Meet the full cast for ABC's The Ultimate Surfer
With a whopping $100,000 prize money and highly coveted three wildcard spots in 2022 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour as the reward, the stakes are pretty high for the seven men and seven women who will be competing against each other on ABC's upcoming show 'The Ultimate Surfer'. The show features some of the best up-and-coming surfers from across the world battling it out at the WSL's Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California.
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 ABC's 'The Ultimate Surfer' and the opportunity to compete on the elite WSL Championship Tour, the pinnacle of professional surfing. If you're curious to know more about these fourteen surfers and the other cast members of the show, then we got you covered.
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Kelly Slater
Anybody who loves surfing or follows surfing will be familiar with Kelly Slater- one of the greatest surfers of all time. He holds almost every major record in surfing, including an impressive 11 world titles, 55 career victories, and the record of being the youngest and oldest world champion in men's history! Slater retired in 1999 but couldn't stay away from the sport for too long as he made a comeback in 2002. He is the brain behind the wave pool technology- a one-of-a-kind, human-made wave—the most even playing field for measuring surf mastery. Slater will be serving as the special correspondent on the show.
Jesse Palmer
Kelly Slater isn't the only famous athlete on 'The Ultimate Surfer'. Former NFL Quarterback-turned-TV personality, Jesse Palmer will serve as the host of 'The Ultimate Surfer'. Previously Palmer served as a host of Emmy Award-winning 'DailyMail TV', special contributor for 'Good Morning America' and a contributor across all ABC News platforms, primarily focusing on big stories as well as news of the day and signature live events for 'Good Morning America'. He is also the national spokesperson for Good Sports, a nonprofit providing sports equipment to underprivileged kids.
Erin Coscarelli
Erin Coscarelli is one of the most sought-after and highly regarded female broadcasters on television today. She currently pulls double duty as the host for the Las Vegas Raiders media properties as well as a host on the Tennis Channel. Coscarelli was previously a host for DirecTV Fantasy Zone and a longtime anchor on NFL Network. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcasting from the University of Southern California. During her time at USC, she was a sports anchor/reporter for Annenberg TV and the school's radio station KSCR 1560 AM. She will be serving as commentator on 'The Ultimate Surfer'.
Joe Turpel
Turpel, often called "the voice of surfing," teamed up with 1989 world champion Martin Potter in 2014. The pair is the longest-running broadcast team in surfing. After 15 years of announcing at surf events and competitions, Turpel continues to bring real value to the WSL broadcast on and off camera. He is the commentator on 'The Ultimate Surfer'.
Anastasia Ashley
33-year-old Anastasia from Miami Beach, Florida, started surfing at the tender age of 5, and she won her first surfing competition by 6. From there, Ashley committed herself to competition and became a professional surfer picking up a number of awards including a national title. She also gained recognition and coverage for her exploits in big waves, receiving multiple nominations for the WSL Big Wave Awards. In her early 20s, Ashley's modeling and business career took off with an appearance in 2014's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and the launch of her jewelry line.
Kai Barger
Kai, 30, from Haiku, Hawaii, has been touted as one of Hawaii's most talented surfers from a very young age. In surfing circles, he became a household name when he competed and won numerous events as a teenager and then went on to win the World Junior title in 2008 at 19 years old.
Mason Barnes
Barnes, 26, grew up in Wrightsville Beach, which is widely regarded as one of the East Coast's small-wave havens. An enthusiastic and talented surfer as a kid, frequent trips to Oahu's North Shore led to a love of big waves. Barnes traveled to Portugal's infamous big wave spot of Nazare in October 2020 and rode one of the biggest waves of the day, on what many considered one of the largest swells in recent history.
Tia Blanco
Blanco's father was in the Coast Guard so they were always stationed near the ocean which is how she started surfing at just 3 years old. The 23-year-old California resident's big wins in 2015 and 2016 caught everybody's attention. In 2018, Blanco and her sister, Aja, launched Dear Self, a cruelty-free skincare line, and was also an early-stage brand ambassador for Beyond Meat, a plant-based food company. While Blanco has carved out a successful business career, her main goal remains to reach the upper echelons of competitive surfing. She's come close a few times and those experiences have only hardened her resolve.
