Surfing
Surfing
These are the 5 best World Surf League moments of all time
The WSL and its various earlier incarnations have been deciding surfing's world champs since the 1970s. Find out about the five great modern moments in competitive surfing folklore you need to know.
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From Peter Townend to Filipe Toledo and Margo Oberg to Caroline Marks, there have been 22 male and 16 female surfing world champions since the International Professional Surfers (IPS) was formed in 1976 to turn surfing from a lifestyle into a fully fledge competitive sport. The IPS soon became the ASP and then, eventually, the World Surf League.
Over that almost-50 year run there has been no shortage of incredible events, incidents and competitive high and low points. It's hard to narrow them down, but read on to learn about five of the craziest moments to go down since the year 2000.
01
Kelly Slater and Andy Irons live out surfing's greatest rivalry
Kelly Slater and Andy Irons
© Pat Stacy
In 1992, Floridian superstar Kelly Slater won his first world title in his rookie season, becoming surfing's youngest-ever world champ in the process. In 2011 he would become surfing's oldest-ever champ when he claimed an incredible 11th title on the sands of Ocean Beach, San Francisco.
Although Slater still regularly claims event wildcard spots to surf on the Championship Tour, he surfed his last event as an official member of the CT at this year's Margaret River Pro, ending a staggering 32-year run at the highest level.
Although Slater has had many sparring partners over his storied career, no rivalry will come close to matching the one he had with brash young Hawaiian Andy Irons, who refused to take a backward step in the face of Slater's reputation.
Andy Irons beat Kelly Slater with a last gasp 10 at the 2006 Pipe Masters
© Maíra Pabst
Slater was at the peak of his powers when Irons claimed a hat-trick of titles from 2002-2004, with 2003 the tightest of the pair's battles. Slater and Irons both made the final of the year's last event, the Pipeline Masters, with the victor claiming the world title. Irons did just that and his legend grew ever greater.
48 min
A Fly in the Champagne
After a decade of bitter rivalry, Kelly Slater and Andy Irons come together to surf off their differences.
Although Irons's results waned after his third title, in 2006 he and Slater once again met in the final at Pipeline. Slater had already secured the year's number one spot, but at surfing's proving grounds, with the sport's most prestigious trophy on the line, all bets were off. Irons beat Slater with a perfect 10 in the dying minutes to claim victory in one of surfing's greatest finals.
Andy Irons owning Cloudbreak
© Brian Bielmann
Tragically, at just 32 years of age Andy Irons passed away in 2010, months after winning his last ever Championship Tour event in Tahiti. While Irons's flame may have burned twice as bright, his memory will live on forever in the hearts of surfing fans around the world.
02
Mick Fanning has an encounter of the great white kind
Mick Fanning full speed at J-Bay
© Ryan Miller
The stage was set as the horn sounded to start the final of the 2015 J-Bay Open. Australian Mick Fanning had just beaten Kelly Slater in a high-scoring semi and was now squaring off against fellow Aussie star and close friend Julian Wilson, chasing his third world title as surfing's global audience tuned into the live broadcast.
Then, the unthinkable happened. With both surfers waiting to catch their first waves, a great white shark swam through Fanning's leash, pulling him off his surfboard. For a terrifying few moments Fanning vanished out of sight as a wave moved shorewards. Spectators feared the worst.
In an act of bravery that would later be lauded and then honoured back home in Australia, Wilson brushed all thoughts of self-preservation aside and paddled towards his mate. The water patrol pounced as the waves subsided and Fanning reappeared on-screen, unharmed but shaken.
2 min
Mick Fanning and Julian Wilson talk shark attack
Mick Fanning and Julian Wilson talk shark attack
The event was called off immediately and, as Fanning and Wilson went viral, they flew home to Australia to be greeted by a fascinated nation.
"Did that really happen to me?" Fanning told Red Bull exclusively, while still in South Africa. Although at first querying whether he would compete again, Fanning finished the year runner-up to Adriano de Souza, who won his first world title at the season-ending Pipeline Masters.
Fanning returned to J-Bay the next year and won the event. It would be his final Championship Tour victory before retiring in 2018, with 22 wins and three world titles just a small part of his legacy as a surfing icon.
03
Carissa Moore's incredible run
Carissa Moore rides the tube at Teahupo'o in Tahiti
© Ben Thouard / Red Bull Content Pool
Hawaiian surfer Carissa Moore qualified for the WSL Championship Tour in 2010 and claimed Rookie of the Year honours by season's end. In 2011, she upped the stakes significantly and won her first world title. Aged just 18, Moore become surfing's youngest-ever world champ in the process.
41 min
RISS
From director Peter Hamblin, follow surfer Carissa Moore around the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour.
From 2011 to 2021 Moore amassed five world titles, with Stephanie Gilmore and Tyler Wright sharing the remainder. While Gilmore has long been known for her polished style and Wright her aggression and pure power, Moore has found the perfect balance of both elements. Tie-in their shared fantastic tube riding and ruthless competitive streaks, and it's no surprise that the trio pushed women's surfing into the future.
