Sean Rowland / WSL
WSL Announces 2024 Challenger Series Schedule
As we close the book on 2023, the WSL has just announced the new schedule for the 2024 Challenger Series. With six stops on the calendar, the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach will be the only one to touchdown on U.S. soil next year. The Challenger Series will kick off at Snapper Rocks on Australia’s Gold Coast in April and conclude at Saquarema, Brazil, in October.
Surfers on the Challenger Series will be competing for a spot on the 2025 Championship Tour. Counting their top four results out of the six events, the top ten men and the top five women will graduate to the Big Leagues.
2024 WSL Challenger Series Schedule
WSL
“We’re three years into the Challenger Series format, and it feels really good to see this Series build and solidify its place in the competition pathway,” WSL Chief of Sport Jessi Miley-Dyer said in a press statement.
The Challenger Series was created to be a bridge between the Qualifying Series and the Championship Tour. Over the years the Qualifying Series had grown large and unwieldy, it was also costing surfers a lot of money to travel the world and chase points. In an effort to streamline things, the Challenger Series was born. Taking the top 80 men and 48 women from regional Qualifying Series events, it’s a more efficient path to the Championship Tour.
The Challenger Series also allows for surfers that are victims to the mid-year cut on the Championship Tour also have a chance to jump on the Challenger Series and fight their way back on tour.
