Johnson and Dora Claim 2nd WSL Championship Tour Victories of the Season

The eighth stop on the 2025 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour, Trestles Pro, has now come to an end after crowning two champions in California. In head-to-head heats, athletes consistently posted strong numbers, but among those scores, two surfers stood out when the time came for the finals.

Once 20-year-old Bettylou Sakura Johnson of Hawaii landed the highest heat total of the year for the women in the quarterfinals with a score of 17.83, it became strikingly clear that defeating the young star would be a challenge. After landing a spot in the semifinals, she faced wildcard Sawyer Lindblad and once again, came out on top — her 16.24 was more than enough to end Lindblad's time at Trestles Pro.

Her semifinals triumph guided her to the finals, where she was pitted against 22-year-old Molly Picklum of Australia. Fueled by nothing but a desire to secure her second Championship Tour victory, Johnson immediately posted a clean 8.00 followed by a 9.00. With these numbers already amounting to 17.00, Picklum was left with no room for error. Unfortunately, her two highest scores of 6.00 and 8.23 left her with a total of 14.23 — well below what she needed to defeat Johnson.

Bettylou Sakura Johnson and Yago Dora Clinch the WSL Trestles Pro

"Overall, I'm just super happy [about] how I was able to overcome each heat and just, you know, take it out, and I'm so psyched to bring this one home," Johnson told the WSL following the competition.

During the men's final round, Brazilian surfer Yago Dora was pinned up against Kanoa Igarashi of Japan after Dora knocked Griffin Colapinto out of the semifinals with a 2.03 difference. Once Dora hit the water in finals, he took a significant lead right off the bat with a 9.52, and later brought in his second-highest score of 8.37, which resulted in a 17.90. Igarashi's 16.07 wasn't too far behind Dora, but it simply was not high enough to come out on top.