World Surf League

The World Surf League is the governing body for professional surfers and is dedicated to showcasing the world's best talent in a variety of progressive formats. The WSL was originally known as International Professional Surfing, founded by Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick in 1976. IPS created the first world circuit of pro surfing events. In 1983, the Association of Surfing Pros took over management of the world circuit. In 2013, the ASP was acquired by ZoSea, backed by Paul Speaker, Terry Hardy, and Dirk Ziff. At the start of the 2015 season, the ASP changed its name to the World Surf League.
As of December 2017, the WSL had more than 6.5 million Facebook fans, surpassing more established sports such as the National Hockey League, the Association of Tennis Professionals and Major League Soccer. Sports Business Journal reported that 28 million hours of WSL digital video content were consumed during the 2017 season, making WSL the third most watched sport online in the United States behind NFL and NBA. In January 2018, Forbes reported that the WSL had signed an exclusive deal for digital broadcast rights, with Facebook, worth $30 million over two years.
Sophie Goldschmidt was appointed as WSL CEO on 19 July 2017. Paul Speaker had stepped down as CEO on 11 January 2017, and Dirk Ziff acted as the interim WSL CEO until Goldschmidt's appointment. Erik Logan, former Oprah Winfrey Network president and executive vice president at Harpo Studios, was appointed as WSL CEO on 14 January 2020. Logan exited his position as CEO on 29 June 2023. On 11 April 2024, Ryan Crosby was announced as CEO, effective 13 May 2024.

History

Predecessors

1964 to 1972, International Surfing Federation held the World Surfing Championships as a single event every two years and was open to all comers.
1973 to 1975, Smirnoff World Pro-Am Surfing Championships, occasionally referred to as the de facto professional world championship. The International Surfing Federation had been unable to establish a format or sponsorship so no official amateur championships were held between 1973 and 1975.
1976 to 1982, International Professional Surfers founded by Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick was the original world governing body of professional surfing.

The predecessors of the relates to what organization predominantly represented individual professional surfers at that time. This is an important point because the International Surfing Federation still functions to this day as the International Surfing Association and also refers to competition winners as world champions.
The Association of Surfing Professionals took over administration of professional surfing in 1983 and crowned world champions until 2015 when the organisation was rebranded as World Surf League. The ASP/WSL has remained the predominant surfing organization and sanctioning body for professional surfers since its formation. The ASP's first world champions were Tom Carroll and Kim Mearig in 1983/84. Split seasons were held from 1983/84 until 1988 when competition reverted to calendar basis. This means that Damian Hardman and Wendy Botha were crowned ASP world Champions for 1987/88, while Barton Lynch and Freida Zamba were crowned ASP world champions for the 1988 season. The first WSL world champions were Adriano de Souza and Carissa Moore in 2015.
In March 2015, WSL launched a free downloadable app, which garnered more than a million downloads in its first year. The app provides real-time updates on competitions and provides personalized alerts, letting fans know when their favorite athletes are about to enter the water.
In April 2016, the World Surf League introduced WSL PURE, its philanthropic initiative dedicated to supporting ocean health through research, education and advocacy. WSL PURE has contributed an initial $1.5 million in funding that will support scientists from the Columbia University Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, as they lead research into ocean health & ecosystems, ocean acidification, sea-level rise, and the role the oceans play in climate change.

Equal pay for athletes in 2019

On 5 September 2018, the World Surf League announced equal pay for every female and male WSL event. CEO Sophie Goldschmidt said, "This is a huge step forward in our long-planned strategy to elevate women's surfing and we are thrilled to make this commitment as we reveal our new 2019 schedule...". The announcement prompted a conversation about equal pay for professional athletes and the world commended the WSL for leading the way. 8 x world surfing champion Stephanie Gilmore said "I hope this serves as a model for other sports, global organizations and society as a whole. My fellow women athletes and I are honored by the confidence in us, and inspired to reward this decision with ever higher levels of surfing.".

