Road to the Rip Curl WSL Finals: El Salvador Pro Aftermath

With the El Salvador Pro now in the rearview mirror, only three events remain on the 2023 WSL Championship Tour schedule before the season culminates with the Rip Curl WSL Finals at Lower Trestles this September. 

The fight for the Final 5 pushes onward, with incredible performances from Filipe Toledo and Caroline Marks at the cobblestone point break of Punta Rica, we had plenty of updates to the Final 5 with just three events left in the 2023 CT season. 

With only five men and five women making the Rip Curl WSL Finals for a shot at the 2023 World Title, things are only going to get more intense from here on out. Let’s take a hot minute to take a look at where we’re at and where the road to the Finals is going to take us this summer.

Current Championship Tour Rankings:

Starting off with the men, the highly anticipated Final re-match between Griffin Colapinto and Filipe Toledo lived up to the expectations with Toledo blasting a near-perfect heat. Toledo moved up the rankings, edging closer to Colapinto's prestigious yellow rashie. With the next few events held in Brazil, J-Bay and Tahiti, we can expect these two to take it up a notch. The difference in points between them is so narrow, that every score will count from here on out. 

Sitting in third and fourth are Brazil's Joao Chianca and Australia’s Ethan Ewing, both finishing in the Round of 16 in El Salvador, coming off the back of strong results at the Surf Ranch. With Rio and J-Bay on the horizon, these two will be hard to beat. 

Gabriel Medina has entered the chat... with his first win of the season at the Margaret River Pro, and a strong performance in El Salvador, the 3x World Surfing Champion has taken the number five position over young gun Jack Robinson, entering the Final 5 for the first time this year. Historically, he’s hard to beat during the second half of the season. He thrives in front of the giant crowds at home in Rio, and besides Kelly Slater, is the winningest surfer at Teahupoo on Tour today.

Over to the women’s side of the Tour… Carissa Moore continues her dominance as current world number one. With three Championship Tour wins under her belt for 2023, Moore is a hot favourite in everyone’s fantasy surfer team for Rio. Should she win in Brazil, that would mark a massive four Championship Tour wins this season, which she has never done before.

Tyler Wright is back in World Title form, with her win at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach and runner-up finishes at Pipeline, Margaret River and El Salvador. You can just feel a third World Title is not far away.

Caroline Marks notches her first Championship Tour win since 2021 in a battle with 2x World Surfing Champion Tyler Wright, kick-starting her fight for the Final 5. Marks jumps to number three in the world, over Molly Picklum who now sits in fourth position.

The greatest of all time, 8x World Surfing Champion Stephanie Gilmore is back in familiar territory at number five in the world. As we recall from last year, Steph was the first competitor to win a World Title from fifth position, arguably the hardest rank to win from. Will Steph add a ninth World Title to her name this year at the Rip Curl WSL Finals?

Now, the world’s best prepare for the land of passion, high performance showdowns, and surfing’s largest crowds at the Vivo Rio Pro. The next stop on the road to the 2023 Rip Curl WSL Finals kicks off on June 23 - July 1. Tune in live on WorldSurfLeague.com and keep it locked here for more post-event analysis.

All photos courtesy WSL.