Best Women Surfers in the World

These women are taking surfing to new levels of excellence.

Best Women Surfers in the World

Women’s surfing has come a long way since the days of "Gidget." While the daredevil sport still is associated with big-name men, some of the most accomplished surfers in history have been women.

That’s true now more than ever, with a host of acrobatic stars across the globe continuing to push the boundaries of the sport and take it to new levels. In 2019, the World Surfing League started offering the same prize money to male and female surfers at every WSL event, making it the first U.S.-based sports league to pay its athletes the same regardless of gender.

Equal pay is a big deal and a testament to the rise of women’s surfing. As the sport keeps growing, here are the women’s surfers you should know.

30. Bianca Valenti

Born: Oct. 30, 1987

Country: United States

Hometown: San Francisco, California

Bottom Line: Bianca Valenti

Bianca Valenti is considered the top U.S. women’s big-wave surfer from the mainland. In the first three World Surf League Big Wave Tour events at Jaws on the north shore of Maui, she finished seventh or better.

Valenti has ventured south of the border to try to tame Mack truck-sized barrels at Puerto Escondido off the Mexican coast. And her activism on the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing also played a pivotal role in the World Surf League’s decision to include women in the Mavericks contest, held near her home in Northern California, and offer equal pay for men’s and women’s events.

For her efforts, Outside magazine named Valenti one of its most accomplished athletes of the year in 2018.

29. Alessa Quizon

Born: Jan. 2, 1994

Country: United States

Hometown: Makaha, Oahu, Hawaii

Bottom Line: Alessa Quizon

Hailing from Oahu, Alessa Quizon is looking to make her way back onto the World Surf League’s elite Championship Tour, where she competed from 2014 to 2016. Those hopes got a big boost with a victory at the 2019 Sydney Women’s Pro on the Women’s Qualifying Series.

Although she’s only 26, Quizon is a veteran of the pro surfing circuit, going back to her No. 4 junior world ranking in 2011.

Her best career finish came in 2015, when she placed third at the Target Maui Pro on the Championship Tour.

28. Andrea Moller

Born: Sept. 16, 1979

Country: Brazil

Hometown: Ilhabela, Brazil

Bottom Line: Andrea Moller

One of the world’s top big wave surfers, the Brazilian continues to perform at the top of her sport despite the fact she’s 40. She was the runner-up at the 2018 Women's Jaws Challenge at Maui and finished fifth in 2017.

In 2004, Moller became the world’s first tow-in female surfer, and in 2010 was named the most important Brazilian water woman by the sports magazine Go Outside.

She also is a world-class canoeist and works on Maui as a professional paramedic.

27. Alyssa Spencer

Age: March 13, 2003

Country: United States

Hometown: Encinitas, California

Bottom Line: Alyssa Spencer

A longtime top performer on the World Surf League’s junior tour, this teen sensation will be a surfer to watch in the years to come. In 2019, she was ranked as high as No. 2 in the Women’s Qualifying Series, the steppingstone to the WSL’s elite Championship Tour.

The Carlsbad, California, native learned to surf from her father at age 6 and has been "hooked ever since." She is a former U.S. champion in the girls under-12 and under-14 divisions, and in 2017 won the under-16 Vissla ISA World Junior Championship in Japan.

26. Philippa Anderson

Born: Jan.14, 1992

Country: Australia

Hometown: Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Bottom Line: Philippa Anderson

A surfing veteran, Philippa Anderson first burst onto the scene back in 2009 when she won Australia’s Newcastle Surfest as a 17-year-old. More than a decade later, she is still tackling the waves and competing against the world’s best.

Anderson’s career seemed to be on the wane following years of less-than-notable performances, but she re-emerged with her win at the 2019 Carve Pro Women’s Qualifying Series event in Sydney and landed back on the Championship Tour.

25. Isabella Nichols

Born: Aug. 20, 1997

Country: Australia

Hometown: Coolum Beach, Queensland, Australia

Bottom Line: Isabella Nichols

The 2015 women’s world junior champion, Isabella Nichols has broken through on the World Surf League’s top circuit.

