Season one of ABC’s new summer series The Ultimate Surfer will feature 14 surfers competing for The Ultimate Surfer title and a chance to compete on the World Surf League Championship Tour. Six California surfers, three surfers from Florida, four Hawaiian surfers, and one surfer from Puerto Rico will battle it out over the course of the series’ first season.
Ex-NFL quarterback Jesse Palmer is the host, with Erin Coscarelli and Joe Turpel on board as commentators. World champion surfer Kelly Slater pulls double duty as the lead consultant and as a special correspondent.
ABC will launch the series with a two-night premiere on August 23 and August 24, 2021. Both episodes will air at 10pm ET/PT after new episodes of Bachelor in Paradise.
The Ultimate Surfer Season 1 Competitors:
Anastasia Ashley – 33, Miami Beach, Fla.
Kai Barger – 30, Haiku, Hawaii
Mason Barnes – 26, Venice, Calif.
Tia Blanco – 23, Oceanside, Calif.
Austin Clouse – 26, Jacksonville Beach, Fla.
Brianna Cope – 25, Koloa, Hawaii
Luke Davis – 27, Los Angeles, Calif.
Kayla Durden – 27, Jacksonville Beach, Fla.
Juli Hernandez – 22, Costa Mesa, Calif.
Zeke Lau – 26, Honolulu, Hawaii
Alejandro Moreda – 34, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Koa Smith – 25, Sunset Beach, Hawaii
Malia Ward – 22, San Clemente, Calif.
Bruna Zaun – 30, Redondo Beach, Calif.
The series is a Lionsgate’s Pilgrim Media Group and WSL Studios production. Craig Piligian, Erik Logan, Dana White, and Faye Stapleton executive produce.
Series Description, Courtesy of ABC:
The Ultimate Surfer will gather some of the world’s greatest up-and-coming surfers to train and live together as they battle it out at the World Surf League’s (WSL) state-of-the-art Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California, powered by Kelly Slater’s human-made wave technology, in the hope of competing amongst the best athletes in the world’s fastest-growing sport.
Alliances and rivalries will be front and center in The Ultimate Surfer as men and women compete in individual and team challenges focused on specific surfing disciplines. Weekly eliminations will leave two men and two women as finalists who will vie for the male and female titles of The Ultimate Surfer and the opportunity to compete on the elite WSL Championship Tour, the pinnacle of professional surfing. Slater’s remarkable, one-of-a-kind, human-made wave — the most even playing field for measuring surf mastery — is at the heart of the series.
