Australian fans will get another chance to see Kelly Slater in action when the 11-time world champion lines up in a Challenger Series event on the Gold Coast later this month.
Slater, widely regarded as surfing's 'GOAT', missed the mid-season World Surf League cut when he was eliminated in the round of 32 at the recent Margaret River Pro.
It spelled the end of Slater's time as being a full-time member on the elite Championship Tour.
But the 52-year-old won't be totally disappearing from the surfing scene.
Slater is a confirmed starter for the Championship Series Gold Coast Pro, which window runs from April 27 through to May 4.
He has also been awarded wildcards for Championship Tour events in Fiji and Tahiti.
Slater is the most decorated surfer of all time and holds 56 CT event wins.
Five of those event wins came at the famed Teahupo'o in Tahiti (2000, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2016) and four are from Cloudbreak in Fiji (2005, 2008, 2011, 2012).
The Tahiti Pro is the next stop on the main tour with the competition window opening on May 22.
Joining Slater in Tahiti is five-time women's world champion Carissa Moore, who decided to step off the main tour this year but has accepted a wildcard to compete at Teahupo'o.
The WSL also announced Lakey Peterson and Joao Chianca will be awarded wildcards for the 2025 CT season.
Earlier this year, the WSL confirmed eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore and Brazilian Filipe Toledo as the other two WSL season wildcards after the pair decided to take sabbaticals in 2024.
It means Australian Sally Fitzgibbons, who missed the mid-season cut, will need to qualify for the main tour via the Championship Series once again.
American Peterson missed this year's mid-season cut by just one place.
The 29-year-old boasts six CT victories to her name and finished runner-up to Gilmore in the 2018 title race.
Chianca reached the WSL Finals in 2023, but he nearly died last December while surfing at Pipeline.
The 23-year-old was knocked unconscious in a wipeout and held under the water by a series of waves before being rescued in dramatic fashion.
Chianca has now received medical clearance to return at the Gold Coast Pro.
Only the top five men and women qualify for the end-of-season finals.
American Griffin Colapinto currently leads the men's rankings with Australians Jack Robinson (second) and Ethan Ewing (fifth) well in the hunt to make the finals.
On the women's side, 18-year-old American Caitlin Simmers is the current world No.1, with Molly Picklum (third) and Tyler Wright (eighth) the only Australians to make the mid-season cut.
Australian Associated Press
