In a 72-hour flurry, the WSL has released a number of exciting announcements for the rest of this season and next year’s CT.
Firstly, as expected, 11x world champion Kelly Slater has not quite put his feet up on the couch for good. Earlier this month the goat was a victim of the mid-year cut in WA, bringing to an end his full time tour status and one of the most illustrious competitive careers in sporting history.
However, the WSL has granted him wildcards for the next event at Teahupo’o and at Fiji later this year. Both waves are favourites of Kelly’s and although he may struggle to take down some of the younger guys on tour in small performance waves, he is surely going to be a top pick on everyone’s fantasy surfer in big barreling lefts where he stands a good chance of going deep into the event.
The WSL also confirmed that 5x world champion Carissa Moore will return to action as a wildcard into the Tahiti Pro. The event will serve as good practice for her as she attempts to defend her Olympic gold medal at Teahupo’o later in the year during the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Looking ahead to next year, the WSL has announced that Brazilians Filipe Toledo and Joao Chianca will be given the full season wildcards on the men’s side. Filipe withdrew at the start of the year to take time off and reset, while Joao suffered a severe injury at Pipeline before the start of the 2024 season.
The ever graceful Steph Gilmore will return for the women next year, as well as Lakey Peterson who was knocked back into the Challenger Series as a victim of the mid-year cut earlier this month.
As part of the league’s flurry of announcements, after a five-year hiatus Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast will return to the CT schedule. It remains to be seen when the event will take place and which side of the cut it will be on, but it will mean the return of the traditional three event Aussie leg.
The last time the CT held an event at Snapper, the event actually ran at D-Bah and Italo Ferreira and Caroline Marks took home the 2009 trophies.
