Surfing fans will soon have their need for thrill satiated. The 2025 WSL Championship season will start later this month at the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii, and the hype is real. The iconic stretch, nicknamed the Seven Mile Miracle, is known for its life-threatening waves that can make or break stars. Naturally, with the first stop of the championship returning to this legendary spot, surfing stars are doing their best to keep themselves in peak shape. But injuries continue to wreak havoc.

From Italo Ferreira to the USA’s Caitlin Simmers, the list of stars to watch out for at this year’s World Surfing League is long. Among them, the “flying surfer” Gabriel Medina’s fans couldn’t wait to see how he would continue the momentum he gained at the Paris Olympics last year. But that looks like an unlikely thing to happen as of now.

Brazilian surfing sensation opts to sit out on season opener

On January 11, the celebrity Brazilian surfer took to Instagram to reveal that he won’t be able to enthrall fans with his surfing skills at the Lexus Pipe Pro in Hawaii. “Last Thursday, in Maresias, I suffered a pectoral injury and this morning I underwent a surgical procedure,” he wrote in his social media post and assured his followers that things went smoothly and without any hiccups. The 31-year-old also noted that the journey back to full health has already begun. However, the injury requires him to stay out of the water for some time, and that has rendered him out of the first WSL Championship action of the season.

“Unfortunately I will be out for a while,” Medina wrote on IG. The 3x world champ gave surfing enthusiasts one of the most memorable moments of the Paris Olympics despite being thousands of miles away from the City of Love. Dominating the waves at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, Medina’s photo went viral for its almost biblical resemblance. Naturally, that only made fans speculate what he had in store for the 2025 WSL season.

Medina also suffered a knee injury in 2022 which forced him to take some time off from mingling with his beloved surfboards. However, considering how high-stakes event the WSL Championship is, fans were sure that he wouldn’t let something similar get in his way this time, especially after how things unfolded at the Games last year. Thankfully, there will also be a lot of others to look out for to compensate for Medina’s absence.

The 2025 WSL Championship will be one to remember

A total of 34 men and 17 women surfing celebrities will hit the wave at this year’s WSL Championship in a bid to be crowned champion at the season finale in Cloudbreak, Finji in September. Among other exciting things, this year, WSL will make its first-ever appearance in Abu Dhabi, at the wave pool established by surfing legend Kelly Slater, making it a historic moment for the coveted tournament. However, the decision to bring the action to Abu Dhabi has also had its fair share of controversies, and surfer Tyler Wright’s wife has expressed her concerns on social media as well.

And yet, the excitement can hardly be culled. From the iconic John John Florence to Caroline Marks, the qualifiers of this year’s WSL have received their spot on the roster in their own right. More names on the list include Tatiana Weston-Webb (Brazil), Ethan Ewing (Australia), Seth Moniz (Hawaii), Sawyer Lindblad (USA), and more. Florence and the USA’s Caitlin Simmers are the defending champions this year and are the two surfing behemoths to beat.

This year, WSL will also once again be back at the serene waves of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa. Who do you think has the potential to usurp these two emphatic stars to become the new champ in 2025? Tell us in a comment!