8x World Champ Stephanie Gilmore Inks Multi-Million Dollar Deal With Rip Curl
In the biggest sponsorship news of 2024 thus far, eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore and Rip Curl have just announced an eight-year, multi-million dollar deal. Starting her career with Rip Curl back in 2000, in recent years she’s been representing women’s surf wear brand Roxy. At the start of the year, Gilmore announced that she would be taking a break from the 2024 WSL Championship Tour.
“This really feels like a new era in my career,” Gilmore said in a press statement released by Rip Curl. “In taking a year-off my aim was to just go surfing. To reconnect with what surfing really means to me and how I can share that with the world.”
“When this opportunity came up to join The Search with Rip Curl, traveling the world, finding waves, having fun, it was the perfect alignment,” Gilmore continued.
Rip Curl call the new deal “a new standard for sponsorships in the surfing world.”
The news of Gilmore comes on the heals of Rip Curl parting ways with long-time team rider Bethany Hamilton, while at the same time extending their relationships with Australia’s Molly Picklum, Canada’s Erin Brooks, and Americans Alyssa Spencer and Crosby Colapinto. Picklum is considered a strong contender for the 2024 world title, while Spencer and Colapinto are rookies on the Championship Tour. Brooks has already garnered a lot of attention as a future great and has already started posting strong competitive results.
As far as what’s next for Gilmore, it’s unclear at this point, but could a dream surf trip with fellow Rip Curl surfers Mick Fanning, Tom Curren and Mason Ho be that far away?
“I love competing, and plan to return to the tour in 2025. After 17 years of putting on a competition jersey, it’s a big change in my schedule, but one I’m fully embracing and beyond excited about,” surmised Gilmore.
8x World Champ Stephanie Gilmore Taking One-Year Break From WSL Championship Tour
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.