In 2021, as surfing made it's debut at the Tokyo Games, Moore claimed the first-ever gold. A few months later she would win her final world title, but rewrite history in the process. In case her list of achievements wasn't already long enough, adding surfing's first-ever golden world title is something that can never be taken away from her, not that it's likely anyone could repeat it anytime soon anyway.
Carissa Moore
© Jimmy Wilson
With five world titles, a gold and 29 Championship Tour wins to her name, Moore announced earlier this year that 2024 will be her last as a competitor at the highest level. She bows out as one of surfing's true immortals.
04
Adriano de Souza and the 'Brazilian Storm'
1 min
Adriano de Souza: Ride To The Roots
The story of Brazil's hardest-working world champ.
For a longtime Adriano de Souza flew the Brazilian flag on the Championship Tour alone. The guy who famously grew up surfing a $7 surfboard his brother bought him was wedged between generations on tour and, as the Padaratz brothers and Fabio Gouveia stepped aside, and Raoni Monteiro and Jadson Andre struggled to establish themselves, 2003 junior world champ de Souza was chasing the title by himself.
The smiling faces of the deadly Brazilian Storm
© Renato Tinoco
That all changed in 2012, when Gabriel Medina qualified for the CT. Filipe Toledo joined the party soon after that and the 'Brazilian Storm' morphed from a catchy nickname into a full blown surfing wrecking ball. In 2014, Medina became the first Brazilian to breakthrough and win a world title, but it was de Souza's earlier work on the frontlines that showed his countrymen the way.
A year later de Souza got his just deserts, bearting Mick Fanning for the title when he claimed the last event of the year, the Pipe Masters. After staying with Jamie O'Brien for the North Shore winter and picking O'Brien's brain relentlessly, this was one of the most overdue and deserved titles in surfing history.
"It's definitely not easy to win on this tour," said de Souza. "When you have people in the way like three-time world champ Mick Fanning and reigning world champ Gabriel Medina, or someone like Filipe Toledo who has won three events this year, I say to myself, 'I have to run faster than those guys, I have to wake up earlier than those guys, I have to do everything better than those guys.' A championship is made up of tiny details."
It's definitely not easy to win on this tour. A championship is made up of tiny details
50 min
Ítalo Ferreira's Tales
Follow Brazilian surfer Ítalo Ferreira from Tokyo to the 2021 WSL Championship Tour.
Since Gabriel Medina broke through for Brazil in 2014, the South American nation has claimed all but two world titles, when John John Florence went back-to-back in 2016 and 2017. Medina has three all up, Filipe Toledo the last two and de Souza one. So does Italo Ferreira, who beat Medina in the final of the Pipeline Masters in 2019, in the closest world title race since Slater and Irons in 2003. Stay tuned for this year's WSL Finals to see if the Brazilian men can keep their juggernaut rolling.
05
Caity Simmers and Molly Picklum prove Pipeline is for the girls
The surfing world has known for a long time that Caity Simmers, Molly Picklum and Caroline Marks are the future of the sport. When, in 2023, Marks broke the Moore/ Gilmore/ Wright stranglehold on the women's world title to hoist surfing's most sought after silverware, it felt like things were on track. Even though that might have been the case, in one day in Hawaii this year the level of the ladies at the business end of the sport went to the stratosphere, when Simmers and Picklum ran riot through the field at pumping Pipeline.
Caity Simmers has a timeless style that's way beyond her years
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
Caity Simmers standing strong in the eye of the Backdoor storm
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
Caity Simmers knifes a Backdoor bomb on her way to winning the Pipe Pro
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
The ferocious Caity Simmers post-pit carve
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
Although Simmers took the win, Picklum did her best to steal the show, scoring the first-ever Perfect 10 by a female at Pipeline and doing it on her backhand, no less. A week later, Picklum would keep her momentum rolling with an impressive victory at huge Sunset to stamp her and Simmers as the two most dangerous women in waves of consequence.
Caity Simmers gets to know surfing's most sought-after trophy
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
To the winner go the spoils
© Tony Heff/World Surf League
Caity Simmers and Molly Picklum are doing it for the girls
© Tony Heff/World Surf League
At Pipeline however, it was Simmers, the slight teen from California, who strapped on her helmet and got the job done in the best waves seen on tour in a long, long time.
13 min
Subjects: Caity Simmers
The pride of Oceanside, California, shows us the streets that raised one of the top surfers in the world.
Softly spoken, but not lacking in confidence, Simmers grabbed the microphone moments after her victory and laconically announced, live on the broadcast, "Pipeline is for the f**king girls", as if planting a female flag in the sand at the world's most famous wave.
"I'm a big advocate for Girl Power," Simmers explained to Red Bull afterwards. "I just thought that Pipe is for the girls, too, because in the freesurfs it never really seems like it is. So, for me, it was more of 'See! If you give us waves we can do it!'"
We believe you Caity, we truly do.
The WSL has brought the world endless memorable moments over the years. If you're yet to tune-in, then what are you waiting for? You can catch all of the action here.
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