two events left her just under 2,000 points short of 14th place.
Surfers will now have a month to rest before the postseason kicks off at Peniche, Portugal, ahead of the Philippines leg in November.
