American joined by former champions Marks and Ferreira at 2025 season opener live on Red Bull TV
The 2025 World Surf League launches with the Lexus Pipe Pro event at the fearsome Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii on Monday, as American Caitlin Simmers looks to defend her 2024 women's title, and Brazilian Italo Ferreira aims to add to his 2019 men's title. (More Sports News)
The Banzai Pipeline in Oahu is the setting for the 2025 season opener that counts as one of the most iconic and dangerous surfing destinations because, during the winter months, the reefs act as a magnet for huge Pacific swells to create immense waves just 100 yards from the beach.
Ahead of the 2025 WSL season, reigning men's champion John John Florence and eight-time women's champion Stephanie Gilmore decided to take the year off while three-time champion Gabriel Medina of Brazil is out with injury however both the men's and women's fields are still packed with stars.
Californian Simmers won the Lexus Pipe Pro last year to propel her to the top of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour rankings, a position that she finished with at the end of the season after winning the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach and VIVO Rio Pro events too for her maiden WSL title.
At just 18 years, 10 months and 12 days, Simmers overtook Carissa Moore to become professional surfing's youngest-ever world champion. At the time, she revealed: "I definitely looked up to her a lot growing up. Since I first started competing, I've always wanted to win a world title."
Simmers leads the 2025 field alongside 2023 WSL champion Caroline Marks while Australian Molly Picklum and Canadian teenage sensation Erin Brooks will also be looking to make an instant impact with American Moana Jones Wong - the Queen of Pipeline - granted a wildcard.
Following the retirement of five-time WSL champion Moore, they will be up against proven stars like two-time champion Tyler Wright of Australia and 2024 Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil.
Over in the loaded men's event, Ferreira stars alongside Paris silver medallist Jack Robinson of Australia, Griffin Colapinto, Jordy Smith, Joao Chianca, Kanoa Igarashi and Leonardo Fioravanti with Florence accepting a local wildcard place before taking the rest of the 2025 season off.
Ferreira mastered the breathtaking Banzai Pipeline in 2019 to triumph, while Robinson snagged the win in 2023 after a 2025 wildcard entry and WSL legend Kelly Slater shocked the younger field to win in 2022.
The first seven events of the 2025 season will be contested by the WSL top 36 men and top 18 women then, halfway through the season, the field will be reduced to 22 men and 10 women while - for the first time - the season will end at Cloudbreak in Tavarua, Fiji and the WSL Finals.