It seemed a little like someone left the gate open at the retired surfers’ rest home and they all came storming out, demanding another go at the glory.
Or it may have been a cleverly orchestrated WSL ploy to distract us from the fact that we won’t be seeing any more world championship tour action for another four months. Either way, when April Fool’s Day rocks around we’ll be seeing the return from temporary retirement of four of the all-time greats of pro surfing, with a swag of 19 world titles between the four of them, and one by one they came out of hiding last week to announce (in separate statements on separate days) that they had accepted WSL season wildcards for 2026.
The reasons for Steph Gilmore (8 titles), Carissa Moore (5), John Florence (3) and Gabriel Medina (3) calling time out are all different, but what they have in common is the fact that they may have left a couple of their best years on the table. At least that’s what quite a few of the fringe-dwellers who sit just inside the cut-line for 2026 may well be thinking.
In the men’s, where the top 22 from 2025 go through, that mean Indo’s Rio Waida at 20, Hawaii’s Seth Moniz at 21 and Brazil’s Alejo Muniz at 22. Sitting just outside qualification at 23, Australia’s Liam O’Brien has a pretty good chance of requalifying through the Challenger Series, where he’s sitting at 8 with two events to go and 10 qualify. Fellow Aussies George Pittar (5) and Oscar Berry (3) are even better placed.
In the women’s division, where top 14 from 2025 have qualified, our Sally Fitzgibbon was first loser at 15, but should requalify through the Challenger where she sits at 3, needing a 7 or better. The women who might be feeling a little put out by the wildcard grants are France’s Johanne Defay and Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb, both great surfers who sat out the season to become first-time mums, and were possibly hoping for a season wildcard. Now, they’ll be fighting for the single event wildcard left for grabs.
But to get back to the comeback kids, WSL made the first announcement on Friday 14 November and the last on Friday 21, dribbling them out every couple of days to prolong the excitement, one supposes. Carissa Moore was first, so let’s start with her.
Riss, now 33, stepped away from the world championship tour at the end of the 2023 season to become a mother. She didn’t call it a retirement (they never do) but after 13 seasons on tour, finishing lower than third only once, winning five world titles and 28 of the 122 CT events she contested, you could say she didn’t have a lot left to prove.
Having arrived on the CT in 2010, with a wildcard win already to her credit, Riss finished her rookie year at number 3 to claim rookie of the year at just 17. In 2011 she became the youngest world champion, and won four more over the next dozen years. Throughout her career she’s been brilliantly consistent and consistently brilliant. But has she still got it?
A bigger question hangs over the second women’s season wildcard, the GOAT of women’s surfing, eight-times world champ Steph Gilmore, who will be 38 when the new season starts at Bells. Steph also called time out for the 2024 season, saying she just wanted to surf for fun for a year (and presumably make promos for her sponsors). When one year became two, there was a lot of conjecture that Steph wouldn’t be returning to the lycra vest at all, that she was happier being a free spirit, playing music by the campfire and sharing chilly waves with blokes with bushranger beards.
So why is she back? Sponsor pressure perhaps, but in her announcement Steph also said that she couldn’t wait to test her old bones against the new gen teens like Caity Simmers and Tya Zebrowski.
Speaking of sponsor pressure, next cab off the rank was John John Florence, 33, accepting the wildcard with both hands after a gruelling 2025 spent hunting mysto surf breaks on his yacht with brother Nathan while supposedly filming a breakthrough surf adventure series for Florence Marine. Since the brothers own the company, the pressure can’t have been too intense, but one thing is certain: if anyone can pick up exactly where he left off, it’s JJF.
And finally, the last comeback kid is Brazil’s first ever world champ, Gabby Medina, a mere 32, who now has three WSL trophies in the den but has had a rough few years with injuries and relationship issues. Just when he appeared to be regaining form, the air king boosted big and landed awkwardly at home in Brazil pre-season last January, tearing his pectoral muscle and bowing out for the season.
While the Brazilian Storm has another reigning world champ in Yago Dora, there have been signs that the storm is calming down. Maybe the return of Gabby will turn that around.
