Yolanda Hopkins rides Ericeira waves toward 2026 Championship Tour spot

Portugal’s surf community woke up to a reassuring sight: Yolanda Hopkins is still in the thick of the global conversation. The Algarve-born talent pushed through to the last four of the EDP Ericeira Pro before bowing out by a single point, yet her third-place finish tightened her grip on a Challenger Series berth that already looks ticketed for the 2026 Championship Tour. Just as importantly, the run cast fresh light on Portugal’s fast-maturing women’s line-up and on Ericeira’s growing clout inside the World Surf League calendar.

Portuguese contender rides local waves

Hopkins rolled into Ribeira d’Ilhas carrying momentum from earlier stages, and for three days the right-hand point felt like her private gym. She swept Round 2 with a tidy 14.34, then survived a tactical Round 3 duel against Brazil’s Laura Raupp. The fireworks came in the quarter-finals when she posted 13.83 – highlighted by 7.33 and 6.50 rides – to dispatch American Alyssa Spencer. The semi-final story hinged on fractions: Hopkins stitched together an 11.93 heat total (best waves 6.83 and 5.10), but Australia’s India Robinson found two late peaks worth 7.33 and 5.50, clinching 12.83 and the ticket to the title match. Even so, Hopkins’ third place equals her best result on home soil and keeps her unbeaten streak this autumn against every non-Antipodean in the draw.

What the result means for the Challenger Series race

Ericeira was stop four of seven on the Challenger Series ladder, and the 6,500 points awarded for a bronze medal catapulted Hopkins to second overall. With three events left, the maths is tantalising: the top seven women graduate to the Championship Tour, surfing’s elite league, for the 2026 season. A similar surge last year vaulted Kauli Vaast and Tya Zebrowski – both crowned champions in Ericeira this week – directly into the CT, and Portuguese officials expect Hopkins to replicate that arc. Her current points haul gives her a buffer of nearly 4,000 over the cut-off, meaning a pair of semi-finals elsewhere could seal the deal before December.

Looking ahead to Los Angeles 2028

While the International Olympic Committee has yet to publish the full roadmap for Los Angeles 2028, insiders confirm that CT results will again feed into quota allocation. By edging toward the CT, Hopkins is effectively opening the main gate to Olympic selection. She already owns a silver medal from the ISA World Surfing Games, a result the Portuguese Olympic Committee uses when doling out high-performance funding. Coaches say the next two seasons will be measured against strict performance benchmarks, especially if the mooted regional wildcard quotas materialise. Translation: maintain CT form, finish inside the top half, and Portugal could lock a women’s slot months before the final qualification window even opens.

How the rest of the Portuguese squad fared

Ericeira offered plenty beyond Hopkins. Teresa Bonvalot—double national champion and currently sixth in the CS ranking—advanced to Round of 16 before exiting on a priority error. Fellow Cascais surfer Francisca Veselko kept her CT dream alive by finishing ninth, enough to stay inside the provisional top five. Among the men, Afonso Antunes delivered the highest local heat score (12.30) on Day 1, but both he and Frederico Morais slipped out in Round 2. The wildcard entrants—including former junior champion Tiago Stock and newcomer Camila Cardoso—collected valuable reps against the world’s best. For domestic fans used to the rhythm of the Liga MEO Surf, the week underlined both the depth of talent and the lingering experience gap when the international circus is in town.

Ericeira’s growing stature on the world tour

What began as a sleepy fishing village is now Ericeira, a World Surfing Reserve that pours an estimated €18 M in tourism revenue into the local economy each year. Autumn’s long-period swells, funnelled by the wild Atlantic fronts, create near-textbook right-hand walls, and surfers rave about the ondas that bend around the reef. Municipal officials in Mafra have invested in cliff-top viewing decks, shuttle buses and beach-clean initiatives to balance crowds with sustainability. With the WSL confirming a multi-year extension, Ericeira is poised to become the de-facto European leg of the Challenger Series, ensuring Portuguese fans will keep seeing their heroes chase dreams on home turf.