Canadian teenager Erin Brooks locations third at World Surf League occasion in Portugal
Canadian teenage surfer Erin Brooks completed third on the MEO Rip Curl Professional Portugal after dropping to American Gabriela Bryan in semifinal motion Sunday within the third occasion of the season on the World Surf League’s elite Championship Tour.
Brooks, 17, completed with a rating of 11.63, behind Bryan’s 11.83. Bryan, a 22-year-old from Hawaii, was then overwhelmed by Olympic champion Caroline Marks of the U.S. within the ultimate.
Brooks had upset American Caitlin Simmers, the world No. 1 and defending World Surf League champion, on Monday to advance to the semifinals. However climate circumstances delayed the semifinal till Sunday.
Brooks received her opening warmth, outscoring Australian Molly Picklum and Brazil’s Luana Silva, earlier than dispatching American Lacey Peterson within the spherical of 16 to realize the quarterfinal.
Brooks ranks sixth within the standings after ending ninth within the 2025 season-opening occasion, the Lexus Pipe Professional in Hawaii, and fifth on the Surf Abu Dhabi Professional.
Brooks grew to become the primary Canadian to earn full-time standing on the Championship Tour by ending within the high 5 of the second-tier Challenger Sequence final yr. She received in her solely earlier look on the Championship Tour as a wild card, defeating Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil final August within the ultimate of the Fiji Professional.
Brooks defeated Picklum en path to the Fiji win.
The tour now shifts to El Salvador, Australia (for 3 straight occasions), the US, Brazil, South Africa and Tahiti earlier than closing with the WSL Finals in Fiji from Aug. 27 to Sept. 4.
The season opened with 18 rivals on the ladies’s aspect — the highest 10 finishers from the 2024 Championship Tour, the highest 5 from the 2024 Challenger Sequence, two WSL season wild playing cards and one occasion wild card. The sphere will likely be reduce to 12 after seven occasions after which 5 for the season-ending WSL Finals.
The 36-competitor males’s area will likely be decreased to 24 on the midseason reduce after which 5 forward of Fiji.
The profitable prize cash ranges from $80,000 (all figures in U.S {dollars}) within the season opener to $100,000 after the midseason reduce and $200,000 for the WSL Finals.
Brooks began browsing at 9 when her household moved to Hawaii from Texas. She has Canadian ties by her American-born father Jeff, who’s a twin American-Canadian citizen, and her grandfather who was born and raised in Montreal
Brooks gained her Canadian citizenship final yr after a prolonged authorized battle that restricted her Olympic qualifying alternatives to the ISA World Browsing Video games final March in Puerto Rico. Brooks, whose household additionally has a house in Tofino, B.C., fell brief and needed to watch the Olympic browsing competitors in Tahiti from afar.
