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

The world’s biggest artificial wave in Abu Dhabi has been added to surfing’s 11-stop world tour for 2025, the World Surf League (WSL) says, with Fiji confirmed to host the finals to crown the world champions at the tour’s conclusion.

In the interim, the tour will make its first stop at the Surf Abu Dhabi wave pool in the United Arab Emirates, which is a dangerous Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii.

The 75, 000sq-metre (807, 300sq-foot) pool uses the same technology as California’s Surf Ranch, developed with 11-time world champion Kelly Slater, which has hosted several world tour surfing events to mixed reviews.

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

“We’ve restored some of the tour’s most sought-after locations while adjusting the dates to favorable swell windows to increase the chance for good surf.”

” We’ll see a great mix of locations from heavy-water barrels to high-performance waves and pristine point breaks. “

The reeling right-hand points breaks from Snapper Rocks in Australia, which returns to the championship tour after a five-year hiatus, and Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, which was skipped to accommodate the Olympics last year.

The tour’s controversial mid-season cut, which reduces both the men’s and women’s fields by one-third, remains in place after stop number seven at Margaret River in Western Australia.

Surfers and fans praised the switch from the season-ending WSL finals to the heaving barrels and long walls of Fiji’s Cloudbreak reef after championships were decided at Lower Trestles in California for the past four years.

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