Austin Clouse
Austin Clouse grew up in Ormond Beach, Florida, and lived across the street from the ocean. He was taught to surf at the age of 5 by his brother and spent as much time as he could surfing with the kids in the neighborhood. Clouse remained passionate about surfing throughout high school but it wasn't until he graduated that he began competing, quickly winning his first local pro contest. The 26-year-old currently resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
Brianna Cope
25-year-old Cope from Koloa, Hawaii, began surfing when she was 4 years old with her dad and sister, and immediately fell in love with the ocean. She started competing at the age of 10 and won her first surf contest shortly after. That victory was the start of her competitive surfing dreams where she enjoyed a successful junior career. Cope came extremely close to qualifying for the elite Championship Tour in 2014 and 2015, and has been fighting to reach her ultimate goal ever since.
Luke Davis
Davis, 27, from Los Angeles, California, might soon become a fan-favorite surfer on the show. At the age of eight, his talent was obvious and early junior success led to sponsorship deals with local surf shops. After treading the well-worn path from the junior pros to the WSL's Qualifying Series, Davis went on to carve out a career as a freesurfer.
Kayla Durden
Durden's love for surfing was ignited during a family trip to Cocoa Beach, where she watched her brother catch a wave. When her dad asked if she wanted to try, she said yes. From that point on, Durden was hooked! Despite success in the junior surfing ranks, Durden was always committed to her education and graduated summa cum laude from the University of North Florida with a degree in marketing and a minor in Spanish.
Juli Hernandez
Juli Hernandez describes herself as Cuban and Costa Rican with some Italian and Spanish thrown in, and has made a name for herself in the California surf and skate communities. Hernandez started surfing and skating at around 7 and, despite both scenes being dominated by boys, quickly gained the respect of her peers. She competed in both disciplines on the junior circuits, with her initial goal to become the first girl ever to surf and skateboard in the U.S. Open of Surfing.
Zeke Lau
Zeke Lau is a proud native Hawaiian who honed his wave-riding craft in Honolulu.The 26-year-old began surfing from the age of 10, After years of hard work, in 2017, Zeke reached his lifelong ambition of making surfing's top tier and had three consecutive years surfing against the world's best, before being relegated at the end of 2019.
Alejandro Moreda
For the last decade, Alejandro Moreda has been at the heart of Puerto Rican surfing. The 34-year-old is often considered one of the island's best surfers, Moreda has never strayed too far from his beautiful island home. For 10 years, he has fostered the next generation of talent with his Los Gallitos de Ale grommet event and runs a surf school to share his talent, experience and lust for life.
Koa Smith
After a successful junior career that saw Koa Smith claim three national championships, an elite-level career beckoned. Instead, Smith chose the life of a professional freesurfer and has been paid to travel the world and surf the dreamiest waves he could find. Away from the surfing world, Smith made a splash in 2015 when he won the prestigious VMAN/Ford modeling competition and became the face of that year's Alexander Wang campaign.
Malia Ward
Malia Ward is the daughter of pro surfer Chris Ward and fitness model Jacqueline Miller, and spent a large part of her youth in the ocean. Growing up with her mother, Ward lived a lifestyle filled with travel whilst competing on the junior circuit as a teenager, being an all-round athlete and an A-grade student.
Bruna Zaun
Bruna Zaun grew up in a small town in the south of Brazil and has described her childhood as mellow, spending a lot of time at the beach. Under her big brother's influence, she started surfing at the age of 9, competing at 11, and became the youngest Brazilian to win a professional surfing event at 15. In 2010, when she was 18, she qualified to compete on the WSL Championship Tour (CT), a feat she repeated in 2011, the same year she was featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
'The Ultimate Surfer' Premieres on Monday, Aug 23, and Tuesday, Aug 24 (10-11 pm. EDT), following all-new episodes of 'Bachelor in Paradise' on ABC.