This year’s Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach has felt different for Connor O’Leary. After almost a decade on tour, this is the Australian Japanese surfer’s first World Surf League campaign with a baby in tow. Romii-Sakura O’Leary, who will celebrate her first birthday this month, is one of a growing number of children hanging out in the competitor’s area.
“I was watching her crawling around the competition site yesterday,” O’Leary says midway through the Pro, the opening event of the 2026 WSL calendar. “Seeing her crawling around, playing with Kelly [Slater], Steph [Gilmore] was grabbing her, it makes you appreciate the life that we live.”
Working parents are not exactly a novelty on the WSL. Past world champions Lisa Andersen and Chelsea Hedges both competed after having children, the former winning four world titles in the 1990s as a single mother. Australian world champion Joel Parkinson was well known for travelling the globe with his three kids, as was Hawaii star Sunny Garcia.
But in recent years, the WSL has taken a family-friendly turn. Australian star Jack Robinson is travelling the tour – which each year visits most continents and spans the best part of nine months – with his toddler Zen and wife, Julia Muniz. South African veteran Jordy Smith, meanwhile, is increasingly travelling with his two children.
“We’ll start a WSL creche,” O’Leary says, laughing. “Because I feel like it’s needed.”
On the women’s tour, structural change has now arrived. The five-time world champion Carissa Moore stepped away from the WSL in 2024 to start a family, giving birth to baby ‘Olena in February last year. To return to the tour, Moore was granted a season-long wildcard by the WSL for 2026.
With Frenchwoman Johanne Defay and Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb also taking a temporary break from the sport to have children, the WSL last month announced the establishment of a dedicated maternity wildcard.
“I think it is a huge step in the right direction,” says Moore, an Olympic gold medallist. “Not only for women in surfing, but for women in sport and women in general. Looking at us as whole athletes, as people who are multidimensional, who want to start families, we never had that – that job security before.”
Moore is speaking to the Guardian from Bells beach after winning her first heat back on the WSL. “I’m just riding on a little bit of a high,” she says. “That was a very long-anticipated return for me, and getting to have my family here, coming in to see my husband and daughter on the beach, it’s literally a dream come true.”
The maternity wildcard will allow a surfer to return to the tour, up to two years after taking a break from the WSL. Where multiple surfers apply, priority will be given on the basis of world titles or tour ranking. Defay has been awarded the 2027 maternity wildcard, while Weston-Webb will receive a general wildcard to allow her to return at the same time.
The WSL has also introduced paternity leave, with male surfers able to request a break of two events, or one calendar month, and receiving minimum ranking points during that time (typically, skipping an event means points are forfeited entirely).
“I think it’s been a long time coming,” O’Leary says. “It’s so sick the WSL has acknowledged it and gone forward with the maternity wildcard, because women’s surfing is growing at such a fast pace.”
The parental leave developments come after the WSL introduced equal pay in 2018 and a fully integrated schedule in 2022, which have led to major progression in women’s surfing.
At Bells on Saturday, Smith – who finished third in the world last year – woke up to discover his two children were unwell. It was a slight hiccup, as he prepared to face fellow South African Luke Thompson. “That’s the way life goes,” he says. “You’re the parent, you’ve got to get them better.”
Smith ultimately triumphed in his opening round heat after it was delayed by 24 hours due to poor conditions. “It’s an awesome thing to have your children travel with you,” he says. “It is a big thing to have them a part of your life, not just viewing it from the sidelines.”
Travelling the world on the WSL could prove quite the breeding ground for future stars; indeed Sierra Kerr, one of Australia’s best young female surfers, grew up on tour with her father, former pro Josh Kerr. During a lay day at the WSL finals in Fiji last year, Robinson shared footage of his toddler Zen riding in the shore break.
Smith, though, insists he will not be encouraging his children, one and five, into a career in professional surfing. “They will determine what they want in life,” he says. “It’s just my job to give them the best opportunity that I can.”
For O’Leary, by the time Romii is old enough to surf, she is unlikely to recall her time playing with the best surfers in the world. But the recent father credits the arrival of his daughter with helping him find greater mental clarity.
“It definitely provides an extra bit of motivation,” the 32-year-old says. “I look at Romii and I want to be a good father figure, show her the discipline and the dedication, to be an influence for her.”
O’Leary only narrowly avoided dropping off the tour midway through last year, just as his daughter was born, before going on to secure a statement victory in South Africa later in the season.
“It gives you a different perspective,” he says. “Life is not all about competitive surfing. [Becoming a father] has made me learn how to switch on and off a lot more. I feel like I’m enjoying surfing more, because I have less time to think about it.”
