Snapper Rocks to return
Iconic break back on tour
Surfing’s top-tier world tour will return to Gold Coast’s famed Snapper Rocks in 2025 following a six-year hiatus.
It’s understood the World Surf League will announce the addition of the Superbank contest on Friday ahead of the start of the Gold Coast Pro, to be held at Snapper Rocks from April 27.
It is believed next year’s Snapper Rocks Championship Tour event will follow the Bells Beach contest in Victoria.
Former world tour competitor and Currumbin resident Bede Durbidge lives within 10km of the famous break and was one of several top-line surfers who have called for the event’s return in recent years.
“I always thought it was one of the premier events on the tour and it is sad it isn’t on there,” Durbidge said.
“I would love to see it back as a fan now.”
Fellow Australian Sally Fitzgibbons, who will compete at the Pro from Saturday, said Snapper Rocks was in the top five breaks in the world and deserved to be lifted back into the top tour.
“It is such an iconic location and it is part of Aussie surfing folklore,” Fitzgibbons said.
“I have competed at that event for 15 years, surfing with the likes of Steph Gilmore and the greats who grew up here.
“It was such an amazing inception to the (world) tour. You showed up and crowds would start to build on the beach and on the low tide they’d nearly be out to where you were sitting and out on the rock.
“There is nothing like it. It needs to live on (through the tour).
“To watch the best surfers go at it, I don’t think that will ever get old.”
Snapper Rocks was last used as a Championship Tour event in 2019. It was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid and left off the calendar in 2021 due to an alleged stoush over Covid quarantine requirements between the governing body and Queensland government.
In 2022 the WSL cut it amid a format shake-up that included a new three-tier competition framework.
Formerly known as the Quiksilver Pro before it was rebranded to the Corona Open in 2020, the event that traditionally kicked off the Championship Tour had been relegated to a new Challenger Tour from 2022.
Bells Beach and Margaret River in Western Australia have since remained the only two Australian events in the top tier.