May Days Wrap-Up: The Biggest Surf Stories of the Month
Catch up on the biggest surfing news of May 2025: epic waves, world title shakeups, Stab High Japan highlights, and major tour cuts.
Surfing Highlights from May 2025
It has been a busy month in surfing. Over the past four weeks, we’ve seen competition at borderline XL Margaret River, the first heats at The Box in five years, the bottom third of the World Tour get cut, the world title race blown wide open, and aerial antics at the Stab High contest in Japan—not to mention noteworthy runs of swells in Fiji, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Here’s a breakdown of the biggest stories in surfing in May.
Jordy Smith and Gabriella Bryan Win in Western Australia
What made the Margaret River event stand out?
The seventh event on the World Tour schedule and the third in a row held in Australia, the contest at Margaret River in Western Australia was exciting on a number of different fronts. First of all, it was held in some of the biggest Main Break we’ve seen at a contest in years, with local wildcard Willow Hardy sending it on a solid 12-footer. Barron Mamiya got smoked on the inside section and stuck in a cave, numerous people took bombs on the head and broke boards, and that all happened before the event went mobile and relocated to The Box—the hairball slab across the channel that ushered in below-sea-level charging back in the 1990s.
What happened during the heats at The Box?
Only four heats were held at The Box in the round of 16 before the wind went bad, but in that time, surf fans were treated to something they haven’t seen in half a decade. The Box was solid four to six foot, and competitors were either dominating (like Mamiya, who rebounded from the previous day’s carnage to put on a clinic) or getting lost amongst the boils (like top five surfer Kanoa Igarashi, who only managed to put together a 2.50 heat total).
Photo credits: surfer.com
Who had the wave of the contest?
The wave of the contest—and likely the wave of the year—went to Griffin Colapinto, who somehow managed to wrangle the wildest foam ball ride we’ve ever seen, earning a 9.0 and yet another heat win. (Griff also nabbed the only perfect 10 of the event for a huge air reverse into the flats at Main Break.) He was rewarded for his efforts two hours later, when his brother Crosby Colapinto eked out a win over Hawaii’s Jackson Bunch and in doing so was the last person to make the mid-year cut.
Who won the finals?
Jordy Smith and Gabriella Bryan ended up taking the wins a few days later at Main Break. Both of them also leave Australia in first place on the rankings, and will wear the yellow jerseys as the tour heads to Trestles, where only two thirds of the competitors who started the year will still be in the mix. Griffin Colapinto and Caitlyn Simmers placed runners up.
The Final Cut Is the Deepest
Who will miss the remainder of the 2025 season?
The new CEO of the World Surf League, Ryan Crosby, took over on May 13, 2024. A year later, he announced major changes to the World Tour in 2026, including the fact that the season will once again end at Pipeline, there will no longer be a finals day event (instead, the world champion will be the person with the most cumulative points after 12 events, as it once was), and there will no longer be a mid-year cut. While this third point likely came as a relief for a lot of the tours bottom-dwellers, it also made this year’s cut sting more than normal, since this is the last year people are going to have to suffer through it.
Which men fell off the tour?
After the Margaret River Pro, we now know who those unfortunate few are. The following surfers will not be contesting the final four events of 2025: Matthew McGillivray, Liam O’Brien, Jackson Bunch, George Pittar, Ian Goveia, Samuel Pupo, Imaikalani deVault, Deivid Silva, Ian Gentil, Ramzi Boukhiam, Edgard Groggia, and Ryan Callinan. They will have to battle it out on the Challenger series in hopes of earning their way back onto tour next year.
Which women didn’t make the cut?
On the women’s side, Tatiana Weston-Webb and Johanne Defay were both injured for most of the season and have fallen off tour and will be relegated to the Challenger Series, along with Nadia Erostarbe and Sally Fitzgibbons. In addition, Brissa Hennessy, Bella Kenworthy, Vahine Fierro, and Sawyer Lindblad all failed to make the mid-season cut and will miss the remaining four events in 2025, although they have already qualified for the 2026 World Tour.
Stab High Goes Stratospheric in the Land of the Rising Sun
Where was Stab High held this year?
Stab’s annual aerial contest has evolved into somewhat of a novelty sideshow—way less organized and way more punk rock than the World Tour, but still entertaining as hell. This year was no exception, as the event headed to a wave pool in Japan with a new and improved super ramp on both the left and the right. Over the course of two days, everyone went massive (including Julian Wilson, who got an invite after restarting his competitive career with a second-place wild card finish at the World Tour’s Gold Coast event). There were a lot of no-makes, but the airs that were landed were characteristically huge and tweaked—all to be expected, considering the amount of talent that was packed into the pool.
Who won Stab High Japan?
Young gun Hughie Vaughn ended up winning the men’s event, while Sierra Kerr won for the women.
©️IG: @sierrakerr
Did any juniors make an impact?
Loci Cullen won the Bottle Rockets (junior men) event, and also earned a spot in the men’s final, where he placed fourth. Meanwhile, Eden Walla won the Ladybirds (junior women) event and placed equal third in the women’s event. Mikey Wright didn’t manage to make the men’s final, but he won the Monster Air award for the single best air of the event—a huge, inverted lien rotation that he landed during the qualifying rounds.
What was the best air of the event?
Mikey Wright didn’t manage to make the men’s final, but he won the Monster Air award for the single best air of the event—a huge, inverted lien rotation that he landed during the qualifying rounds.
Southern Hemisphere Kicks into Gear
How was the swell season in Indonesia, Mexico, and Fiji?
Summer doesn’t technically start until the solstice on June 21, but the southern hemisphere kicked into gear early, with a solid run of swell for Indonesia, a nonstop barrage of borderline XL swell at Mexico’s Puerto Escondido, and the first proper Ledge swell at Cloudbreak in Fiji.
What happened during the Cloudbreak swell?
The Cloudbreak swell, in particular, was about as good as it gets—but it was also as crowded as we’ve seen in years, with a super competitive crew of 50 to 75 pro-level surfers descending on the legendary left-hander. Numerous people we know who were there have reported that it was the most frustrating swell they’ve ever surfed in Fiji—but for those who managed to snag a gem from amongst the crowd, it sure looked pretty.
Did Oahu see a late-season swell?
Meanwhile, during the last few days of May, a super late season north swell hit Oahu, delivering four- to six-foot sets along the Seven-Mile Miracle. While we can’t ever truly write the North Shore off, it would take a borderline miracle for us to see another proper north swell on Oahu before September, so here’s hoping everyone managed to make their way up to the Country and scored a few before the swell disappeared! Fortunately, south swell season is just starting, and it looks like we may get a very solid swell for Town during the first week of June.