The first real swell of 2025 arrived at Snapper Rocks this weekend, along with 48 boardriders clubs from across Australia and far-flung corners of the globe. The World Club Challenge is the elite event for club surfing—the first event in existence to crown a Boardriders World Champion. Former World Champions, CT heroes, and young up-and-comers took laps around the point while the upper crust of surfing rubbed shoulders in the VIP scaffolding above and gave congratulatory pats onto Fisher’s new set of hair.
The brainchild of The Usher Group’s Theodore Vairaktaris is a spectacle of boardriders culture: something that is deeply rooted in the Australian surf landscape but has only taken off in America over the last ten years. “Rabbit Bartholomew and I got together five years ago during Covid when all the sporting events were shut down. We needed to pump some life back into things because people were getting a bit lost,” Theo says. “Things took off quickly, and by our third year, we were bringing international teams in.”
A sweet, nasally California twang rang out for three days along the contest site, emanating from the tents of four teams from Santa Cruz down to San Diego. Tweed Heads is to Huntington Beach as Bondi is to Santa Monica; literal worlds away but with familial energy like your right-side-up brothers and sisters.
“Rabbit went over to America years and years ago and tried to start this, but they weren’t interested,” says Jay Phillips, president of host club Snapper Boardriders. “I think it was because Americans are more individualistic. We’ve got sixty years of history with it here, but it never seemed to stick over there until Covid hit, and people had more of a motivation to formally organise together.”
For communal gatherings, the default American family is raised in a tradition of ironing the khakis for Sunday morning church, whereas the religion of Australia is sport. Before there were boardriders in the U.S., there were the Christian Surf Clubs, whose focus has always been more about providing a vessel of support for wayward youths rather than pumping out bowl-cutted Jack Robinsons.
Chris Moren, founder of U.S. Boardriders, stood at the keyhole to wave the U.S.B.R. flag on Saturday while his team, Huntington Beach, went up against Kauai, Freshwater, and Kawana. Chris got things off the ground in California in 2016: “The first West Coast Boardriders competition was between Huntington and Seal Beach. Seal Beach was like our little brother, but they were beating us that day. Brad Gerlach flew in for us, arriving late, but suited up just as the final heat was starting. He got a ten and won us the event,” he laughs as Brett Simpson takes off on one.
“After that event, things just took off from there. The camaraderie and community aspects are the biggest things we’re trying to emulate from the way Australia has been doing it. We’d see our guys and girls out in the water but otherwise would only get together for birthdays, weddings, and funerals. Now, we’re seeing our community regularly because we’re doing inter-club contests, meetings, our West Coast Boardriders events, and charity work.”
Christina LoFranco, director of Santa Cruz Boardriders who now lives in Rainbow Bay, has been able to glean insight into the way Snapper runs their program: “Seeing how they operate with their junior development program is a really good example of what surfing can be like for the future of Santa Cruz. We have a pretty well-documented history of rough beginnings in past decades, but we’re really healthy right now with a good training program. This year, we have a young team: one 16-year-old, two 18-year-olds, and a 20-year-old. So having this as their foundation for what to look forward to and what to bring back to Santa Cruz is definitely one of the bonuses to getting the invite here.”
Though we didn’t see any mainland Americans in any of the final heats, Space Coast Boardriders from Florida took the win for best team uniforms, unofficially. Their baseball-inspired kits hit it out of the park and set a new benchmark for team uniforms at surf contests. The Space Coasters might have fared better in the event if Kelly Slater had shown up to compete. The GOAT’S name was on their team sheet, but he was apparently called away on business… Maybe next year.
The sun set on Sunday evening as North Narrabeen had a nail-biter win over Snapper, the defending champions, with young Ruby Trew scoring them their highest-point wave of an 8.50. Fisher sat in the booth, throwing his head back in laughter as the party spilled out across the sand below and toasts were raised to the silhouettes sneaking in and out of Snapper barrels. Joel Parkinson made a last ditch effort to claw back the lead for Snapper in the dying minutes of the final, finding a tube behind the rock, like he has done thousands of times, and finishing it off with a re-entry and a backside reverse. The beach erupted and the commentary team went berserk. Despite the look of elation on Parko’s face as he greeted his teammates on the sand, the score fell a point short and North Narrabeen retained their title.
By the end of the weekend, it seemed like The World Club Challenge might just be surfing’s most enjoyable fixture; somehow finding the perfect balance between good-natured rivalry, friendly vibes and entertaining coverage. The event looks set to grow, attracting more international teams and broadening its scope. The contest will be back at Snapper next year, but the plan is to host the 2027 event at Trestles – beyond that The World Club Challenge can go anywhere in the world.
