Should we care about pro surfers?

Pro surfers. The people who go to work in the surf. The best of the best. But should we care about them?

There was a Reddit post. Of course there was. About the pro surfers’ political affiliations. But this episode is not about politics.

Many names were mentioned. I recognized a few—maybe 20%. And that made me think. Not whether, in surfing, we should care about who supports which political party. Oh no. We’ve got another pod episode coming up with a guest qualified to talk about stuff like that.
No, what I wondered was: should we care about pro surfers at all?

Legends vs. pros

I guess, at this point, we should distinguish between surfing legends (surfers who contributed to the evolution of surfing) and pro surfers (surfers who are very good at surfing, compete in surfing competitions, and win them).

Because I am all in on the legends. Duke, who single-handedly saved surfing from extinction.

Tom Blake, who invented a fin. The Gidgets (yes, I see this more as a collective), who showed the girls in the ’50s it was OK to surf. George Greenough, for giving us a shortboard. And Laird Hamilton and his crew, who effectively invented tow-in surfing.

OK, I’ll throw in Jeff Clark for “discovering” Mavericks, and Garrett McNamara for Nazaré. Oh, and Greg Noll for his fashion sense.

But what about modern pro surfers? Should we know their names? You know, as the members of this club called “surfing”. Will we look stupid if someone mentions Florence, Dorian, or Rothman and we have no idea—maybe they’re talking about a city in Italy, that never-aging dude, and the producer of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (I feel like I haven’t mentioned it in a while)?

The queens of the lineup—that I kinda do know

Of course, I love the girls.

Stephanie Gilmore (8-time champ) for pushing for equal pay for women on the WSL tour.

Carissa Moore (5-time champ) for driving more inclusivity, especially among Hawaiian girls and surfers from underrepresented racial and cultural backgrounds in the sport.

As luck would have it, they are both kind of pros-on-pause in 2025. Then there’s Maya Gabeira, who broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave surfed by a woman at Nazaré.

Slater, Florence, and my blind spots

I don’t care for Kelly Slater. But I’m sure many little boys got into surfing after watching him surf. And you’ve got to give it to him—the Surf Ranch is a wave pool like no other. And those 11 championship titles. He is an icon, whether I like it or not.

It would be hard for me not to have heard about John John Florence. He’s got a pretty unique and memorable name. I know he’s from Hawai’i and he surfs very, very well—and that’s where my knowledge ends.

And these are the names I had never even heard of—until I worked on this piece:
Italo Ferreira, Yago Dora, Kanoa Igarashi.

But apparently, these dudes are redefining aerials—or “airs,” as you may know them.
Then there’s Jordy Smith from South Africa and Ethan Ewing from Australia—all of the above in the top five surfers of 2025—and I had only heard about Jordy before.

It’s even more embarrassing that I’m not familiar with any of the girls in the top five: Gabriela Bryan (Hawaiʻi), Molly Picklum (Australia), Caitlin “Caity” Simmers (USA), and Isabella Nichols (Australia).
I must follow them on Insta.

Am I a bad surfer?

Seriously, should I be feeling bad about this lack of knowledge? Does this make me a terrible surfer?

It’s easier to remember the names of big-wave surfers who broke the “biggest wave ever ridden” records—like Sebastian Steudtner (93.7 ft at Nazaré, pending validation) and Alo (Alessandro) Slebir (108 ft at Nazaré, under review).

As I’m writing this, I’ve realized—it’s only going to get worse. The Olympics are coming. I’ll need to start caring about these dudes, in case one of them performs a clean quadruple Axel on a surfboard and changes surfing forever.