Professional Surfers: Who They Are and How to Become One

Dreaming of becoming a professional surfer? Learn what it takes to achieve that dream and who can realistically make it.

Spoiler alert: we might break some dreams along the way.

What Defines a Professional Surfer?

Professional surfers can be classified into three main categories:

1. Image-Driven Professionals: These surfers primarily earn their income by selling their image. Surfing is just one aspect of their public persona. They market themselves to a lifestyle brand, and while surfing is part of their identity, it’s not their sole focus.
2. Free Surfers: These professionals make money through non-competitive surfing. They create and distribute their own content or are endorsed by big brands that want to associate their products with the surfers’ unique styles and skills. Free surfers are known for their expertise or distinctive approach to surfing. Surfing is their bread and butter.
3. Competitive Surfers: These are the athletes who compete at the highest levels, earning money directly and indirectly by participating in  the top-tier competitions the World Surf League’s (WSL) Championship Tour (CT).

For most of us surfing aficionados (yes, we are generalizing, and are not ashamed of it), when we talk about pro surfers, we typically think of those in the last category, or those in the second category who previously had a high-level competitive surfing career.

Therefore, for the purpose of this article, we will focus on the last category. how to become widely recognized as a true professional surfer in the competitive circuit.

What you need to do to Become a Pro surfer

To be considered a professional surfer by the world, securing a spot on the Championship Tour (CT) of the World Surf League is your ultimate goal. It’s a “simple” goal but the road is long.

To get there you would:

1. Start Young: Begin by participating in local grom contests at a young age to grasp the basics of competitive surfing.
2. Compete Nationally: As you gain experience, compete at a national level.
3. Junior Tours: Move on to a Junior Tour, organized by either the WSL or the ISA (International Surfing Association) if not both. Here, you’ll start facing competitors from other countries.
4. WSL Qualifying Series (QS): This is where things get serious. You’ll need to prove your skills on an international stage, competing against thousands of other  adult surfers who, like you, are chasing points to move up the ranks. Accumulating enough points is crucial not only to access the Challenger Series (next step)  but also to qualify for key QS events where a higher number of points are available. This stage can last several years, with ranking points becoming your daily obsession.
5. WSL Challenger Series: If you excel in the QS, you’ll advance to the Challenger Series, where you will compete against the best surfers from different regions. However, you will also face competitors (pros) who have been relegated from the CT and are fighting to reclaim their spots. The competition here is fierce, as even current CT surfers are required to participate in at least one Challenger event in their home region, making it even harder for you to stand out.

At the end of the season, your points from the Challenger Series are combined with your QS points. If you rank in the top 10 (for men), you will earn a well-deserved spot on the CT.

This journey can take a decade or more, but once you make it, you can confidently call yourself a professional surfer and nobody will say the contrary.

So in reality Who Can Really Become a Pro Surfer?

First, sorry to say this, but if you’re reading this, chances are it’s too late for you to become a professional surfer. Most pro surfers you see on the tour were on surfboards before they could even walk. Essentially, if you started surfing at, say, age 14 and are thinking about making it a career, you will be competing against people who can already have a decade of surfing experience under their belts. While there are some pros who started “late,” you would need very strong support early on.

Like in every competitive sport, today’s surfing stars are often molded by parents or other adults who push them towards this trajectory from a young age. Qualifying for the main league is almost a family endeavor, requiring a special schedule, travel, training, and often specialized schooling. A young surfer needs the support of close adults, as they can’t do it alone. Unsurprisingly, most pro surfers on the tour have parents who surf, often with competitive or surf coaching backgrounds, or they met a coach at an early age who guided them.

Location: To have a real shot, you need to live near the coast and some of the world’s best surf spots from a young age. Good luck becoming a pro if your home spot is in the Baltic Sea or the Great Lakes (sorry, folks). And if possible, being born in a warmer country helps, as it seems that no one from regions where thicker wetsuits are needed due to the cold makes it to the top.

Money: As mentioned earlier, you will need family support from a young age, and unfortunately, you will also need their money to travel the world and climb the ranks of the Qualifying and Challenger Series. For example, most parts of the world only have a six-month good surfing season at best. An aspiring champion needs quality surf every day to train, which often means chasing swells, requiring travel, accommodation, and so on. Competing in the series and tournaments is also not free. For instance, the Challenger Series has six stops around the globe. Expect to spend at least $50,000 to compete in a season at the highest level, just below the CT.

But yes, you might be a bit late or the next messiah. If you are a weekend warrior who started surfing at age 15 on the shores of an unknown surfing region, don’t worry you just have to climb two full tournaments filled with people hungry for points from around the world.

To Summarize, You’ll Need:

• To be born or move as a child to a well-known surfing region in a warmer climate.
• To start surfing from a very early age.
• To meet a coach or have family support to pursue this path early on.
• To come from a wealthy enough background to afford the necessary training and opportunities.
• To outperform thousands of aspiring surfers, as well as many current pros, to take their place.

Still it seems that there are Ongoing Changes in the Surfing World

In an ideal world, the best surfers from anywhere in the world would have a fair shot at reaching the top without needing to “pay to play.” Fortunately, things can be seen as slowly moving in that direction. The financial barrier, while still significant, is becoming less prohibitive as sponsorship opportunities grow globally.

Surf brands are increasingly looking for talent from all over the world, promoting their products in emerging markets and in already mature markets.  As a result, the storm of surfers from countries like Brazil that we had in the past decades on the CT is a testament to the fact that the playing field is leveling, albeit gradually and changes regarding at least the money part can be observed.

Where do you think will the next wave of professional surfers come from?

Do not hesitate to ask it to us by leaving a comment down there.

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