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

Surf Abu Dhabi, located on Hudayriyat Island in the UAE, will be the second stop on the 2025 Championship 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.

The tour will again start at Hawaii’s dangerous Banzai Pipeline in late January before heading to the Surf Abu Dhabi wave pool in the United Arab Emirates for the first time.

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’re looking forward to seeing what the Surf Abu Dhabi facility can deliver for the world’s best surfers – and the broader surfing world – in the future,” Ryan Crosby, WSL CEO, said on Thursday.

“Both the evolving wave technology and the [Middle East] region itself present interesting opportunities for the WSL, and we’re excited to see that come to life in the coming months.”

Back on the 2025 schedule are the reeling right-hand point breaks of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, which was skipped to accommodate the Olympics last year, and Snapper Rocks in Australia, which returns to the championship tour after a five-year hiatus.

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.

The change in the season-ending WSL finals to the heaving barrels and long walls of Fiji’s Cloudbreak reef was widely praised by surfers and fans after championships were decided for the past four years at the fun but soft waves of Lower Trestles in California.

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