After being the top-ranked surfer in the 2019 Women’s Qualifying Series, she's made it to the Championship Tour.

Nichols’ surfing skills also gained the attention of Hollywood, as she served as the stunt double for Blake Lively in the surf-shark movie, "The Shallows."

24. Justine Dupont

Born: Aug. 27, 1991

Country: France

Hometown: Seignosse, France

Bottom Line: Justine Dupont

The runner-up in the inaugural Pe’ahi Women’s Challenge in 2016, Justine Dupont followed that effort with third- and fifth-place finishes the next two years at Maui’s legendary big wave break better known as Jaws.

Dupont also was the European longboard champion in 2018 and helped lead her French team to the Aloha Cup world championship in 2017.

She is known for tackling the world’s biggest waves in Nazare, Portugal, and with more than 150,000 Instagram followers, is recognized as one of the most popular big wave surfers in the world.

23. Brisa Hennessy

Born: Sept. 16, 1999

Country: Costa Rica

Hometown: Matapalo, Costa Rica

Bottom Line: Brisa Hennessy

After starring on the junior circuit, this 20-year-old sensation appears a good bet to make a splash on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour in the coming years.

In the 2017 Women’s Qualifying Series, Hennessy triumphed at the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing in South Africa among her seven Top 10 finishes. She also won the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing junior competition in Huntington Beach, California, in 2017.

Hennessy, who started surfing at 3 years old, is the first Costa Rican surfer to qualify for the Championship Tour.

22. Nicole Pacelli

Born: May 23, 1991

Country: Brazil

Hometown: Sao Paulo, Brazil

Bottom Line: Nicole Pacelli

Recognized as one of the world’s top stand-up paddleboarders, Nicole Pacelli also has established herself as a preeminent big wave surfer.

She’s one of the sport’s regulars in tackling the monster swells at Pe’ahi in Maui (also known as Jaws) and was a 2019 nominee in the World Surf League’s Women’s XXL Biggest Wave competition for one of her rides there.

When it comes to stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), Pacelli was the first champion of the Women’s Stand-up World Tour and the first woman to compete in the Sunset Beach SUP World Championships.

21. Paige Hareb

Born: June 6, 1990

Country: New Zealand

Hometown: Oakura, New Zealand

Bottom Line: Paige Hareb

A surfing veteran who debuted on the Championship Tour back in 2009, Hareb is the first New Zealander to compete at the top women’s level of the World Surf League.

She’s never topped the No. 8 ranking on the Tour that came during her debut season but is still competing against the world’s best a decade later.

After a four-year absence from the Championship Tour, she returned to the circuit in 2018 and qualified again in 2019.

20. Macy Callaghan

Born: Oct. 15, 2000

Country: Australia

Hometown: Avoca Beach, New South Wales, Australia

Bottom Line: Macy Callaghan

Macy Callaghan is part of a crop of teenage surfing talents expected to comprise the sport’s next generation of stars.

She opened eyes in an otherwise lackluster debut 2018 season on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour with a second-place finish at the Roxy Pro France. Callaghan also landed a second-place result at Australia’s Port Stephens Toyota Pro in the 2018 Women’s Qualifying Series.

The 2016 world junior champion, Callaghan was a six-time winner on the Women’s Junior Tour that year and followed up with two first-place finishes on the 2017 junior tour.

19. Bronte Macaulay

Born: Jan. 9, 1994

Country: Australia

Hometown: Gracetown, Australia

Bottom Line: Bronte Macaulay

Bronte Macaulay had nine Top 10 finishes on the 2019 Championship Tour and is looking to join a long list of Aussies who have left their mark on the sport over the years. Surfing is certainly in her genes, as she’s the daughter of former men’s pro Dave Macaulay, who twice finished No. 3 in the world.

In 2017, she struggled through a rough rookie season on the Championship Tour but ended it on a high note with a No. 3 finish at the Maui Women’s Pro. Macaulay also nailed a third-place finish at the 2018 Roxy Pro France.

18. Keely Andrew

Born: Dec. 2, 1994

Country: Australia

Hometown: Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia

Bottom Line: Keely Andrew

Known for her polished and precise style, Keely Andrew is among a host of Aussies tearing up the waves on the women’s tour.

