I said it yesterday in my preview, and I’ll say it again: Erin Brooks is the frontrunner to win the 2026 Fiji Pro. And she proved why today with a perfect 10-point ride in her opening heat. Not just the wave of the day, it could very well be the wave of the year on the women’s Championship Tour.
Arriving out at Cloudbreak minutes before her heat, I had the pleasure of watching it all unfold from the channel. Opening with an 8-point ride, it was immediately clear she was surfing with intent. In girthy 6- to 8-foot bombs, she was in attack mode from the jump. Laying down a series of searing forehand carves, her pace and energy were on another level against wildcard Sophie McCulloch.
Then came her moment. Gliding in under the ledge, she pulled in and began racing. Driving through section after section, playing cat and mouse with the foam ball as the water drained out over the reef, she came flying out with a huge smile beaming from ear to ear. The channel erupted. Hugs were exchanged in the channel. Then she was back out there.
“It was definitely the best heat of my life,” she shared in her post-heat interview from the athletes boat.
“There were probably two or three other tens that came through during that heat, but she told me she didn’t want to get hurt,” surmised a friend in a conversation on the athlete’s boat after the heat.
Finishing the heat with an 18-point total, nobody came close to touching that performance today. Nobody may touch that performance the rest of the event, or heck, the rest of the year. If anyone’s up to the challenge, it’s Brooks. Coming off of her win at the Tahiti Pro, the teenager is brimming with confidence and enthusiasm. It was only a matter of time before the prodigious talent found her footing on the Championship Tour, and after what we’ve seen from her the last few weeks, here she comes.
Related: Fiji Pro Could Start In Serious South Pacific Surf
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