Professional surfing returns Jan. 27th with the 2025 Lexus Pipe Pro where 36 of the best men’s surfers and 18 of the best women’s surfers will compete in the first of 11 contests across the world.
Two San Diegans – Oceanside’s Caitlin Simmers and Encinitas’ Jake Marshall – are among this elite group of surfers that gets to compete on the World Surf League’s championship tour (CT). The CT is the most elite level of professional surfing in the world. It can be likened to major league baseball, while the feeder leagues, the challenger series (CS) and qualifying series, are the minor leagues.
After being crowned world champ last year, Simmers now seeks to defend her World Surf League championship title, while Marshall, who finished 11th on the CT in 2024, will try to break into the highly coveted top-five rankings.
In last year’s career-defining performance, Simmers won the 2024 Lexus Pipe Pro, on the heels of which she famously declared, “Pipeline is for the f*****g girls.” Because of the wave’s ferocity, Pipeline was once considered off-limits for women, making last year’s elevated performance of the girls at Pipeline, led by San Diego’s Simmers, nothing short of a paradigm shift. In action sports, women are pushing the limits of what is possible, or what was once thought possible. The performance gap is closing.
The 2025 championship tour roster also includes a seriously STOKED surfer, Alan Cleland, Jr., whose father was a well-known surfer in San Diego during the 1980s. But the WSL rookie wouldn’t want San Diego to claim him, because he’s a proud Mexican, thank you very much, evidenced by his decision to surf for Mexico in the 2024 Olympics. (Alan Cleland, Sr. eventually left San Diego for Boca de Pascuales, Mexico, where he married a local woman and raised their children, including Alan Jr.). Cleland was promoted from the CS to the CT when earlier this month 2024 world champ John Florence announced he was stepping away from the 2025 tour.
Another CT surfer about to begin his rookie season is Marco Mignot who was born to a French Moroccan family but identifies as Mexican. Turns out he was largely raised in Sayulita, Mexico, where he lived and surfed, often with his amigo, Alan Cleland.
Last year, the US Open of Surfing, the world’s largest surfing competition, held in Huntington Beach, was reduced to a final, buzzer-beater heat between Cleland and Mignot, with Cleland barely necking out a victory against his mate.
Cleland and Mignot are a WSL two-fer for Mexico. Take a back seat, soccer!
The 2025 CT season begins with 36 men and 18 women. Halfway through the season the rosters are cut down to 22 men and 10 women. Five men and five women compete on Finals Day to determine the men’s and women’s world champion.
Traditionally, Finals Day is held at Lower Trestles, a hop, skip and a jump from Oceanside. This season they will crown the world champion at Cloudbreak, in Fiji. This is the first time the WSL Finals has moved locations since its inception in 2021. The 2025 season is the 48th season of the professional surfing tour, though it’s only been administered by the World Surf League since 2015.
It’s been a consistent – and consistently large – winter on the North Shore of Oahu. Pipeline has been producing double- and even triple-overhead barrels that can swallow less capable and capable surfers alike. From a spectator’s perspective, it’s probably the most entertaining wave on the 2025 WSL tour, along with Tahiti’s fear-instilling Teahupo’o. Today there was some size (eight-to-12-foot) but it was pretty messy; wave forecasters see the size diminishing just as the contest window opens on Monday. On the other hand, it is Pipeline and should still have some punch.
One point of clarification: I said Jan. 27th is opening day and marks the beginning of the World Surf League championship tour. More accurately, Monday is the beginning of the waiting period. Contest organizers will wake at 5 a.m. to check the surf and make the thumbs-up or thumbs-down call. If Mother Nature isn’t cooperating, then the World Surf League website will say “Off for the Day.” They will repeat this process each successive day until the waiting period ends on Feb. 8, which is the deadline for completing the contest.
Starting Monday, the WSL website will provide ongoing contest updates and announcements. Their website will stream the contest in its entirety, also enabling you to watch heats that you missed — or you can watch on YouTube.
Editor’s Note: Surfing in San Diego is less of a closed society than it used to be. Not everyone thinks that’s a good thing. Read more HERE.
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