Who Made the 2025 Challenger Series?

The 2025 Challenger Series is now locked and loaded.

Eighty men, 48 women, five stops, five countries, and one make-or-break shot at the big leagues: the Championship Tour.

It all starts at Merewether Beach in Newcastle, Australia, before zigzagging through South Africa, California, Portugal, and Brazil — a globe-spanning gauntlet where success means promotion and failure drops you back into the regional trenches.

So how does one even make it here?

The CS is the great convergence point. It draws from the seven Qualifying Series regions (Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, Hawaii/Tahiti, North America, and South America), with each region sending its sharpest blades from the regional QS battlegrounds. 

Add in a handful of CT surfers who didn’t survive the mid-year cut, a few holdovers from last year’s CS leaderboard, some former CTers who slipped through the cracks, wildcard picks, and the reigning World Junior Champs — and you’ve got a stacked deck.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 12 men / 7 women relegated from the CT
  
• 10 men / 5 women from last year’s CS rankings
  
• 3 men / 2 women ex-CT surfers with no requalifying path
  
• 49 men / 30 women from regional QSs
  
• 1 men’s / 1 women’s World Junior Champions
  
• 5 men’s / 3 women’s wildcards per event

Australia/Oceania

The Aussies are coming in hot. Jarvis Earle is back to defend his CS title. He’ll be joined by Kyuss King, Xavier Huxtable, Oscar Berry, Winter Vincent, Billy Stairmand, Josh Kerr (yes, that Josh Kerr), and Tully Wylie.

For the women, Sierra Kerr leads the charge, joined by Jahly Stokes, Oceanna Rogers, and Willow Hardy. Oh, and wildcard alert: Julian Wilson’s on deck too.

Not included: CT fallouts and 2024 CS holdovers.

South America

Perennial powerhouses like Lucas Vicente, Lucas Silveira, and Peterson Crisanto headline the men’s roster, joined by Franco Radziunas, José Francisco, Wesley Leite, and Igor Moraes.

For the women: Laura Raupp, Daniella Rosas, Arena Rodriguez, and Vera Jarisz round out a well-tested crew.

Not included: CT fallouts and 2024 CS holdovers

North America

North America looks feisty. Lucca Mesinas, fresh off another regional QS title, leads the men’s ranking, followed by Jett Schilling, Carlos Muñoz (who won the QS5000 in Barbados this week to qualify), Taro Watanabe, Lucas Cassity, Dimitri Poulos, Ryan Huckabee, and Owen Moss.

The women’s roster includes new regional champ Kirra Pinkerton, plus Reid Van Wagoner, Sanoa Dempfle-Olin, Leilani McGonagle, and Eden Walla.

Not included: CT fallouts and 2024 CS holdovers

Asia

Asia’s crew is young and lethal. For the men: Bronson Meydi, Keijiro Nishi, Riaru Ito, Shohei Kato, Joh Azuchi, and Tenshi Iwami.

For the women: Nanaho Tsuzuki, Anon Matsuoka, Mirai Ikeda, and Kana Nakashio.

Not included: CT fallouts and 2024 CS holdovers

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Europe

Europe has depth and variety this year. The men’s list includes Jorgann Couzinet, Keoni Lasa, Afonso Antunes, Adur Amatriain, Yago Dominguez, Charly Quivront, Patrick Langdon-Dark… and somehow Tenshi Iwami again? (Cue eligibility questions.)

The women’s list is stacked: Tya Zebrowski, Francisca Veselko, Anat Lelior, Annette Gonzalez Etxabarri, and Teresa Bonvalot

Not included: CT fallouts and 2024 CS holdovers

Africa

Africa’s sending a full deck of wildcards and workhorses. The men’s team: Luke Thompson, Adin Masencamp, Connor Slijpen, Luke Slijpen, and Thomas Lindhorst.

For the women: Louise Lepront, Jessie Van Niekerk, and Anastasia Venter—all proven QS threats.

Not included: CT fallouts and 2024 CS holdovers

Hawaii/Tahiti

Not listed in the original WSL doc — but we’ll assume Shion Crawford and Finn McGill (from the top of the current leaderboard) are a lock. Meanwhile for the women, Eweleiula Wong, Keala Tomoda-Bannert and Vaihitimahana Inso all look safe for a start at Newcastle, with Ladybird winner Kiara Goold not far behind.

The stakes are anything but low. A top CS result equals that CT golden ticket. A few bad heats? Sayonara.

The stage is set, the draw is deep, and the dream? Still alive — for now.

Hope they’ve all got $40k-80k to spare.