The WSL Championship Tour's first-ever stop in New Zealand has handed wildcard slots to three home surfers, with veteran Billy Stairmand, trials winner Tom Butler and 15-year-old Alani Morris flying the flag for the host nation in Raglan.
The trio occupy slots that have historically been weighted toward Australian or American invitees on regional CT events. Their selections reflect both a local wave that demands familiarity with the inside section of Manu Bay and the WSL's interest in showcasing developing market talent at a contest the federation hopes will sit on the calendar long term.
Stairmand has been the dominant figure at Raglan for the better part of a decade. The veteran New Zealander has won the King of the Point event at Manu Bay multiple times, has trained at the wave for years and arrives at the CT with what WSL commentators called a 'trademark move' tailored to the wave's back-end bowl.
"Billy's got that wave figured out on the back end," WSL commentator Richie Lovett said in the event preview. "He's got the kind of turn — it's a bit of a trademark move for him that he can go to that's super explosive, big nose pick fin ditch. I think we can expect to see him pull that out of the bag."
Butler earned his slot at the recent King of the Point event, taking out the trials in a field of Australian and New Zealand pros. The 28-year-old has never competed at a Championship Tour event before and has been training at Raglan for the full week leading into the contest window.
"Tom Butler actually won King of the Queen of the Point, so he's going to be joining the championship tour over there," Lovett said. "He came here to surf this week. He's been here the entire week to get a feel of the event because he's quite nervous. He's never even been to a CT event before, so he decided to fly over the ditch and get the experience."
The women's wildcard slot belongs to 15-year-old Morris, who won the women's King of the Point against established names including Paige Hareb and Bianca Buitendag at Raglan. Manu Bay is her home break.
"On the women's side, 15-year-old Alani Morris — she won, beat Paige Hareb and Bianca Buitendag over there at Raglan, and that's her home wave," Lovett said. "Those two are really going to put up a good fight, and of course, Billy Stairmand has won like a million times at Raglan, so he's been training really hard."
The event window opened on May 15 and runs through to May 22. The wave is described by WSL commentators as a high-performance left with sections that suit goofy-footers but with hidden traps for the unfamiliar.
"It's another high-performance wave," Lovett said. "Not super consequential unless it gets really, really big. But I dare say some of the natural-footers will be going and putting vision of Connor (O'Leary) in their mirror and going, OK, that's what we got to start doing."
Stairmand drew Jack Robinson in his opening heat, Butler faces Yago Dora, and Morris was scheduled against four-time world champion Carissa Moore in what will be one of the matches of the contest's opening rounds.
