The World Surfing League (WSL) have announced that on 10 December, URBNSURF will host the first-ever WSL Qualifying Series (QS) event in an artificial surf park.
The Rip Curl Pro URBNSURF presented by Pirate Life will be held at the surf park companies Melbourne facility and will see 80 male and female surfers from around Australia will compete in a Wavegarden cove.
The event follows the announcement that WSL will begin sanctioning wave basin-based events across Pro Junior, Qualifying series and Longboard Tiers at the regional level.
The event will offer a prize of $20,000 and qualification points for surfers looking for a sport on the 2023 WSL Challenger series.
Commenting on the event, URBNSURF CEO, Damon Tudor, said: “URBNSURF has been the base of so many ‘firsts’ this year, we had a world-first with Winter Jam in August and now we have a WSL Qualifying Series event in Australia’s first surf park, perfectly timed to kick off what is set to be a cracking summer at URBNSURF.”
“We are so lucky to have a park that has the unique Wavergarden technology, open and undercover spaces and the awesome team of staff to facilitate and host large events like the Rip Curl Pro QS1,000.
“We cannot wait to welcome some of the best homegrown surfing talent from across the region, serve up perfect waves and celebrate with fans of the sport and surfing lifestyle,” he said.
WSL APAC president, Andrew Stark, added: “The WSL is extremely excited to be working with URBNSURF Melbourne to deliver this QS1,000 event for our members and fans.”
“It’s a unique facility and offers a great opportunity to deliver a QS1,000 in a one-day format.
“This is the first official WSL QS to be held in wave pool technology, so we are very interested to see the event come to life in such a unique setting and wave,” he said.
The world-first event comes following the announcement of an expanded partnership between the World Surf League (WSL) and Box to Box Films, that will see the production company creating scripted and unscripted content for five-decade large surfing archive.