She made a splash in 2015, knocking off stars Tyler Wright, Coco Ho and Johanne Defay en route to a quarterfinal finish in her first Championship Tour event. The next year, she knocked out legend Stephanie Gilmore at Honolua Bay.

Andrew followed up with several quarterfinal finishes in 2017 and advanced to her first Tour final.

17. Sage Erickson

Born: Dec. 28, 1990

Country: United States

Hometown: Ojai, California

Bottom Line: Sage Erickson

Sage Erickson is an eight-year veteran of the World Surf League’s Championship Tour and one of the most popular women surfers in the world.

She notched her first victory in 2017 at the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing and finished the season in the top 10 for the second consecutive year

The native of Ojai, California, learned the sport bouncing between the waves of Southern California and Hawaii, where she lived for a number of years.

16. Silvana Lima

Born: Oct. 29, 1984

Country: Brazil

Hometown: Paracuru, Brazil

At age 33, the Brazilian who grew up in a beach snack shack continues to hold her own against the best surfers in the world.

A fixture on the Championship Tour since 2006, Silvana Lima has won eight national titles and twice was runner-up in the world standings.

Known for her agility and breakneck speed, she was one of the first female surfers to routinely go airborne during competitions.

Bottom Line: Silvana Lima

At age 35, the Brazilian who grew up in a beach snack shack continues to hold her own against the best surfers in the world. She finished the 2018 World Surf League season ranked No. 13 in the world.

A fixture on the Championship Tour since 2006, Silvana Lima has won eight national titles and twice was runner-up in the world standings.

Known for her agility and breakneck speed, she was one of the first female surfers to routinely go airborne during competitions.

15. Malia Manuel

Born: Aug. 9, 1993

Country: United States

Hometown: Wailua, Kauai, Hawaii

Bottom Line: Malia Manuel

The Kauai native, who started surfing at age 2, has been a fixture on the pro surfing circuit since 2008, when at age 14 she became the youngest surfer to win the U.S. Open of Surfing. Malia Manuel finished 2019 ranked ninth in the world.

She was the Championship Tour rookie of the year in 2012, when she finished No. 6 in the rankings, but eight years later, she is still looking for her first Tour win.

Manuel also has skills out of the water, artistically paints her own surfboard with a Hawaiian/Polynesian theme.

14. Keala Kennelly

Born: Aug. 13, 1978

Country: United States

Hometown: Hanalei, Kauai, Hawaii

Bottom Line: Keana Kennelly

One of the pioneers of big wave surfing, the Kauai native spent a decade ranked among the World Surf League’s top traditional pro surfers before transitioning to the monster swells.

In 2018, she captured the Women’s Jaws Challenge at Pe’ahi on the north shore of Maui, following a second-place finish in 2017.

The feat was all the more impressive because it came during one of the most challenging days in the event’s four-year history, with a Pacific storm and low tide creating treacherous conditions.

13. Courtney Conlogue

Born: Aug. 25, 1992

Country: United States

Hometown: Santa Ana, California

Bottom Line: Courtney Conlogue

The Santa Ana, California, native has twice been a runner-up world champion (2015 and 2016) and has ranked in the world’s top 10 nine consecutive years.

As a child, she and her brother would ride nearly 20 miles on their bikes to hone their surfing skills at Huntington Beach. At age 10, she won the first surfing contest she entered, and while still in high school, Conlogue captured the U.S. Open of Surfing.

She’s been surfing against the world’s best ever since.

12. Coco Ho

Born: April 28, 1991

Country: United States

Hometown: North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii

Bottom Line: Coco Ho

Surfing is in Coco Ho’s blood. She’s the daughter of Michael Ho, one of the pioneers of pro surfing and a legend of Oahu’s North Shore. Her uncle Derek was the 1993 world champion, and brother Mason is also a longtime pro.

Coco, who received her first sponsorship at age 8, has been riding the waves on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour since 2009, when she was named rookie of the year and finished the season ranked fourth in the world. In 2017, she won three Qualifying Series events to give her nine for her career, and in 2018 was ranked No. 11 in the world.

