While Yago Dora and Molly Picklum head into the WSL finals in Fiji as top seeds and favourites for their first world titles, plenty of surf fans will be rooting for Jordy Smith as he bids for a fairytale championship after 18 years on tour.
The powerful regular-footer from Durban was touted as surfing’s next big thing as a teenager and joined the world tour as a 19-year-old in 2008, finishing second in 2010 and 2016.
A two-time Olympian, Smith enjoyed his best year on tour in 2025, finishing with two event wins and earning the men’s second seeding going into the one-day, winner-takes-all finals.
“Something has changed, truly, with Jordy this year,” former pro surfer now commentator Mitchell Salazar told the WSL’s “The Lineup” podcast. “I’m loving it, I’ve always been a huge fan of Jordy Smith, now at 37 years of age.
“If there’s one person that’s on tour at the moment that’s deserving to be called world champ, then it’s this guy … If he does it, it’s a Cinderella story.”
Raised on South Africa’s long right-hand point breaks, Smith has put in the time to master his backhand tube-riding.
That will prove essential at Fiji’s Cloudbreak reef, especially against Brazilian goofy-footers Dora and 2019 world champion Italo Ferreira, who will ride facing the waves, and Australian Jack Robinson, the Paris silver medallist.
While other reef breaks such as Teahupo’o in Tahiti and Pipeline in Hawaii might pack more punch in a concentrated area, Cloudbreak’s vast playing field and long sections for barrels, turns and aerials make it a favourite wave of many top surfers.
The event can take place on any day between August 27 and September 4, with long-range forecasts pointing to better conditions in the latter part of the waiting period.
The format sees the fifth and fourth seeds facing off, with the winner to face the third seed and so on until the final challenger faces the top seed. In a change this year, the top seeds can seal the championship if they win their first heat, otherwise it will go to a best-of-three match-up.
ADVANTAGE PICKLUM
Picklum dominated the back-end of the women’s regular season, with a second and two wins in the final three events, including a spectacular triumph in Tahiti, giving her the advantage as top seed.
The 22-year-old Australian’s top rival in recent years has been California’s Caitlin Simmers, who became surfing’s youngest world champion last year at 18 and goes into this year’s finals ranked third.
WSL pundit Dave Prodan thought Picklum’s performance this year at heavy waves, including a win at the Paris Olympic venue of Teahupo’o, would make her hard to beat at Cloudbreak.
“Her positioning in the line-up, where she sets up her waves, and the line that she locks in on her backhand at Teahupo’o is second-to-none,” Prodan said.
“I was so impressed and everyone in the channel was just blown away and I think that bodes very, very well for her title campaign at the WSL Finals in Fiji.”
