Miguel Pupo just became an all time great. Medina is back; really back. The First Round elimination heats are looking tough. The Colapinto brothers surfed a heat against each other. The Brazilian Storm is in full effect on the CT, and the local North American QS season is about to start. Here’s the brief catch up to Where We Are.
BELLS
There were a couple of contestable days, but for the most part the 2026 CT got off to a shitty start, wave wise. Winkipop absolutely fired the day after the event. Surprise, surprise.
The real shocker was how dominant both the goofies, and the Brazilians were. 3 of 4 Semi Finalists were both goofy and Brazzo. George Pittar was the only Australian to make it into R3. Tough showing on home turf. Griffin had the best result for Team USA, netting an equal 3rd.
Miguel Pupo has now beat Kauli Vaast at pumping Teahupoo, and reigning World Champion Yago Dora out at Bells(Winkipop). That is an incredible list of wins, however short it may be. Brother Sammy made the Quarters, and we’ll be talking about him more in just a second.
Gabriela Bryan absolutely waxed the field at Bells. Her lowest heat total was in the Final – 14.83. Alyssa Spencer gave her the closest battle, actually holding the high wave of the Semis, but Gabby was consistent and strong enough to get by with the help of her backup number. A very impressive win.
MARGIES
We’re maybe half way through the event at this point – down to the Quarters in both Men’s and the Women’s.
Day one was absolutely pumping. They ran the longest day in WSL history, with 28 heats through the day. The Women, for the most part, were doing a lot of cutbacks and surfing out on the shoulder. A few of the ladies really targeted the end section, and it paid dividends in getting them through heats, namely Yolanda Hopkins and Vahine Fierro.
There were a couple of results I thought were debatable, maybe could have been flipped: Bella Kenworthy vs Kika Veselko, Sawyer Lindblad vs Anat Lelior. Carissa Moore looked the strongest in Round 1, and Steph Gilmore was upset (?) by Erin Brooks. That was the heat of the event on the Women’s side this far.
One notable result: Tya Zebrowski. Everyone’s ROY pick on the Women’s side is yet to make it through a heat on the CT.
As for the Men, Callum Robson is facing the same issue. He lost out in R1 yet again, to Liam O’Brien here at Margaret River, and to local Trials winner Xavier Huxtable at Bells. Ramzi Boukhiam and Luke Thompson have faced off in Round One at both events, and they are now 1-1 against each other. Mateus Herdy was also knocked out by local Trials winner Jack Thomas. I don’t know how long this format is going to last.
All of the drama from this event has been about a situation that happened Round 2 Heat 9; Yago Dora vs Jacob Wilcox. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a quick rundown. Overlapping heats in the water. Jacob and Yago are in the Non-Priority Heat, so they are sitting inside and underneath the Priority Heat. Yago has priority over Jacob. A little wave comes and Yago decides, very late, that he wants to have a go at it. Problem was, Jacob’s sitting basically directly underneath him. Or so that’s what the camera angle showed. No interference was called, and an argument ensued. It was followed live by the WSL and the cameras and media team, all the way up the stairs and reportedly into the parking lot. All the way out onto social media, and supposedly into Jacobs home.
It’s been a hot mess that I may dive into after this event is over, but I’m sure you can find it all over the internet. Since the blow up, Yago and Jacob have supposedly met up and hashed out whatever it was that was boiling over, and everyone is fine and dandy. Yago won the heat.
Some other notable moments – Crosby matched up against Marco Mignot in Round 2 back-to-back events, and they have each gotten each other once this year now. Same exact situation with Joao and Jake Marshall. George Pittar got the nod over Filipe in a close one. Italo and Ramzi had a tight heat, with Italo taking the win.
Round 3 had some good heats as well. The Colapinto heat that was mentioned; Crosby won. Medina took out Jack Robbo – bit of a surprise to me. All I care is that Robbo made it through R2. I am still officially alive in my first year of Surfival League. Stoked. GP (George Pittar) won another close one, this time against LeoFio. Italo beat Joao, and Ewing beat MiggyPupo. Sammy Pupo is back in the Quarters again; great start to the year.
The contest is supposed to fire back up on Thursday. Quarter Finals are as follows:
WOMENS
HEAT 1
Gabby Bryan vs Sawyer Lindblad
HEAT 2
Caroline Marks vs Lakey Peterson
HEAT 3
Molly Picklum vs Luana Silva
HEAT 4
Caity Simmer vs Carissa Moore
MENS
HEAT 1
Sammy Pupo vs Joel Vaughan
HEAT 2
Crosby Colapinto vs Gabriel Medina
HEAT 3
Yago Dora vs George Pittar
HEAT 4
Italo Ferreira vs Ethan Ewing
JACKS PRO
The first stop of the year on the 2026/27 North American QS is set to start tomorrow, or today, or maybe it already started, depending when you’re reading this. It’s going to start Wednesday, 4/22, on the Southside of the Huntington Beach Pier.
There’s been some fun waves here recently, but I will say today looked the worst of the past week or so. Maybe the tide was low, I didn’t spend much time, but it was a bit racey. Lined up. Guys were ripping of course, but it’s been better recently.
Supposed to be some waves. Opening Day will be fun but a bit straight on South. The lefts will be longer, and the rights should offer a little more punch against the grain. Thursday looks like it’ll be the best day. Small West to mix in with the South, and it should be pretty peaky. Head high or so, that day is one to watch. Swell tapers off from there, but still lingers enough so that it should be fun through the event window, which is Sunday.
The heat draw is stacked. First event of the year, “Surf City”, 4,000 QS points up for grabs, this contest has a big pull. Jacob Burke, Bryan Perez, Kepa Mendia, Parker Cohn, Jake Davis, Jhony Corzo, Taj Lindblad, Tyler Gunter, Cannon Carr, Michael Dunphy, Lucas Owsten, Nolan Rapoza, John Mel, Levi Slawson, Kade Matson, Jett Schilling, Jabe Swierkocki, Josh Burke, Hayden Rodgers, Lucas Cassity, Carlos Munoz, Taro Watanabe, and back-to-back Event Winner Lucas Messinas – to name a few.
The talent level is actually insane. I’m going to be down on the beach most days, so I’ll be keeping you all updated with a lot of stuff. You can tune in and stream online on WSL or Youtube or whatever, and be sure to check out all the hvoide socials. I’m hoping to get some serious reporting done.
And thats Where We Are At.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield