The Average CT Surfer Spends Just 14.5 Hours A Year Competing
The new 2025 CT schedule just dropped, but why are surfers competing on it remain the least hard-working athletes in professional sport
The new CT schedule for 2025 dropped today. It goes Pipe, Abu Dhabi (more on that sports washing in next week’s post), Portugal, El Salvador, Bells, Snapper, Margarets, Trestles, Rio, J-Bay, Tahiti and the Finals in Fiji.
Looks solid. Some great waves, a few new stops, old favourites back on. And yet even for the surfers that make the cut after five events, it equates to very little surfing time per athlete. That’s why a while ago I wrote a piece for SURFER with the inflammatory title, “Are CT Surfers The Least Hard-Working Athletes In Professional Sport?”
In hindsight, it wasn’t probably the best of moves considering I just spent the last 10 days commentating at a professional surfing event in Portugal. Luckily, there were only two CT surfers in the competition, Kanoa Igarashi and Leo Fioravanti. And neither pulled me up on it. Probably too busy. Or couldn’t be bothered.
Now you couldn’t call those two surfers lazy. Check out their Instagram - it's full of medicine ball throwing, rope twirling, golf ball hitting, award ceremoning, weight lifting, heat drilling, jetsetting and, of course, surfing. There’s no question they aren’t elite athletes. But in terms of actual time spent competing, I defy you to find an elite athlete that does less of their sport than surfers.
On the CT, Leo surfed 23 heats across 10 events over eight months. That equates to 11.5 half hours of real-time eventing. In the most recent Test Cricket match played in Pakistan, England's Joe Root has just spent 25 hours in the field over four days, fielding for 14, and batting 11, all in 45-degree heat. In European football, elite players can play up to 74 matches for club and country in a schedule that starts in early August and ends in late June. One of the world’s best players Rodri, who plays for Manchester City (owned, like Kelly’s new pool, by the UAE) and Spain said that players will soon have to go on strike to protect themselves. Four days later he snapped his cruciate ligament, and will now be out for 12 months. World No. 1 tennis player Jannik Sinner has played 75 matches so far in 2024, or 211 hours of court time.
Meanwhile in 2024, Kanoa Igarashi surfed just one more heat than Leo, 24, for 12 hours of competitive surfing time. Let’s call that that single shift, plus a couple hours of overtime for the average worker. And six of those heats came in one event, at Sunset, back in January. Kanoa is a lot of things, but he ain’t overworked.
Now it's worth noting that Kanoa and Leo didn’t have the best of years on tour. They would have surfed more heats in heartbeat, because the sudden death format means the more heats you surf the better you have gone. World Champion John John Florence surfed almost double the amount, with 42 heats, but still not quite a full day. It took Caity Simmers 33 heats to win her World Title, just over 16 hours of actual competitive surfing, from January to September. Not a bad return for a two-day shift.
Meanwhile, golfer Rory McIlroy, who played 22 events last year, spent around 80 days on the course. In the NBA a new rule was introduced where players have to play at least 65 games of the 82-game season (excluding play-offs) to be eligible for postseason awards. And this is match time; which makes up a small percentage of the time spent in training. Players have complained of injuries and burnout due to the extended season.
They have a strong point; athlete welfare is important and often a neglected platform of all elite sports. However, it’s hard to say the current batch of surf stars can complain about the schedule. And to be fair, most don’t.
It’s also worth remembering the WSL Finals finished on September 6, 2024. The first event of the CT season isn’t due to start on January 28, 2025. That's what is called the off-season. That means the rest, ie the 13 hours of surfing, is the on season. Surfers may not be lazy, but surf fans sure don’t get to see 'em much. Meanwhile, in the cricket Joe Root is playing tomorrow. It's the first five-day test, there are two more to come in the series...
Loved reading this. It seems like other athletes are over worked and surfers maybe can push it more. Excited to get your thoughts on abu dhabi and parks in general which definitely pushes wave count.
Another cool thing to look at would be waves ridden. JJF surfs many heats but not many waves compared to Italo or Medina for example.
This is a really cool piece! Thanks for writing it.