Robert Kelly Slater is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship Tour victories. Slater is also the oldest surfer still active on the World Surf League, winning his 8th Billabong Pipeline Masters title at age 49.
Soorts-Hossegor is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France, 20 km north of Biarritz.
Sofía Mulánovich Aljovín is a Peruvian surfer. She is a 3-time World Surfing Champion, 1 WSL and 2 ISA world championships,. She is the first Peruvian surfer ever to win a World Surf League World Championship Tour event and the first Latin American ever to win the World Title, which she did in 2004. In 2004, she won three out of the six World Championship Tour events, and finished the season as Absolute World Champion. Sofia is the only one Latin-american surfer to win 2 ISA World Championships. Sofia won the ISA Championships, 2004 in Salinas-Ecuador and 2019 in Miyazaki-Japan. Her main sponsor is Roxy.
The World Surf League (WSL) is the governing body for professional surfers and is dedicated to showcasing the world's best talent in a variety of progressive formats. The World Surf League was originally known as the International Professional Surfing founded by Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick in 1976. IPS created the first world circuit of pro surfing events. In 1983 the Association of Surfing Pros took over management of the world circuit. In 2013, the ASP was acquired by ZoSea, backed by Paul Speaker, Terry Hardy, and Dirk Ziff. At the start of the 2015 season, the ASP changed its name to the World Surf League. Sophie Goldschmidt was appointed as WSL CEO on 19 July 2017. Paul Speaker had stepped down as CEO on 11 January 2017, and Dirk Ziff acted as the interim WSL CEO until Goldschmidt's appointment.
Keala Kennelly is a professional surfer, DJ, and actress from Kauai, Hawaii. After spending a decade ranked in the top 10 on the ASP World Championship Tour (WCT), Kennelly took a break from the tour in 2007 to explore her passions for acting and music, including a recurring role as a surfer in the 2007 series John from Cincinnati. She continues to DJ and compete as a big wave surfer.
Rochelle Ballard is an American professional surfer and a veteran of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour. She co-founded International Women's Surfing (IWS) and has appeared in several movies and television shows, most notably, Blue Crush,Step Into Liquid, and Beyond the Break. Ballard has been a pioneer for the advancement of Women's surfing over the past two decades.
Lisa Andersen is an American four-time world surfing champion. She won four successive world titles from 1994 to 1997. She was named ASP's Rookie of the Year in 1987. She was named as one of the 100 "Greatest Sportswomen of the Century" by Sports Illustrated for Women. She was named the "1998 Female Athlete of the Year" by Conde Nast Sports for Women magazine. She is a two-times winner of Surfer Magazine's Readers Poll. In 2002, she was inducted into the Surfer's Hall of Fame. In 2004, she was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame as that year's Woman of the Year.
Michael Eugene Fanning is an Australian professional surfer who was crowned champion of the Association of Surfing Professionals/World Surf League (ASP/WSL)'s World Tour in 2007, 2009 and 2013. In 2015, he survived a shark attack by what is suspected to be a great white shark during the J-Bay Open finals in Jeffreys Bay.
The Rip Curl Pro, formerly the Bells Beach Surf Classic, is a WSL World Tour surfing competition held in and around Torquay, Victoria and sponsored by surf company Rip Curl. The event is based at Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia. The event winner is awarded the prestigious 'Bell' trophy.
Stephanie Louise Gilmore is an Australian professional surfer and eight-time world champion on the Women's WSL World Tour.
The 2009 ASP World Tour is a professional competitive surfing league run by the Association of Surfing Professionals. Men and Women compete in separate tours with Events taking place from late February to mid-December, at various surfing locations around the world.
Paige Frances Hareb is a professional surfer from Oakura Beach, New Zealand. In December 2008 she became the first New Zealand woman to qualify for the ASP Women's World Tour.
Cori Schumacher is a world champion surfer, social justice advocate, scholar, and a former American politician.
Carissa Kainani Moore is a Hawaiian American Olympian, world champion surfer and activist. She was the first-ever winner of the Olympic Gold Medal in women's short board surfing in 2020. She was also the 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019 and 2021 World Surf League WSL Women's World Tour Champion. Moore is the first surfer in history to win a WSL world title and the Olympic title in the same year.
Sally Jayne Fitzgibbons is an Australian professional surfer on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour (2009–2013). In June 2019, she was ranked No. 1 in the world for women's surfing after winning the Rio Pro. Sally now competes on the second tier challenger series after failing to qualify for the WSL top 10 at the 2022 mid-season cut.
Adriano "Mineirinho" de Souza is a Brazilian professional surfer and also the 2015 WSL World Champion. He has been competing on the World Surf League Men's World Tour since 2005.
Gabriel Medina Pinto Ferreira is a Brazilian professional surfer who won the 2014, 2018 and 2021 WSL World Championships. With 17 WSL Championship Tour (CT) event wins and 29 Final appearances under his belt, Medina is one of the most experienced surfers when it comes to producing the best surfing under pressure. Medina is 2nd only to Kelly Slater for the most World Titles among surfers currently on the CT.
Johanne Defay is a French professional surfer. She was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne, France.
The 2019 World Surf League was the competition series hosted by the World Surf League, the global championship body for competitive surfing. The 2019 World Surf League consisted of the Championship Tour, the Qualifying Series, Big Wave Tour, Longboard Tour, Junior Tour, and other specialty tours and events such as the Vans Triple Crown.
