Rumours are circulating that J-Bay has been dropped from the 2026 World Championship Tour in favour of another fabled pointbreak: Raglan.
Yes, it’s shaping up to be true. Over the past few months, swarms of WSL officials have been spotted throughout Raglan, doing due diligence on the town and assessing its readiness for the world’s best surfers.
That ignited the rumours, although most were preparing for a World Qualifying Series (WQS) round.
Things took a turn earlier this week when a deluge of pro surfers started to lock in accommodation in the small coastal Waikato town.
Things took a turn earlier this week when a deluge of pro surfers started to lock in accommodation in the small coastal Waikato town.
Raglan Surf Report’s Luke Cederman spoke to Stab about the rumoured event coming to his home town.
“I heard a rumour that someone was going to have a meeting with the WSL about running the event,” he laughs. “Then some dude from Stab rang me up the other day and wanted to talk about it. So I’m like, ‘oh, what do you know?’ And I was like, ‘fuck, what do you know?’ We had no idea, but yeah, there’s something good coming.”
If the rumours materialise, then Raglan looks set to host a round of the biggest event in world surfing from May 12-26, 2026. The event will effectively become Stop 4 following on from Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia: May 2-12, and ahead of Punta Roca, El Salvador: May 28-June 7.
One obvious consideration is whether or not Raglan could handle an event of this size and spectator interest. Back in 1995 New Zealand’s first ASP WQS brought the roads around Manu Bay to a standstill with gridlock. Luke Egan won the event and Raglan was on the world stage, and looked amazing.
“Raglan as a town has grown so much since then,” offers Luke. “I remember one of those comps, we had a bunch of pro surfers stay at my house, because there wasn’t enough accommodation for people. But now every second house is a fucking Airbnb, so it’s like accommodation wasn’t going to be an issue.”
Luke reckons Raglan has learnt through events like Soundsplash, which took place last weekend, how to manage the roads and crowds.
“They have set it up well now,” he added. “When they started doing Soundsplash, there were obviously a lot of hiccups, but now they’ve got it dialled. So I reckon if they’re going to have a large event in Raglan, it’s totally doable.”
Luke wonders why we haven’t had a WSL event in Raglan sooner. “It’s something that we should have had years ago, and I know there were a few times with the Rip Curl Search and things like that where they just couldn’t get it over the line,” he said. “Sometimes that was because they wanted to have it out at Indicators and obviously that’s private land, so that’s a lot harder to get access to rather than Manu Bay, but I reckon Manu Bay is perfect for a competition. That’s all you need. It’s a fucking good wave. People bag it, but I mean, I surf there all the time and I know what kind of quality of wave it is. You can surf it through all tides. It doesn’t matter. The wave changes, but it’s still good.”
When it comes to wildcards, Luke was sure Billy Stairmand should get the nod, but wasn’t against taking it himself.
“Are they even running a wildcard competition?” Luke asks. “Billy would be the best choice, but I mean, fuck, if I had a chance at actually competing for a wildcard, I’d definitely compete and try to fuck everyone up.”
Not all locals are happy about it with graffiti already appearing on the Manu Bay road: “No WSL Surf Comp”.
Luke said the irony of the graffiti out at Manu Bay was that “whoever wrote that, will probably have an Airbnb”. But the reality of having an event like this would mean a lot for the small coastal town.
“The trickle down effect of an event like this is significant,” Luke states. “Yeah, it’s inconvenient for a couple of weeks, or whatever, but there’s definitely way more positives than negatives to something like this.”
“The trickle down effect of an event like this is significant. Yeah, it’s inconvenient for a couple of weeks, or whatever, but there’s definitely way more positives than negatives to something like this.”
“It will put a spotlight on surfing in New Zealand, which is a country that is dominated by shit like fucking rugby and cricket – cricket being one of the most boring sports you can ever fucking watch,” Luke laughs. “And it shows surfing. It’ll expose the best surfers in the world to New Zealand, and they’ll be like, ‘oh my God, that’s so amazing’. And ‘whoa. Oh shit, we have surfing in New Zealand. Okay, cool’.”
“It makes it more mainstream in New Zealand and on a local level, obviously a lot of Raglan businesses survive off tourism, so we’ll get more tourists,” Luke adds. “There’ll be a big influx at a time that’s not peak season. That’s when everyone’s shutting up and it’s the downturn for the winter months. If you can get a couple of weeks where everything’s booming for two weeks, then that’s going to help all the businesses in Raglan.”
Luke said it was a boon having a CT come to town.
“It’ll be good because I’m fucking broke, so I can’t really travel anywhere, so I’m just stoked that there’s some stuff coming right here to me,” he laughs.
The 2026 WSL WCT season also sees changes to the formats, with 12 events across the men’s and women’s fields, and a bigger women’s roster than ever before. The tour will feature nine regular-season stops, followed by two post-season showdowns, and it will return to wrap up with a re-imagined Pipe Masters.
More to come …
