Mayhem Regains His Throne

Manu Bay was mostly indolent for the New Zealand Pro.

But the long left tightened its posture for finals day and gave a little back to the few who made it that far, with Carissa Moore and Italo Ferreira bagging their first CT wins of 2026 on boards brandished by Lost and Timmy Patterson respectively. All is well in San Clemente.

By now, the containers, giant screens, and tonnes of scaffolding are making their way out of town, leaving locals with little to complain about aside from the German backpackers.

After four events in Oceania, the tour arrives in El Salvador next week for a welcome change of backdrop.

Glancing over this season’s Surfboard Empire CT Shaper Rankings pres. by Veia, we find Lost taking the lead back from DHD, which is now closely trailed by Marcio Zouvi’s Sharp Eye. The Brazilian label climbed into third place, a position previously occupied by Channel Islands.

The Sharp Eye team bounced back strongly thanks to Morgan Cibilic’s dream run to the final and Alyssa Spencer’s semifinal finish.

Also taking a win for Orange County was Timmy Patterson, who got his first victory of the season thanks to Italo and his IF15 model — though Patterson has yet to break into the Shaper Rankings Top 5.

Fascinatingly, Italo’s board at Raglan was unusual for two reasons. First, it was a PU, at the behest of his new coach, Leandro Dora (that’s a whole other story). Second, it was shaped by local shaper Simon Jones (not to be confused with the two-time EAST winner of the same name).

It’s worth noting that, in addition to his Stab in the Dark All-Stars victory, rankings leader Matt Biolos holds three consecutive CT Shaper of the Year titles. Both women’s finalists at Raglan — Carissa and Sawyer Lindblad — were centering their gravity over Mayhem decals.

Though there’s plenty of surfing left before the season concludes, …Lost already holds a 9,140 point advantage over DHD, and you’d have to like his chances heading into El Salvador and Brazil.

Griffin, Yago, Carissa, Caroline, and Gabriela tend to make themselves very difficult to beat in Central and South America.