COVID-19 impact

On 14 March 2020 the WSL cancelled all events "for the remainder of March", including the opening event of the 2020 Championship Tour on the Gold Coast in Australia, and the Papara Pro Open. On 16 March the cancellations were extended to the end of May.
More events were cancelled in January 2021: Sunset, the Big Wave Jaws Championship Pe'ahi, and the Santa Cruz Pro.

WSL sanctioned tours

WSL Men's Championship Tour
WSL Women's Championship Tour
WSL Men's Challenger Series
WSL Women's Challenger Series
WSL Men's Qualifying Series
WSL Women's Qualifying Series
WSL Men's Longboard Championships
WSL Women's Longboard Championships
WSL Junior Championships.
WSL Big Wave Tour
WSL Championship tour

Event winners win a total of $100.000. Total prize pool per event in men's competition is $607,800 and for women's $420,800, as there are fewer competition spots available to the women. Event results are converted to points and count towards the World Title Race, the surfers with the most points by the end of the season are considered as world surfing champions.
The Men's Championship Tour is the men's elite competition consisting of the best 34 professional surfers competing in 11 events.

WSL Qualifying Series events

Surfers who are not currently eligible for the Championship Tour events are able to compete in a Qualifying Series of events, earning points towards qualifying for the following year's CT. The top Qualifiers at the end of each season's QS receive invitations, with the exact number on invitations having changed slightly from season to season. Furthermore, if a particular CT event, in the current season, is short of CT competitors, the judges may choose to select from the then-current top ranked QS surfers to fill in for that eventthough this does not guarantee that the QS surfer will be invited to other events during the current season.
A WSL QS 10,000 event is held at premium venues with a restricted field and offers WSL QS 10,000 World Rankings points.
A WSL QS 1000, 1500, 3000 event is a lower level of competition, compared to an WSL QS 6000 and 10,000 event, with their importance indicated by how many points they are assigned: more points means generally better competition and prize money.

WSL world ranking

WSL Men's Championship Tour and WSL Women's Championship Tour surfers accumulate points from each WSL Championship Tour and WSL Qualifying Series event they compete in which count towards their WSL World Ranking. Accumulated points are valid for 12 months from the final date of the scheduled event in which they were earned.

Promotion and relegation

WSL World Ranking determines the promotion or relegation of surfers.

2012 tours

The qualifiers for the 2012 ASP World Tour top 34 surfers was determined using a Rotation Points system.
The qualifiers for the 2012 ASP Women's World Tour was determined by a surfer's rank at the conclusion of the 2011 Tour. The top 10 re-qualified for 2012 and the remaining 7 places were taken from the ASP Star Ranking.

2013-2018 tours

The qualifiers for the following year's WSL Men's Championship Tour top 34 surfers will consist of:

Top 22 surfers from the previous season of the WSL World Title Rankings;
Top 10 surfers from the previous season of the WSL World Qualifying Series Rankings and
2 WSL wildcards.
Rules

Judging

In contests surfers are scored on a scale of 0.1 to 10.0. These scores are awarded in increments of one-tenth.
The following scale can be used to relate descriptions to the scores:

0–1.9 = Poor
2.0–3.9 = Fair
4.0–5.9 = Average
6.0–7.9 = Good
8.0–10.0 = Excellent

Judges base the score on how successfully surfers display the following elements in each wave:

Commitment and degree of difficulty
Innovative and progressive maneuvers
Wave selection
Variety of maneuvers
Speed, power and flow

These elements may be weighted differently from day to day and event to event, depending on the surfing conditions and the type of breaking wave at each event location. These criteria are different from in longboarding competitions. All is focused on creating some type consistency that can be seen throughout the many different events.
The events themselves are previously declared QS 1,000 - QS 10,000 events; among other things this ranking shows how many judges are required at the event. QS 1,000 - QS 3,000 Qualifying Series events are required to have a six judge panel with four judges on each heat. A QS 4,000 - QS 6,000 Qualifying Series event requires seven judges with five on each heat. At QS 5,000 - QS 10,000 Qualifying Series events there are only allowed to be 3 judges from any one region. This is then limited to two at any world championship events. All events also require an WSL approved head judge who has the ability to make corrections to errors or any other events that may have affected the results.