Abu Dhabi wave pool added as new venue on World Surf League 2025 tour

The world's largest artificial wave in Abu Dhabi has been included in the World Surf League's (WSL) 2025 world tour, with Fiji confirmed as the host for the finals that will crown the world champions.

The tour will kick off at the perilous Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii in late January before making its debut at the Surf Abu Dhabi wave pool in the United Arab Emirates.

Spanning 75,000 square meters (807,300 square feet), the pool employs the same technology as California’s Surf Ranch, which was developed in collaboration with 11-time world champion Kelly Slater and has hosted several world tour surfing events with mixed reviews.

“We’ve built this schedule to include more events and feature a variety of breaks,” WSL CEO Ryan Crosby stated on Thursday.

“We’ve brought back some of the tour’s most desirable locations while aligning dates with favorable swell windows to open up more opportunities for quality surf. We’ll see a great mix of locations from heavy-water barrels to high-performance waves and pristine point breaks.”

Reintroduced to the schedule are the right-hand point breaks of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, which were skipped last year to accommodate the Olympics, and Snapper Rocks in Australia, making its return to the championship tour after a five-year absence.

The tour will also maintain its controversial mid-season cut, which reduces the fields for both men and women by one-third, following the seventh stop at Margaret River in Western Australia.

The decision to move the season-ending WSL finals to Fiji’s Cloudbreak, known for its challenging barrels and long walls, received widespread acclaim from surfers and fans, especially after the championships were held for the past four years at the softer waves of Lower Trestles in California.

2025 WSL World Championship Tour Schedule:

- **Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii, United States:** January 27 to February 8

• Surf Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: February 14-16
• Peniche, Portugal: March 15-25
• Punta Roca, El Salvador: April 2-12
• Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia: April 18-28
• Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia: May 3-13
• Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia: May 17-27 (mid-season cut)
• Lower Trestles, San Clemente, California, US: June 9-17
• Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: June 21-29
• Jeffreys Bay, South Africa: July 11-20
• Teahupo’o, Tahiti, French Polynesia: August 7-16
• WSL Finals – Cloudbreak, Fiji: August 27 to September 4