Surfing: Inaugural World Club Championship set to replace World Club Challenge in 2026, with overseas event on cards

A new name, qualifying format and overseas location are set to shake up the World Club Challenge, which this year featured the likes of Layne Beachley and Joel Parkinson.

Drastic changes are coming to the World Club Challenge surfing event as its rapid growth continues.

The World Club Challenge surfing competition is set to take on a new look and qualifying format from next year as the inaugural ‘World Club Championship’, before it heads to the United States for the first time in 2027.

The tournament was founded five years ago during the Covid pandemic to simply give people something to look forward to and bring back a sense of community, and has now morphed into one of the world’s largest team surfing competitions.

The tournament’s founders have now officially partnered with the US Board Riders Association to put in place plans for the 2027 World Club Championship to be held at Lower Trestles Beach in California, with the expectation that the event will annually rotate between Snapper Rocks and the picturesque American beach.

“In 2026 we are turning this event into the World Club Championships and all the clubs will have to qualify to compete in that event,” said US Board Rider commissioner Darren Brillhart.

“We’re still working out the details of how clubs will qualify and from what countries … but we’re just looking to bounce back and forth between Snapper Rocks and Lower Trestles.

“Maybe in the future it might be a two-event series but we just figured that it’s better to have one event because of the travel costs.”

The World Club Challenge had operated on an invitational basis, with a record 17 international boardriding clubs included among the 48 which competed in this year’s event.

Nathan Cook pictured at the World Club Boardriding Challenge 2025 at Snapper Rocks.

Under the new format there will be a qualification process for all clubs to gain entry into the tournament, the finer details of which are still being fleshed out.

“We’re super excited, we have to work out the details but there are far more clubs here in Australia than there are in the US and other countries, which are really just starting out,” Brillhart said.

“We’re going to base it off how many clubs there are in each country and that’s how many wildcard slots they’ll get, Australia will have the most, they’ve been at it for 60 years and have quite a few more clubs.”

Hawaii’s Kauai Boardriders surprised many at the event – with the likes of world famous DJ Fisher, and Liam Hemsworth in attendance – to reach Sunday’s grand final.

Brillhart described Kauai’s efforts as “truly amazing”.

Gia Lorentson pictured at the World Club Boardriding Challenge 2025, at Snapper Rocks.

“What they did well was they stayed in the main draw, so they saved more energy, Snapper had to surf six times (on Sunday),” he said.

World Club Challenge co-founder Theodore Vairaktaris reflected on the humble beginnings of the event, and was in awe of its rapid expansion.

“It started back in Covid when all the sporting clubs in Australia (were shut down) … there was nothing to look forward to, no goals were set, everyone was in lockdown,” Vairaktaris said.

“We decided to create a boardriders event where we could just come together on this Covid-adapted event so we could give people something to look forward to and get kids off the street who were being a bit pesty.

“We nailed it and had all this attention from clubs around the country so we made it a national event in the second year, the third year we said ‘stuff it, let’s invite clubs from all over the world’.

“Here we are five years later and we’ve got a huge amount of global recognition, we’ve got clubs coming from every continent on the planet and it’s only going to get bigger and better.”

Event founder Theodore Vairaktaris ahead of the fifth World Club Boardriding Challenge at Snapper Rocks. Picture: Glenn Campbell.

The event has doubled the amount of participating clubs from the initial 24 it had in 2021, and Vairaktaris said he believed that the team element was such a crucial component in the success.

“There’s a type of feeling you get when you’re individually surfing for yourself … (but) when you’re surfing as a team everything is on the line,” he said.

“You’re part of this whole camaraderie and you’ve got to strategise together. The emotion’s high, the energy’s electric, it’s f****** unbelievable aye.”

Reigning champions and hometown club Snapper Rocks failed to defend their crown with a team that featured former world champion Joel Parkinson and Mark Occhilupo’s son Jay, and finish second.

Former pro surfer Nathan Hedge and 16-year-old Olympic skater Ruby Trew were among the North Narrabeen team, from Sydney’s north, that clinched victory in an enthralling final.

Originally published as Surfing: Inaugural World Club Championship set to replace World Club Challenge in 2026, with overseas event on cards