Stephanie Gilmore, Carissa Moore, Gabriel Medina, and John John Florence Were All Coming Back; Then John John Was Not
Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
The Four Wildcards: Three Triumphant Returns and One Deferral
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — The World Surf League awarded season wildcards to four former world champions for the 2026 season: Stephanie Gilmore and Carissa Moore in the women’s tour, Gabriel Medina and John John Florence in the men’s. The announcement produced the specific enthusiasm of a sport that understood it had secured a marquee season with four of its most compelling names returning simultaneously. The announcement was followed, in January 2026, by John John Florence announcing that he had decided to defer his return until 2027.
The wildcard spot previously given to Florence was subsequently awarded to Ramzi Boukhiam, a Moroccan surfer who had missed the last three 2025 Championship Tour events before the qualifying cut due to a serious injury at Bells Beach. Boukhiam is an excellent surfer. He is not, in terms of global surf media narrative value, John John Florence. The WSL processed this transition with equanimity. The surf media processed it with the slightly deflated quality of a party where one of the four guests of honour texts to say they are coming next year instead.
The Three Who Came
Gilmore and Moore returning to the women’s tour is genuinely significant: both are multi-time world champions whose competitive levels during sabbatical have been the source of fan speculation, and their return raises the women’s tour’s competitive quality in ways that are immediately visible. Medina’s return has transformed the men’s tour’s emotional register. Three out of four is an excellent return rate for a wildcard programme. Managing expectations when four becomes three requires the institutional grace that the WSL has generally shown; elite sport benefits from its marquee names returning. John John will be back in 2027. The 2026 season has three former champions. That is, by any measure, more than enough.