Erin Brooks has qualified for the 2024 Championship Tour. Photo: WSL
Last week, we speculated on what it would take for Erin Brooks to qualify for the 2025 Championship Tour. Well, we no longer have to wonder, because she’s done it. “We only ran eight heats today, but history has been made,” boasted WSL commentator Mitchell Salazar in the post-show for Day 2 of the Saquarema Pro. “Erin Brooks is the first Canadian on the CT.”
The Texas-born Hawai’i resident secured her spot by advancing to the round of 16 in the competition. In the process, she dropped the highest score of the event so far, a 9-point ride in Heat 8 of the round of 32. “It feels so amazing,” beamed Brooks to Manoela Caiado in an interview on the sand. “The beach announcers said that I had qualified, but I thought that I had to make one more heat. I didn’t know. I asked [my dad] ‘Are you sure I made it?’”
The reason for the surprise early qualification was that Brooks’ closest rival on the rankings, fifth-ranked Nadia Erostarbe, found herself eliminated in the round of 32. Though the sixth and seventh-ranked Vahine Fierro and Luana Silva are still in the competition, it would take a win for either of them to pass Brooks in points, meaning it is mathematically impossible for both to do it.
That fifth and final qualification is currently very much up for grabs, though. While, Erostarbe currently has the spot on paper, Vahine and Luana still have the opportunity to claim it with high enough results. The bracket stage promises to be a nail-biter for the pair, especially because Silva’s first-round matchup is against none other than Brooks.
The rest of the women’s surfers to have already qualified for the 2025 CT are Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons, USA’s Bella Kenworthy, and Australia’s Isabella Nichols.
