World Surf League unveiled the 2024 Championship Tour calendar. Next year’s schedule will feature a range of classic venues along with the return of Fiji and several pivotal dates that set up exciting showdowns at the Paris 2024 Olympics and WSL Finals.
The 2024 CT will kick off in Hawaii with the prestigious Pipeline Masters running from January 29 to February 10. The Hawaiian leg continues with the Sunset Open from February 12-23. In March, the tour heads to Europe for the Portugal Pro before returning to Australia for the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach in early April and the Margaret River Pro later in the month, which sadly puts to bed the rumour that the Gold Coast may return to the CT in 2024.
The CT heads into the Olympic window in July/August following the mid-season cut. Leading up to Paris 2024, the world’s best surfers will battle at Teahupo’o, El Salvador, and Brazil. The most intriguing pre-Olympic stop will likely be Teahupo’o where surfers can gain confidence at the same venue that will host the Olympics.
With many countries only allowing 2 surfers to qualify, the CT events leading up to Paris will be intense as surfers try to finish in the WSL top 10 and secure an Olympic spot for their home country.
Following the Olympic surfing finals on August 5th, the tour resumes with the return of Fiji. The tropical paradise of Cloudbreak will host the final regular season stop in late August before the WSL Finals in September.
The 2024 schedule provides competitive parity across tours and tests surfers at an equal number of excellent right and left point breaks. The Pipeline, Teahupo’o and Fiji showdowns will be must-see events as surfers push their limits in pumping surf. Expect an exciting year on tour as the qualifiers, mid-season cut, Olympics and Finals keep every heat meaningful in the quest for world titles.
This year’s calendar also signals that the WSL Final Five and Mid-Season cut is here to stay, even after a wave of backlash at the closing of this year’s season, with many fans calling for a return to the previous criteria or a move of the finals from Lower Trestles.
Also notably absent from the tour is South Africas J-Bay and France; this is more likely to avoid a clash with the Olympics in this calendar year, it will remain to be seen if the new leadership of the WSL will start to move growing commentary back into positive territory in 2024.
Not long now until the season kicks off in Hawaii…..
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
The Final 5 battle for the men’s and women’s World Titles.
- WSL Finals (Lower Trestles, San Clemente, Calif., USA): September 6 – 14
