In many ways, Australia is largely responsible for pro surfing as we know it today. From the Bustin’ Down The Door era of Mark Richards, Ian Cairns and Rabbit Bartholomew in the ’70s, to the advent of the Dream Tour concept in the late ’90s (another contribution from Rabbit), to Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Steph Gilmore and Molly Picklum who have led the charge in the new millennium, Aussies love their competitive surfing, and now the World Surf League is no longer the only player Down Under.
The Surfing Super League (SSL) officially launched today, unveiling an eight-team format that aims to bring a faster, more television-friendly format to professional surfing. The SSL is built around a simple premise: surfing has plenty of athletes, waves and passionate fans, but it has never had a domestic professional league designed specifically for live television. In an open letter accompanying the league’s launch, SSL CEO Chris Mater noted that the lack of a broadcast-friendly format has been one of the sport’s biggest obstacles to building sustainable professional careers in Australia.
“The world’s biggest sports all share one thing in common: they are built for live television,” Mater wrote. “Live broadcasts create appointment viewing, loyal fans, commercial investment and, ultimately, sustainable professional competitions.”
Mater, a lifelong surfer and former CEO of Surfing Australia who previously spent 19 years with Red Bull in Australia and the United States, said the SSL was created to address that gap. The league, he wrote, is “Australia’s first domestic professional team surfing league,” built around team surfing, fixed match times and continuous competition specifically for live television.
The concept represents a significant departure from the “man-on-man” format that has defined professional surfing for decades. Instead of surfers competing primarily for themselves, SSL surfers will represent regional franchises, with teams accumulating points throughout the season before the top four advance to a championship final.
Each 90-minute match will feature four surfers competing for each team in a relay-style format, with every wave contributing to the team’s overall score. It’s surfing packaged less like a traditional surf contest and more like a professional sports league.
“The Surfing Super League celebrates everything people already love about the sport while introducing the structure, rivalries and consistency that define the world’s great professional competitions,” Mater says.
The inaugural SSL season will feature eight foundation franchises representing some of Australia’s most significant surfing regions. Those teams will come from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Sydney’s South, Newcastle, Northern Rivers, the Gold Coast (two franchises), the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne. The regular season will consist of seven rounds, with the top four teams qualifying for the inaugural Surfing Super League Grand Final.
The SSL isn’t positioning itself as a replacement for the existing individual professional surfing system. Instead, Mater describes it as a complementary format intended to create another pathway for Australian surfers, one that can provide professional contracts at home while also supporting clubs, coastal communities and athletes pursuing international ambitions.
SSL teams will combine Australian surfing legends, current professionals, international and out-of-market Australian athletes, and emerging talent. The stated goal is to create a domestic professional pathway while giving fans surfers and teams they can follow throughout an entire season. Importantly, the league says every contracted surfer will receive equal pay regardless of gender or playing tier. For surfers who aren’t currently earning enough from competition and sponsorship to make a full-time living, that guaranteed income could prove particularly significant.
The SSL is effectively betting that professional surfing can reach a larger audience if some of the uncertainty and downtime inherent in traditional surf contests is removed. A fixed 90-minute window gives broadcasters a predictable product. A team scoreboard gives fans something to follow beyond individual surfers. Regional franchises create the possibility of local rivalries.
The inaugural season is scheduled to kick off January 2028, with the league promising live television coverage across its eight-week season. Fans can register through the Surfing Super League website for announcements, team signings and ticket information.
“Surfing deserves its place as a leading Australian sport, and the time to claim it is now,” adds Mater.
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