Jacob Wilcox & Cole Houshmand Have 99.9% Qualified For The 2024 CT*

Bring March to mind. The Woz under E Lo’s watch has announced a diminutive six-leg Challenger Series (CS) with a reduced field, no Haleiwa and no more silly double-dipping mandates for CT surfers to play little league. 

It was good news, sans losing Haleiwa, more streamlined and easy to follow.

Indeed, this year’s CS has arguably served up (at least) two events that eclipsed any event on the CT – Snapper and Ballito were both pumping and dished out some of the best heats of the year.

Despite the odd incentives to climb the rung for worse wave quality, two gents are already over the qualification threshold from last season.

Importantly, they still have three events to improve on those point totals as CS surfers will count their best four results from six events, dropping two. The top 10 men and top 5 women at the end of the season proceed straight to Pipe.

Make sense?

Let’s examine the current mens CS ladder. 

Mens

With two back-to-back wins San Clemente’s big-diff power surfer Cole Houshmand is a guaranteed lock for Banzai. With 20,700 points he would have finished fourth on the 2022 CS, and will likely end up dropping his 33rd at Snapper and banking two more good results to pair with his two first-places.

Behind Cole but 2,045 points in front of third-place is Jacob ‘Chippo’ Wilcox who counts two fifths and a second in his 17,290 point total. That would have him qualifying in seventh based on last year’s ladder, with a score still in hand.

Earlier in the season the SEOTY contender from West Australia told Stab, “I feel like this could be the year for me with a bit of luck”. Whether it’s Jesus/Mohammad/the bhagwan we have to thank for his cracking the code I’m not sure, but I cannot wait to see the perennial CT threat and Gnaraloo pig packing pits at Pipe. Also, Darren Handley will be needing a new box-packer. 

CT vets Frederico Morais and Imaikalani are also well within striking range but are not currently over the lowest ranked qualifier threshold from last year. We’ll stay tight-lipped until then to avoid any Kanye-Swift-related dramas. 

Womens

The lowest ranked female qualifier last season was Sophie Mcculloch thanks to a clutch win at Haleiwa. So far no one has eclipsed her point tally of 25,490 points – so no one is sailing into the sunset just yet.

Interesting to note: that ⅘ top females are Australian CT vets. Hopefully they can continue their form in the remaining three events at Huntington, Ericeira and Saquarema.

CS schedule

• US Open of Surfing Presented by Pacifico (Huntington Beach, USA): July 29 – August 6 
• EDP Vissla Pro Ericeira Presented by Estrella Galicia (Ericeira, Portugal): October 1 – 8, 2023
• Corona Saquarema Pro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): October 14 – 21, 2023