Next-Generation Women Are Taking Over The Championship Tour In 2024
Since 2007, Carissa Moore and Stephanie Gilmore have won every single women’s world title except three. Combining to win an astounding 13 titles over 17 years, Australia’s Tyler Wright got two off of them in 2016 an 2017, while Florida’s Caroline Marks beat Moore in the WSL Finals to win her maiden title last year.
In the last week, both Moore and Gilmore have announced they will not be competing on the 2024 Championship Tour. With the GOATs out of the way, this begs the question, who are the pre-season favorites to win the title?
Marks will be looking to defend her title, and after a fitful offseason spent surfing and cruising with family and friends, there’s no reason to think that she can’t carry that momentum into the new year. The schedule may be a bit of a challenge for the goofy-footer. She’ll compete twice at Teahupo’o this year, first at the Tahiti Pro in May, then later for the Olympics in July. Nobody’s going to complain about having to spend more time in the South Pacific, but the Olympics are a huge, pressure-filled interruption in her normal Championship Tour routine.
But more than anything, Marks is going to have to contender with a hyper-talented, ultra-motivated pack of young women that are about to take the sport by storm. Her two most formidable rivals will come in the form of Californian Caity Simmers and Aussie Molly Picklum, who finished fourth and fifth in the world last year, respectively. Only 18 years old, last year was Simmers' rookie season on tour and she’s only getting better. More experience, more strength and power, her sophomore campaign will likely see her back at the WSL Finals vying for a title. Preferring to let her surfing do the talking, besides Marks, she’s America’s best chance to take home the title.
Meanwhile, Picklum epitomizes the quintessential Aussie frother. Happy-go-lucky, good spirited and fun-loving, she has a couple more years experience than Simmers, but with all that talent and passion, she’s right there in the title conversation. Hard-charging, starting the season at Pipeline and Sunset will serve her well. She knows the waves well, is a strong surfer in the heavy conditions and has the support crew around her to make a go at the title.
There are a number of veterans in the top ten, including two-time world champ Wright, Johanne Defay and Tatiana Weston-Webb, and they’re all going to be in the mix throughout the year, but hot on their heals are rising stars like Hawaii’s Gabriel Bryan and Betty-Lou Sakura. Like Simmers, they’re still in the early stages of their careers, but as the confidence and experience grows so does their ability to win big-time events.
And further down the WSL leaderboard, American rookies Sawyer Lindblad and Alyssa Spencer are also part of this youth movement. Lindblad’s only 18, while Spencer’s 20 years old. It’s going to take them a contest or two to get the experience and work their way up the leaderboard so they have a better seed going into events, but they’re both extremely talented young women capable of big things.
If feels like we’re in the midst of a generational shift on the women’s Championship Tour, and it’s going to be fun to see what happens when things kick off at the Pipe Pro next week.
8x World Champ Stephanie Gilmore Taking One-Year Break From WSL Championship Tour
5x World Champion Carissa Moore Stepping Away From Competitive Surfing
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.