Erin’s debut early next year will be among the most anticipated. Photo: WSL
The new crop of Championship Tour surfers is decided for the 2025 season. Of the 10 men and five women qualifiers, eight surfers will be making their full-time tour debut. The rookies enter the tour as it takes on a fresh look in 2025: A new wave pool, more stops, more travel, and more events before the cut. More events pre-cut (even with a lack of lefts) should, in theory, lessen the effect of fluky performances and truly allow the best surfers to shine. There are some exciting, young surfers joining the tour in 2025 who I conjecture will seriously impact the status quo power balance.
Here are the three tour rookies that will have the biggest impact:
Another surfer from Maui on tour. But can he stick and stay? Photo: WSL
Jackson Bunch
The 20-year-old Maui surfer, Jackson Bunch, barely squeaked onto the CT with the 10th qualification slot on the Challenger Series. But I think his impact will be greater than many surfers ranked above him.
Bunch’s repertoire will shine more on the CT than it did on the CS. He might be the most well-rounded surfer in the new batch of qualifiers. He can charge Pipe, but he’s also light on his feet with an array of frontside and backside airs in smaller conditions.
I’ve liked his surfing ever since I watched him win an ISA Junior gold medal in Huntington Beach in 2019. He’ll be well-equipped to adapt to any conditions thrown his way on the CT in 2025.
That said, at the ripe age of 20, he’ll be going up against seasoned veterans. I wonder how his competition strategy and experience will match up against the incumbent tour surfers. Still, I’m expecting him to make the cut and maybe even surprise us with a top-five finish at an event or two.
The Tahitian will have to prove she can surf more than just heaving South Pacific tubes. Photo: WSL
Vahine Fierro
Vahine Fierro has been knocking on the CT’s door for several years and in 2024 she finally broke through. The 24-year-old Tahitian Olympian joins the tour as one of the best tube riders – if not the best (at least on her forehand). Having Teahupo’o in her backyard paid off when she won the 2024 Women’s CT stop at Teahupo’o as a wildcard.
But she’s not a one-trick pony. She’s consistently posted solid results in beachbreak conditions as well. After all, that’s how she qualified for the CT with good performances in Sydney, Ballito, and Saquarema.
I’d pin Fierro as a shoo-in to make the cut and possibly make a run for the final five as a rookie. With five CT wildcards and an Olympics under her belt, her experience more closely resembles a tour veteran than a rookie. I know the other women on tour won’t want to meet her in a heat at Pipeline, Teahupo’o, or Cloudbreak.
Erin Brooks
Much like Fierro, Erin Brooks has already proven that she belongs on the CT after she won the 2024 Fiji stop as a wildcard. Brooks’ rise to the tour reminds me a lot of Gabriel Medina’s trajectory. Both surfers were young phenoms destined to be tour surfers and both lived up to the expectations to qualify at 17 years old.
I know it’s unfair to compare Brooks to the legend of Medina at such a young age, but she certainly has the potential to have a similarly disruptive impact on the tour with her air game and tube riding. Brooks immediately joins the new generation of young female surfers – Simmers, Marks, and Picklum – who are changing the sport before our eyes.
On paper, Brooks should immediately shake up the rankings. There might be some rookie mistakes to work through, but she passed her first CT test in Fiji with flying colors. Maybe she’s more than ready.
The exciting thing about Brooks is that she’s only 17 years old. She isn’t anywhere near reaching her full potential. She’s still getting better.