While she’s not the most decorated of women’s surfers, Ho is definitely among the most popular, with more than 665,000 Instagram followers, topping even legendary world champ Stephanie Gilmore.

11. Nikki Van Dijk

Born: Nov. 28, 1994

Country: Australia

Hometown: Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia

Bottom Line: Nikki Van Dijk

The 2012 junior world champion, Nikki Van Dijk has emerged in recent years as one of the top surfers on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour, winning the Los Cabos Open of Surfing in 2015.

She finished the 2017 season ranked No. 7, highlighted by her first Tour victory at the Cascais Women’s Pro in Portugal, before falling to No. 10 in 2018, where she finished in 2019.

10. Paige Alms

Born: April 6, 1988

Country: United States

Hometown: Haiku, Hawaii

Bottom Line: Paige Alms

The back-to-back winner of Maui’s Pe’ahi Challenge in 2016 and 2017, this Hawaii transplant by way of Canada has quickly established herself as one of the top big wave women’s surfers in the world. Those victories crowned her each year as the World Surf League’s big wave champion.

Her mastery of Pe’ahi (also known as Jaws) has no doubt been helped by the fact that the legendary Maui break is located only five minutes from her home on the island. She was the first woman to get barreled at Jaws, whose waves can approach 60 feet in height.

Alms has also been a leader in the fight for gender equity in the sport, co-founding the Committee for Women’s Equity in Surfing in 2016 and leading the effort to include women in the Mavericks big wave competition in Northern California.

9. Tyler Wright

Born: March 31, 1994

Country: Australia

Hometown: Culburra Beach, New South Wales, Australia

Bottom Line: Tyler Wright

The back-to-back world champion in 2016-17 already has cemented her place among the sport’s all-time greats. As a 14-year-old, Tyler Wright became the youngest surfer in history to win a World Surf League Championship Tour event when she captured the Beachley Classic in Sydney in 2008.

After runner-up world championship finishes in 2013 and 2014, she finally surfed her way to the top of the sport in 2016 and 2017. Both years, she overcame her share of hardship and adversity on the way to the title. First, it was a life-threatening brain injury suffered by her brother. Then, in 2017, she rebounded late in the season from a knee injury to defend her crown.

Her hopes for a third consecutive title were upended in 2018 by an illness that knocked her out of several events. But she finished 2019 with a second-place finish in the lululemon Maui Pro.

8. Sally Fitzgibbons

Born: Dec. 19, 1990

Country: Australia

Hometown: Gerroa, New South Wales, Australia

Bottom Line: Sally Fitzgibbons

A former world junior champion, the Aussie exploded onto the women’s surfing scene, clinching the World Surf League’s Qualifying Series championship at age 18 faster than any woman in history.

Following three consecutive runner-up finishes for the world title, Sally Fitzgibbons slumped for a few years but has been climbing the rankings again.

She finished the 2017 season No. 3 in the world, 2018 at No. 6 and 2019 at No. 5.

7. Johanne Defay

Born: Nov. 19, 1993

Country: France

Hometown: Reunion Island, France

Bottom Line: Johanne Defay

The only French surfer on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour, Johanne Defay is known for her explosive moves, such as the "inverted nose-pick reverse," and mastery of surfing’s figure-eight fundamentals.

After leading France to its first world amateur title, Defay joined the world’s best on the Championship Tour in 2014 and notched Tour victories at the Vans U.S. Open in 2015 and Fiji in 2016.

She finished 2018 ranked No. 5 in the world and was No. 8 at the end of 2019.

6. Caroline Marks

Born: Feb. 14, 2002

Country: United States

Hometown: Melbourne Beach, Florida

Bottom Line: Caroline Marks

The youngest surfer ever to qualify for the World Surf League’s Women’s Championship Tour, the American teen ranks among the brightest young stars in the sport, with limitless potential.

Caroline Marks found a new outlet for her immense talent after her family relocated from Florida to San Clemente, California, capturing national NSSA titles in the girls and women’s divisions, two Vans U.S. Open Pro Junior titles and the ISA world title. She was the International Surfing Association’s Under-16 champ in 2016.

