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WSL Finals 2021: The Recap

Filipe Toledo bagged a pair of eight-point rides during the Title Match, but couldn't best the approach and power of Gabriel Medina. - WSL / KENNY MORRIS

This past week the top five surfers in both men and women categories competed in the RipCurl World Surf League finals right here in San Diego. With a large swell that rolled in over the week, they were able to show off their skills at Trestles, a popular surf destination.

It's always an exciting time when the world's best surfers gather near your hometown so hopefully you were able to take advantage and witness some of the Olympic athletes in action. If you weren’t able to make it up to Trestles this past week, here is a recap of the competition with the highlights and winners of the 2021 WSL finals. 

Carissa Moore has spent her entire professional life competing at Lowers, but today marks the first time she's claimed a World Title at the break. - WSL / PAT NOLAN

In the women’s heat, the final five female surfers competing for the title were Johanne Defay representing France, Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbions from Australia, Tatiane Weston-Webb from Brazil and Carrissa Moore from Hawaii. All five of these women knew their competition well as they had all recently competed against each other in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. With Carrisa Moore taking home the gold medal in the summer, she was the projected winner of the WSL finals. Moore kept her title as the top surfer by scoring two eight point waves, beating Tatiana Weston-Webb in the finals at Trestles. Following Weston-Webb was Sally Fitzgibbions in third place, Stephanie Gilmore in fourth and Johanne Defay in fifth. 


In the men’s heat, Gabriel Medina, Italo Ferreira and Filipe Toledo from Brazil, Conner Coffin from the US and Morgan Cibilic from Australia all competed for the WSL title. With Ferreira winning the gold medal in the summer olympics just prior to this competition, he was the one to beat and that is exactly what Medina did in the WSL finals. While Ferreira had high scoring waves and surfed well, the clear winner of the heat was Medina. In third place was Toledo, followed by Coffin and then Cibilic. 


This was an exciting competition in San Diego with the world's top surfers competing for the WSL title. If you didn't have a chance to make it out to the competition, make sure to check out the highlights here and stay tuned so you’re ready for the next competition!

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