Billy Stairmand rides wave of emotion to ‘dream-come-true’ World Surf League debut in Raglan

Saturday, 9 May 2026

Raglan surfer Billy Stairmand is gearing up for a special maiden WSL Championship Tour appearance in his hometown.

More than a quarter of a century since catching his first waves at Manu Bay, top New Zealand surfer Billy Stairmand is about to go full circle in realising a lifelong ambition.

The Raglan local has won a record nine national championships, competed at two Olympics (the country’s only male Games rep) and even beat the greatest of them all in Kelly Slater in 2011, but nothing is going to quite compare to this “dream-come-true” World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour debut in his western Waikato hometown.

For the best part of 15 years, Stairmand has been grinding away on the WSL Qualifying Series and the next-level-up Challenger Series, without ever quite being able to achieve a crack at the top flight.

At 36, he figured his time had all but passed in what he calls “a savage sport”.

You can imagine his overwhelming excitement then, when in late January, just a week after bagging another national title, his first in five years, that New Zealand was awarded a landmark spot on the WSL’s 2026 calendar (May 15-25), through the support of the Government’s Events Attraction Package.

Billy Stairmand gets some practice in ahead of what will be a career-highlight event.

And that it happened to be Raglan just absolutely iced the cake for Stairmand, who was less than a month later duly announced as a wildcard entry for the event (dubbed the New Zealand Pro) thanks to being the highest-ranked (and only) Kiwi on the Challenger Series (No 58 of 127).

“I had a little cry, I was so emotional and so excited,” Stairmand recalls to the Waikato Times.

“I remember going home and sitting down on my front deck and just having a think of where it started to where I am now.

“I started surfing at Manu Bay, I won my first competition at Manu Bay, and now to be able to compete in a WSL event is something I’ve always dreamed of, and to do so in front of my friends and family is such a surreal moment.”

Stairmand will have his Australian-based partner, Jess, and her family over for the event, while he knows his mother, Anita, and brother, Zale, will be looking proudly over him, having gone through his share of hardships in losing the former to Breast Cancer in 2016 and the latter to a car accident in 2022.

It might look glamorous, but surfing is “a savage sport” to pursue fulltime, says top Kiwi Billy Stairmand.

It has indeed not been all rosy over this past decade as he chased the big-time. Poor results led to losing sponsors (he had some from the age of 13), and Stairmand one summer instead took to potting plants at a nursery and packing boxes in an Auckland warehouse in order to make money, before the sport’s Olympic introduction set him back on course with another big target to aim for.

“I think the setbacks for me are a big realisation that I do live a really good lifestyle and I’m living my dream, so I’ve got to make the most of every opportunity,” he says. “And it kind of makes me work harder and motivates me to do better.

“I feel like surfing’s such a massive help with my mental health. It keeps my mind at ease, and the cold, the fresh air, being outdoors in the elements, everything’s changing. I think, for me, being in the ocean is where I’m meant to be.”

While there will be quite the ‘nothing-to-lose’ mindset in his maiden Championship Tour appearance, as Stairmand squares off in a Brazilian-dominated men’s field of 36 ‒ most of whom he knows pretty well and has competed alongside before ‒ he’s hardly, though, just wanting to make up the numbers.

“Everyone’s been asking me a few things, and now that I’m in the competition I’m like, ‘Oh maybe I won’t tell you this’,” he quips.

The left-hand break at Manu Bay doesn’t normally suit the natural-footers, but for Billy Stairmand it’s a key home advantage.

“I’ve just got to stick to my own gameplan and stick to what I know and what makes me feel comfortable, and hopefully I’ll be able to come out on top.”

Indeed, home advantage will be a boon, on the renowned left-hand break which is a rarity on the tour and typically suits the goofer-footers and not the natural-footers like Stairmand.

“For me, it’s easier, I surf that wave every day,” he notes. “Even if I travelled the world and it was a beach break I’d try and find lefts, because I know how to go left and it’s my favoured way to go.”

And so, with this competition essentially being “the top of Mount Everest” for him, and no guarantee it returns next year, could it also make for the perfect end point of Stairmand’s surfing career?

“It’s a good question,” he reckons.

“After this event I’m pretty keen to step into a bit of coaching, and the wave pools coming in Auckland [set to open next year], I think I’m going to be pretty involved with that and help with the junior development and hopefully building some more Olympians and world champions.

“But I’d like to do the next Olympics [2028 in Los Angeles]. Our qualification is starting this year… I’m pretty fit and healthy at the moment. I’m pretty motivated.”

That can all wait, though, he acknowledges.

“I want to see how this contest goes… it’s everything I ever wanted in surfing.

“To be able to say I’ve competed in a WSL Championship Tour event in my backyard, I don’t think anything’s going to beat that.”