Article by Hillard Grossman

It’s never going to really over, is it?

Cocoa Beach native Kelly Slater, now 54, will return to the ranks of the World Surf League, which awarded the 11-time world champion a wildcard position in the Outerknown Tahiti Pro, Aug. 8-18 at Teahupo’o, where he has won five times.

Competition so far has been fierce this season on the tour with Italy’s Leo Fioravanti leading the men’s rankings, followed by five Brazilian surfers. With a wildcard, there’s a solid chance Slater would have to face one of those six surfers, and this year, the contests have been a single-elimination format.

The Tahiti Pro is sponsored by Outerknown, the brand he co-founded. Last year, Slater received a wildcard into the Trestles contest.

“I’ve been recovering from hip surgery late last year and recently got back to surfing daily,” Slater said in a WSL news release. “I’m really looking forward to getting myself locked in before August comes around and hoping for great conditions in Tahiti to give us all a good challenge.

“No pressure for me coming into this one, but I also haven’t competed in quite a long time, so it’ll be fun to see how I go getting in the mix with everyone. If I can relax and just focus on what I know out there, I should have a good time.”

Slater missed the mid-season cut in 2023, but the WSL gave him a wildcard to finish out the season. He received another season wildcard on the 2024 tour, but failed to make the cut again.

The WSL granted him wildcards for Tahiti (where he placed fifth) and Fiji in 2024. Then, in 2025, the WSL gave him event wildcards for Trestles and Pipeline, where he also finished fifth.

 

Marks eighth after five events

After six events on the World Surf League tour, former Melbourne Beach resident Caroline Marks sits in eighth place in the women’s standings at the halfway point after advancing to the semifinals in the recent contest in Brazil.

Her three heat wins in that one event matched her previous season output, not counting the byes she earned. Hawaii’s Gabriela Bryan and Carissa Moore lead the rankings. Next up is a trip to the Tahiti Pro beginning Aug. 8.

A contest in the Philippines was added to the WSL schedule last week as a security blanket in case the Abu Dhabi wave pool event cannot be run due to military tensions.

Board shorts ….

 

 

Suntree’s Madison Bennett, who turned 18 this week, won the National Scholastic Surfing Association’s Women’s Longboard title in the Explorer Division at the famed Huntington Beach Pier in California. Earlier this year, she won the East Coast Regional Explorer Womens Longboard title. Her boards are being shaped by East Coast Surfing Hall of Famer Ricky Carroll. …

 

Ron Jon team rider Sebastian Peters of Melbourne Beach and Atticus Stark of Viera earned spots on the USA Junior National Surf Team, which will compete in El Salvador later this year. Peters finished fourth in the finals of the U-16 category, while Stark was eliminated in the semifinals in U-12 at the U.S. Championships at Lower Trestles, Calif. …

Other Florida boys on the USA squad: Sebastian’s Kor Minks, Melbourne Beach’s Kai Peters, Jacksonville’s Jackson Lane, and New Smyrna Beach’s Asher Eastwood (U-14); Palm Beach’s Charles Moren and Daytona Beach’s Luke Lopez (U-16); and Delray Beach’s Ian Honda, Melbourne Beach’s Teddy Wittemann, Indialantic’s Beckham McCart and Palm Coast’s Benji Lacy (U-18).

 

Indialantic’s Daya McCart won the Mike Martin Pro-Am event for women in New Smyrna Beach earlier this year and then advanced all the way to the U-18 semifinals at the U.S. Championships to also earn a place on the U.S. Junior National squad.

She is joined by Cocoa Beach’s Kendall Dimmick (U-14); New Smyrna Beach’s Tylah Maresh and Ansley West, Palm Beach’s Marlynn Glaub (U-16); and Atlantic Beach’s Lanea Mons, Daytona Beach’s Alana Lopez and Deerfield Beach’s Sofia Gamboa (U-18).