Roediger dominates as Cloudbreak delivers its most savage finals day ever
by International Windsurfing Tour 19 Jun 05:26 PDT
Fiji Surf Pro © Maleen Hoekstra and Malte Øgelund
If day one at the Fiji Surf Pro announced Cloudbreak's intentions, day three delivered on every promise and then some. Double mast high sets (20-25 feet faces) unloaded onto the reef all day, the waves thick, square, and unforgiving.
Four sets of equipment were destroyed before the final horn, thankfully no athletes sustained injuries on the day. The wind swung further offshore and fluctuated throughout, turning wave selection into a lottery and every committed move into an act of genuine courage. It was, by any measure, one of the most extreme days of competitive windsurfing seen anywhere in the world — and for the first time in the sport's history, Fiji and the South Pacific watched it live on free-to-air television.
A landmark broadcast moment for the sport
The 2026 Fiji Surf Pro marked the inaugural live broadcast partnership between the World Windsurf Tour and the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), with Finals Day airing free-to-air on FBC-2 across Fiji and the wider South Pacific. The broadcast represents a transformative step in the WWT's mission to bring professional windsurfing to mainstream audiences — and to do so from the Pacific's home turf.
For Fijian fans, it meant watching world-class athletes battle Cloudbreak in real time, on the same screens they watch rugby, cricket, and football. For the WWT, it means the sport's most dramatic day on the water reached an audience many times larger than any previous windsurfing broadcast in the region. The partnership with FBC is a signal of intent: the World Windsurf Tour is building a global broadcast footprint.
Men's semi finals
The semi finals set the tone. With a place in the final on the line, all four athletes in each heat pushed beyond the limits of what the conditions demanded — huge committed aerials, late drops onto pitching lips, and riding deep inside sections that most would avoid entirely.
Camille Juban advanced from Semi Final 1 with 15.90. In a tightly contested heat, Julian Salmonn produced an outstanding performance but narrowly fell short, with Juban edging him out. In Semi Final 2, Bernd Roediger topped the heat with 14.70. Former champion Baptiste struggled with wave selection throughout, unable to find the rides his talent demanded. Takuma brought his signature high-risk approach but couldn't convert when it counted. Antoine Martin and Morgan Noireaux were the standouts — both dialled in, both landing scores of 9 and 9.5 respectively to book their places in the final. The numbers alone do not capture what was happening out on the reef.
Men's final
Hawaii's Bernd Roediger took the Fiji Surf Pro title in a final that was as much a test of nerve as technique. With the wind dropping and waves harder to find, Roediger's wave selection proved decisive — identifying the biggest, most dangerous sets and committing to multiple late inverted hits directly under the pitching lip before launching into full aerials. His 18.07 was the highest total of the final and was never seriously threatened.
France's Antoine Martin took second with 15.76, his riding defined by top turns so deep inside the pocket they exceeded 180 degrees — carving through the most critical part of the wave with a precision that had the judges rewarding him consistently throughout.
Hawaii's Morgan Noireaux produced the single highest-scoring wave of the entire final — a 9.5 for a massive ride of radical commitment featuring two full top-to-bottom aerials that drew audible reaction from the beach. With the wind inconsistent and a second scoring wave proving elusive, Noireaux finished third on 14.46. On another day, that single wave wins a contest. Today it wasn't enough.
Guadeloupe's Camille Juban finished fourth.
Women's final — Jane Seman takes a clean sweep
The women's best-of-three final concluded with the result the week had been pointing toward. Australia's Jane Semancompleted a clean sweep of all three heats, taking three consecutive heat wins in a performance that left no doubt about who owned Cloudbreak this week.
Sarah Kenyon came out strongest in the final heat, her growing comfort with the wave evident with each session. But Seman, as she had done all week, found the two biggest waves available and rode them deeper into the pocket than anyone watching seemed to believe was survivable. On multiple occasions spectators held their breath as the wave looked certain to swallow her whole.
Maria Andrés rounded out the podium in third.
Final results
Men's:
1st Bernd Roediger (USA)
2nd Antoine Martin (GP)
3rd Morgan Noireaux (FR)
4th Camille Juban (FR)
Women's:
1st Jane Seman (AU)
2nd Sarah Kenyon (AU)
3rd Maria Andrés (ES)
The 2026 Fiji Surf Pro now stands as one of the defining events in the WWT calendar. Cloudbreak delivered the conditions. The athletes delivered everything else. And for the first time, the Pacific watched it together.