The Wavepool Surf Tour (WPST), a new competition format built specifically for wave-pool surfing, has launched with its first qualifying event at Alaïa Bay in Switzerland. Founded by Mark Fessler, former Head of Operations at the venue, the tour runs the Alaïa Surf Challenge from August 1 to October 25, 2026. So far, no top-ranked competitive surfer has signed on.
How the Alaïa Surf Challenge judging works
Entrants pay a fee starting at $30 to compete. They surf a session at Alaïa Bay, then work with the venue's official video provider to pull footage of their waves.
Each competitor submits their two best rides. A panel described on the WPST website as five international judges will score the clips using what the tour calls "TRIPLE C" criteria: Commitment, Creativity, Control. That detail hasn't been independently confirmed beyond WPST's own site.
The format spans eight main divisions alongside four special categories, including groms, legends, adaptive surfing and bodyboarding. That's a wider net than a typical Championship Tour stop.
WPST's website says the season will eventually expand to nine qualifying events across nine countries. Right now, Alaïa Bay is the only one open for entries, and the tour's site points to 176 surfers eventually reaching a World Final, though where that live finale will happen hasn't been announced.
Why Alaïa Bay, Switzerland is hosting the first event
Alaïa Bay holds the distinction of being the first surfing wave pool built in continental Europe. That history made it a natural home base for a tour trying to formalize wave-pool competition.
Fessler competed on the ASP WQS tour for South Africa in the early 1990s before later representing Switzerland at ISA world games, reportedly becoming the country's first professional surfer.
We believe the time is right for a competition format built specifically for wavepool surfing and the people who are helping drive its growth.
Mark Fessler, via WavePool Magazine
The timing tracks with a boom in the pool business itself. Roughly 33 to 34 surfing wave pools are operating worldwide as of early 2026, according to WavePool Magazine, with about a dozen more under construction across Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas.
Wave-pool surfing's competitive history
Artificial-wave contests aren't new. Tom Carroll won the 1985 World Professional Inland Surfing Championships in Allentown, Pennsylvania, decades before Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch or Abu Dhabi hosted Championship Tour stops in man-made surf.
Online qualification has precedent too. Costa Rica's Carlos Muñoz turned a win at the 2014 Hurley Pro Video Trials into a CT wildcard. The Vans Triple Crown briefly ran a fully digital format before folding in 2023.
The missing piece: elite surfers
What WPST doesn't have, at least not yet, is buy-in from anyone ranked near the top of the sport. Whether that changes is the open question hanging over the launch.
A 2026 SIMA Surf Industry Growth Report found that wave pools are reshaping who gets to surf and how, as access expands beyond traditional coastal breaks. Whether that shift eventually pulls elite talent into a tour like WPST, or whether the tour stays a grassroots digital contest, remains unresolved.
Entries for the Alaïa Surf Challenge stay open through late October. The rest of WPST's promised global expansion is still unbuilt.
