The professional surfers of the WSL top ranking, World Surf League, are sports and media stars, and the most famous.
The main wave athletes pocket quite large sums with the competition awards and their sponsorship contracts. These are the top 10 active riders in the surf industry and how much they charged during 2018.
- John Florence
World champion John Florence rides him big time. He runs a team of 16 people: chef, coach, physiotherapist, public relations, spiritual guidance included, not to mention the maintenance costs of his yacht, the Falcor.
- Gabriel Medina
His contract with Rip Curl, signed until 2021, is half of John’s contract with Hurley, but that difference Gabriel retrieves elsewhere.
The Brazilian telecommunications company Oi provides you with large revenues, Audi exceeds six figures and the brand of Guarana soft drinks, about 400 thousand dollars. Gabriel also included Corona and Orthopride on his sponsorship list in 2018, but lost FCS, Oakley, and Gillette. He may have been the number one surfer in 2018, but for the moment, he will have to remain the second among the millionaires of surfing.
- Mick Fanning
The days of Mick as a surfer of first-level competition may have finished for this year, but his days as one of the faces most recognized of the Australian culture and the surf world have not done so. Also, Mick is already an entrepreneur who round up these figures with his stops brand.
- Julian Wilson
Hurley inherited Julian’s current seven-figure deal when Nike left surfing in late 2012. This adds to his juicy contracts with Mercedes and Red Bull plus a considerable deal with Oakley.
- Filipe Toledo
He may probably get a world title and a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. This will increase Filipe’s income capacity even further.
Last year, Filipe signed a lot of new contracts: Hurley, Oi and Monster, and additional signings with brands like GoPro, Sunbum have increased Filipe’s earnings by $ 1.3 m.
- Kolohe Andino
If Kolohe wants to increase his profits by $ 1.9 million by 2019, he’ll just have to surf and return to the top 10 next season.
In the last few years, Kolohe has lost agreements with Target and SkullCandy, but the c,contract with Hurley c,ombined with endorsements from Red Bull, FCS, Mayhem, and Oakley, maintains the income of Kolohe safe.
- Kanoa Igarashi
Kanoa Igarashi has the largest contract from Boardriders (i.e., the company that brings Roxy, BillaBong, RVCA and Quiksilver together).
Kanoa also earned significant benefits by bringing a gold medal to Japan at the recent ISA Games and will earn more when he is Japan’s best surfer at the 2020 Olympics.
- Jordy Smith
With a lucrative deal with Red Bull and a good number of smaller brands such as Oakley, Jeep, Neff, and Futures, Jordy kept his place on this list despite losing nearly a million of his earnings in 2018.
- Stephanie Gilmore
Even without his world title, Steph would have been on this list. His contract with Roxy generates most of his profits, along with other sponsors such as Sanitarium, Nikon, and Audi. These agreements place you with $ 1 million as the woman with the highest surf income.
Despite being a few steps away from the best male athlete, the ever-proclaimed gender gap still exists on the highest thresholds of high-performance surfing.
- Kai Lenny
Having important agreements with brands such as Hurley, Red Bull, and Tag Heuer, the ultimate waterman Kai Lenny won $ 1,050,000 this year and is the highest-income personality of the year in the big wave category.
