Despite the waning of million – dollar sponsorship deals, professional surfing still offers substantial earning opportunities at its highest competitive levels. The 2025 World Surf League (WSL) prize money details, laid out in the league’s rulebook, highlight this fact.
In 2025, the WSL will distribute a whopping $11,185,860 in prize money for both male and female surfers on the Championship Tour (CT). The way these funds are divided presents some remarkable scenarios.
For instance, a female surfer in 17th place (last) in an event can earn $11,610. However, if she wins the subsequent event, her earnings skyrocket to $80,000, marking a 149% increase. Male surfers also have their shot at good earnings. Even if a male competitor finishes last in all seven pre – cut events (an extremely unlikely scenario), he’d still receive $73,500 before elimination.
Overall, across 11 regular – season events, the WSL is allocating $6,135,320 for men and $4,099,540 for women. In the first seven events, the prize money per contest is $574,760 for men and $370,220 for women. After the mid – year cut, as the number of competing surfers decreases, the prize pool for the remaining ones grows. After the Margaret River event in May, the men’s field reduces from 36 to 22, and the women’s from 18 to 15. For the final four CT events, the prize money changes to $528,000 per men’s event and $377,000 per women’s event.
2025 is a special year for women’s surfing because the field will expand from 18 to 24 surfers in 2026. So, in 2025, only three women will be cut after Margaret River.
The prize pool gets even more substantial at the WSL Finals in September at Cloudbreak. The men’s and women’s world champions will each receive $200,000, with runners – up getting $100,000. Third, fourth, and fifth – place finishers earn $75,000, $60,000, and $45,550 respectively.
However, these earnings are offset by various expenses. Life on the pro surfing circuit requires covering costs like flights, accommodation, and transportation for each event. Taxes and management fees reduce each paycheck, and most surfers also pay for coaches and videographers. Depending on travel choices and team size, the prize money may not fully cover the costs of traveling around the world for surfing competitions.
Take Caity Simmers, the 2024 women’s champion, as an example. She earned $392,500 from nine CT events and an additional $200,000 for winning the WSL Finals, totaling $592,500. In contrast, Sawyer Lindblad, the 2024 Rookie of the Year, earned $229,500 in 2024 before expenses.
While WSL prize money is a major income source, sponsorships offer more stable earnings for many CT surfers. Nevertheless, the figures clearly show that there are real financial rewards on the tour, enough to make the pursuit of surfing professionally worthwhile.
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