Last Chance To Join Stab’s Fantasy League

It’s been 210 days since the last Championship Tour heat.

With the Bells Beach waiting period starting April 1, the longest offseason in pro surfing history (sans pandemic) is mercifully about to end. For surf junkies like us (and in all likelihood, you), that means many things — including the return of Fantasy Surfing. 

Sure, ESPN’s Fantasy Football gets a few downloads every season, but as Bruce Irons once said, “Football Shmootball.” Over the years, many unprintable bragging rights/insults/punishments have played out across group threads. We’ve criticized questionable picks, witnessed catastrophic upsets and marvelous comebacks. Few things in life capture the true essence of schadenfreude like watching your C-Tier grinder demo a friend’s Power Surfer.

This year, the WSL Fantasy rules are mostly the same as previous seasons. Pick 12 surfers, six men and six women apiece. Assign a Power Surfer to each gender. Watch the points trickle in. Play for pride or for money. Just let your frenemies know how your underdog pick is doing.

However, there are a few notable rule changes for 2026. The first being that only two “B Tier” male surfers can be chosen per event (brutal). The second is that all picks are locked at the start of the event due to there being no non-elimination rounds (set those reminders). And unlike the 2026 World Title winners, us fantasy players don’t get any throwaway results. Every event counts.

Which brings us to the STAB League — WSL Fantasy’s objectively greatest cohort. To be transparent, Stab is in no way affiliated with this league. It’s all the legwork of some savvy Stab Premium member, who set it up as a way for commenters to test their surf knowledge against one another. It’s now the third-largest public league on the platform with more than 2,400 members, and we are vicariously proud of it.

There’s a lot of hype for this year’s tour, and for good reasons. Battle-scarred rookies. Returning alphas. An expanded women’s field with a record six world champions in the mix. Every heat has 1 vs 1 elimination, all the way to Pipeline (you can hear Stace Galbraith and Mikey Ciaramella give a 2026 preview here).

“I honestly think this is going to be an incredibly exciting year,” Molly Picklum said per the WSL. “It’s so fitting that after 50 years we’re going back to the dream tour and crowning world titles at Pipeline. Having more World Champions on tour than ever before says it all. I feel like this season will bring fireworks — it’s going to be one for the ages for sure.” 

Bells could start within the next 16 hours. Get your picks in now.