Tune in this week to cheer for “Oceanside’s Pride and Joy,” Caitlin Simmers

Pro surfing is back. This year’s elite-level Championship Tour (CT) features the 60 best surfers in the world, a mix of men and women competing on an international stage, including Caitlin Simmers (Oceanside), Alyssa Spencer (Encinitas), and Jake Marshall (Encinitas).

These hometown heroes are among 36 men and 24 women who earned spots on the 2026-27 World Surf League’s CT tour, which kicked off earlier this month at the storied Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, the first of three contests being held consecutively in Australia.  

As of this writing, the Margaret River Pro, stop #2, in Western Australia, was put on-hold due to bad weather/poor conditions after completing three rounds of the men’s competition and two rounds of the women’s. They’re expected to resume the contest the morning of Thursday, April 23rd (Wednesday afternoon in San Diego).

Two of our three San Diego County surfers were eliminated in do-or-die heats: Marshall, who lost to Brazilian Joao Chianca by less than one point, and Spencer, who lost not to one of the 23-year-old’s new guard peers but to the widely beloved Olympian surfer, Carissa Moore.

Marshall, whose dad’s a dentist in Encinitas, draws clean lines followed by explosive moves that bring to mind John Florence, the Olympian and fan favorite who’s taking a second consecutive season off to be with his growing family.

Caity Simmers (featured above) is still very much alive at Margaret River after beating Vahine Fierro in the second round. (San Diegans can also claim Fierro as one of their own, if indirectly. The elegant goofy foot from Tahiti has a surfer dad, Andrew Fierro, originally from San Diego, like Mexican CT surfer Alan Cleland, Jr., whose dad’s likeness once graced the cover of Surfer Magazine and is from Imperial Beach.). 

Back to Simmers. When last week a WSL commentator asked her about “the tactic on a day like today,” she wasn’t interested in talking shop—the best competitors know to keep it simple. “I just want to catch a bunch of waves. That’s kind of it, honestly. I just want to surf,” she said with her trademark nonchalance.

When the contest resumes, the 20-year-old Simmers, known as Oceanside’s “pride and joy,” will face five-time world champion Carissa Moore, on the heels of Moore’s defeat of Alyssa Spencer. Simmers, we can imagine, is facing tremendous pressure, even if the 5’3” surfer, who was crowned World Champion in 2024 at the age of 18, doesn’t show it.

At the Bells Beach contest, she came in fifth place, eliminated by Australian Isabella Nichols in the quarterfinals. Simmers, a Black Sabbath fan who spent part of the off-season in Yosemite, recovering from the mentally and physically exhausting tour, won Bells in 2024, the youngest person to do so in the contest’s 50-years-plus history.

We may be guilty of taking Simmers for granted, because of how consistent and reliable she is as a surfer, together with her general nonchalance—but consider this: in a career that began in 2023, she’s never finished below fourth place. So, it’s no surprise that she’s predicted by the betting markets to win her second world title this year; and yet, she faces pressure from a crowded field with many young faces trying to make their mark—and maintain their position on the Championship Tour.

And that leads us to San Diego County surfer, Alyssa Spencer, who deserves more words for a couple reasons: One, as mentioned, is that she had a dominant performance at Bells Beach earlier this month, where she eliminated 2023 world champion Carolyn Marks.

Was it an upset, an aberration—or a sign that Encinitas’ Spencer belongs on the CT and will be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come? (My guess, it’s the latter.)

If Spencer, the daughter of an Encinitas firefighter, has now upped her confidence and found her way, that would be an important part of her journey. She told Her Sports San Diego about wanting to focus less on results and more on “what I can do today to become a better version of myself tomorrow.”

After all, failing to make the midseason cut in her 2024 rookie season must have been a heartbreaker, given that she’d spent three years trying to qualify for the elite-level CT; though, to her credit, she seemed to handle her demotion to the Challenger Series (CS) well.

It’s like, in baseball, when a major leaguer is sent down to the minor leagues, to Triple A, and has to fight his way back to the big leagues by proving he belongs there. When it happens to a surfer, it tests their desire and resolve, not to mention their talent. How’d Spencer rebound? With a confident and consistent performance throughout the 2025/2026 CS season—including winning the Newcastle SURFEST contest, her third CS event win—enabling her to requalify for the CT and return to “the big leagues.” And at Bells, her first contest out of the 2026 gate, she not only took out formidable Marks but also came an eyelash from beating Gabriela Bryan, the eventual winner of the contest.  All of which would seem to bode well for Spencer as she prepares for the third contest of the season at Snapper Rocks. Now, tell me, who doesn’t appreciate a comeback/redemption narrative.

San Clemente, for its part, has six surfers competing on the CT, including Sawyer Lindblad, pictured above with my daughter at Lower Trestles.

San Diegans who want to cheer for Caitlin Simmers once the Margaret River Pro resumes should visit www.worldsurfleague or their social media accounts on Wednesday, April 22^nd for an update on the starting time.

As of now, the contest is scheduled to resume Thursday at 7 a.m., which in San Diego is Wednesday at 2 p.m. (You can watch on the WSL website, app or on ESPN.) The WSL must wrap up the contest no later than April 26th, the end of the competition window.

The third and final contest on the Australian leg of the tour will be held at Snapper Rocks in Queensland, Australia. Hoping for some nice barrels, given that there’s been a noticeable lack of tube rides so far. We’ll be covering the contest and following the San Diego Trio with interest. The competition window starts May 2 and ends May 12.

**

S-REPORTER covers extreme sports, subcultures, the music scene and true crime – all from a hyper-local, San Diego perspective. If you haven’t subscribed to S-REPORTER, do it now!