Australian legend Stephanie Gilmore headlines World Surf League Championship Tour event in Raglan

Thursday, 14 May 2026

Fourteen years after taking a title in Taranaki, Australian surfing legend Stephanie Gilmore is back on the big stage, back on New Zealand waters, and back to her best form, as she and the rest of the world’s top talent get set to strut their stuff in Raglan.

Gilmore, the eight-time world champion, and most successful female the sport has known, will headline this month’s historic World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT) event, the New Zealand Pro, which gets underway (swells permitting) on Friday.

Never before has the country hosted a surfing competition of this magnitude. From 2010-2013 New Plymouth’s Fitzroy Beach held a round of the then-separate women’s tour, with Gilmore competing in each of those years and taking the honours in 2012. But this time, with the men’s and women’s calendars having integrated since 2022, it’s both genders in action.

Brought to these shores through the assistance of the government’s Events Attraction Package, in what is the 50th edition of the WSL World Tour, there is no guarantee New Zealand will again feature on the calendar next year.

Much might depend on the feedback the elite 36 men and 24 women have after tackling Manu Bay’s renowned left-hand break ‒ a rarity on the tour ‒ and how the small Waikato town (population around 4000) handles the hosting.

A massive influx is expected, with room for 6500 spectators at the venue, for what is a free event (albeit with a charge for the park and ride bus service) that will run over four competition days in an 11-day window from May 15-25, the schedule depending on when looks like producing the best waves.

And no-one in the field will have a better handle on the conditions than local lad Billy Stairmand, the Raglan-born and bred two-time Olympian and record nine-time national champion.

The 36-year-old remains New Zealand’s best in the business and thanks to a wildcard entry for being the top-ranked Kiwi on the WSL Challenger Series, is amped for a dream-come-true moment that will see him not only finally notch a maiden appearance on the Championship Tour, but do it in front of family and friends at the very place he first caught a wave, and indeed still lives.

With the top 28 men from season’s start seeded into the second round (before seedings are re-done after round five of the nine-round regular season), there are four men’s first-round heats to determine who will join them.

Stairmand will face Morgan Cibilic, the 26-year-old Australian who qualified for this year’s CT from last year’s Challenger Series, and who has suffered round-two exits in the the first three rounds of the season across the ditch to sit 29th in the standings.

The other Kiwi man in action is Taranaki 24-year-old Tom Butland, who battled through a field of 112 to win at last month’s Backdoor King and Queen of the Point at Raglan which had wildcards for the winners. He faces 21-year-old South African Luke Thompson, who sits 32nd.

The men’s field is dominated by Brazilians, who, since legendary American Kelly Slater’s 11th and last WSL crown in 2011, then back-to-back Aussie triumphs from Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning the two years after, have won eight of the last 11 CT titles.

Those other three (2016, 2017, 2024) belonged to American hot shot John John Florence, who Kiwis may quickly have got excited to see upon Raglan’s hosting news in late January, only for the 33-year-old to just a few days later announce he would be taking a second-straight year off the tour.

In his absence, fellow three-time title-winner (2014, 2018, 2021) and 2024 Olympic bronze medallist, Gabriel Medina, will be the one to watch, the 32-year-old having missed the 2025 tour with a torn pec, but returning with a bang this year via a season wildcard.

Already having logged a semifinal and final appearance this season, Medina tops the tour standings from compatriot Miguel Pupo and Aussie duo George Pittar and Ethan Ewing, who have, in that order, triumphed in the season-opening three events, while reigning world champ, Brazilian Yago Dora, lurks in sixth.

On the women’s side, the return to the tour this year of Gilmore and American Carissa Moore ensure a decent dollop of star power, the duo’s combined 13 world titles (coming in a span of 15 years from 2007-2021) being almost double that of former Aussie star Layne Beachley, who sits nestled between the pair in second on the all-time list, with seven.

Moore, 33, stepped away from the sport in 2024 to start a family. And now with one-year-old daughter, Olena, in tow, the 2021 Olympic gold medallist has returned via season wildcard, with a fresh perspective, and has already logged one quarterfinal appearance, to sit 10th in the standings.

Gilmore, similarly, had opted for a two-year hiatus to physically and mentally refresh, but after receiving the other available season wildcard, the 38-year-old is now back, and quickly stamping her mark once more.

After starting the season with two first-round defeats, Gilmore then made a magic return to the Gold Coast Pro at Snapper Rocks, scene of her very first WSL win as a teenager in 2005, to claim her 34th CT victory. So, just two weeks on, comes to Raglan with the confidence oozing.

Despite her loss to Gilmore in that final and still chasing a maiden tour win, successive runner-up finishes has Brazilian Luana Silva, the 2024 world junior champion, as the new world No 1, while reigning world champ Molly Picklum (Australia) sits in fourth spot.

The Kiwi presence in the women’s event will come from 15-year-old Alani Morse, who, like Butland, earned an epic opportunity after triumphing in that local qualifying event.

Morse, who was born and bred in Auckland, before her family moved five years ago to allow her to enrol in the Raglan Area School’s Surf Academy, will face a first-round clash against 21-year-old Bettylou Sakura Johnson (Hawaii), who last year scored two wins on tour and finished fifth, and currently sits 12th.