A month after turning 16 in February of 2018, she competed in her first Tour event and finished the season ranked No. 7 in the world. She earned a $100,000 payday for winning the first event of the 2019 Championship Tour season, the Boost Mobile Pro contest in Australia. She also won the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal and finished the year ranked No. 2 in the world.

5. Lakey Peterson

Born: Sept. 30, 1994

Country: United States

Hometown: Santa Barbara, California

Bottom Line: Lakey Peterson

The American from Santa Barbara burst onto the surfing scene at age 14, when she became the first woman to complete an aerial maneuver in competition. Two years later, she was runner-up in her very first World Surf League Championship Tour event, the U.S. Open of Surfing.

After winning the U.S. Open in 2012 and earning rookie of the year honors, Peterson went winless over the next five seasons. Her fortunes turned in 2018, however, when she won two events en route to a No. 2 overall world ranking. In 2019, she won another two events and finished No. 3 in the rankings.

The daughter of a national champion swimmer who missed a chance to compete in the 1980 Olympics because of the American boycott, Peterson is eagerly eyeing her sport’s Olympic debut in 2021.

4. Tatiana Weston-Webb

Born: May 9, 1996

Country: Brazil

Hometown: Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii

Bottom Line: Tatiana Weston-Webb

Though she is a native of Brazil, where her mother was a professional bodyboarder, Tatiana Weston-Webb grew up in Kauai, the home of her surfing father.

Tackling the fierce waves of Kauai helped fuel a daring confidence that has become her trademark on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour since her arrival in 2015. She won the Qualifying Series and was named rookie of the year that year.

A two-time junior world champion, Weston-Webb, who has drawn comparisons for her looks to the character Daenerys Targaryen on "Game of Thrones," captured her first Championship Tour victory in 2016 and has had five runner-up finishes since.

3. Maya Gabeira

Born: April 10, 1987

Country: Brazil

Hometown: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Bottom Line: Maya Gabeira

Maya Gabeira cemented her place as the greatest female big wave surfer in the world in 2018. On Oct. 2, she earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the 68-foot monster she rode in January at Nazare, Portugal, which is famed for producing some of the world’s most daunting, treacherous waves.

The feat also won her the first-ever World Surf League Women’s XXL Biggest Wave Award. The journey to this place hasn’t been easy for the Rio de Janeiro native, who nearly drowned while surfing six years ago and fought for years to establish a separate big wave category for women (the men’s record is held by another Brazilian, Rodrigo Koxa, at 80 feet).

Even after accomplishing her feat at Nazare back, it took many months of lobbying, including a change.org petition, before it was officially certified as a world record.

Despite suffering from asthma, Gabeira has long dominated her version of the sport, winning previous Big Wave awards in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 and the 2009 ESPY for Best Female Action Sport Athlete.

2. Carissa Moore

Born: Aug. 27, 1992

Country: United States

Hometown: Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

Bottom Line: Carissa Moore

A four-time world champion, the Honolulu native already ranks among the best women’s surfers in the history of the sport.

After collecting 11 national titles as an amateur, Carissa Moore wasted no time establishing herself as a top threat to the legendary Stephanie Gilmore when she arrived on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour in 2010.

Her first world tile in 2011 ended Gilmore’s streak of four consecutive championships, and the two traded the world crown over the next four years in what became one of the top rivalries in the history of the sport.

1. Stephanie Gilmore

Born: Jan. 29, 1988

Country: Australia

Hometown: Kingscliff, New South Wales, Australia

Bottom Line: Stephanie Gilmore

Arguably the greatest women’s surfer in the history of the sport, the Aussie has racked up seven world championships, including the 2018 World Surf League crown.

Stephanie Gilmore is the first surfer, man or woman, to win a world title as a rookie, and to win championships in each of her first four seasons on the Tour, a feat she accomplished from 2007 to 2010. It’s no surprise she won ESPN’s ESPY award as the best female action sport athlete in both 2011 and 2013.

Gilmore showed resoundingly in 2018 that her best days are not behind her, capturing three events on the way to her first world title since 2014. With 661,000 Instagram followers, Gilmore has developed a worldwide following as one of the sport’s superstars.