Surfing Meets the Ryder Cup: Team Europe Seeks Fourth Consecutive Title as Team USA Hunts for First-Ever Victory — Three-Time Champion Lenny Weinhold and Wildcard Jose “Cacaro” Lopez Headline a Star-Studded International Field
CHELAN, WA — The most innovative team surfing competition in the world returns this weekend as Lakeside Surf hosts the 2026 Continental Surf Cup on September 5–6, presented by Lakeside Surf and citywave®. Modeled after golf’s storied Ryder Cup, the Continental Surf Cup pits Team USA against Team Europe in a two-day battle of national pride, individual brilliance and collective teamwork unlike anything else in competitive surfing.
With 51 total team points on the line, Team Europe arrives in Chelan riding a three-year dynasty. Team USA has never hoisted the trophy. This weekend may be their best chance yet.
Twenty-four elite surfers — 12 representing Team USA and 12 flying the colors of Team Europe — compete across four rounds of competition beginning Saturday afternoon at 3:40 p.m. PDT. The format fuses individual artistry with team strategy in a way no other surf event does: each surfer’s best two runs in a heat produce their individual score, while the team with the highest combined score in each heat earns crucial team points toward the overall Cup title.
Competition moves through four distinct round formats — the Surfers Classic, two rounds of Team Heats and the fan-favorite Best Trick — with everything culminating Sunday evening in Team Finals and the Men’s and Women’s Finals. With 26 of the 51 available points awarded in the Finals rounds alone, the entire competition is engineered to go down to the wire.
New for 2026, both teams have formally added Captain roles to help coordinate strategy, team chemistry and heat-by-heat preparation — a deliberate nod to the Ryder Cup DNA at the heart of this event, where leadership can be just as decisive as talent. Captains have also been given the power to make three strategic changes to their heat lineups.
THE RIVALRIES: BENSON VS. WEINHOLD — AND USA’S MOMENT OF RECKONING
The marquee individual storyline of the weekend is already written. Germany’s Lenny Weinhold — three-time Continental Surf Cup individual champion, surfing out of RheinRiff in Düsseldorf — returns to defend his crown for a fourth consecutive year. Standing between him and history is Team USA’s Ben Benson, who has finished second to Weinhold three times. Benson earned his spot through the 2025 Lopez Invitational and arrives in Chelan with unfinished business etched into every run.
The 2024 Cup made the stakes plain: Team Europe won, but the competition came all the way down to the Men’s Final — a single heat decided everything. That memory is fresh on both sides of the Atlantic.
Team USA has made a bold move to tip the balance this year. As their international wildcard selection, they recruited Jose “Cacaro” Lopez — the 2025 Panama National Surfing Champion. Cacaro brings South American wave-riding flair and championship-level composure to a Team USA squad that also features Cash Eygabroad (2025 Lopez Invite Champion), 2026 Battle of the Butte winner Jax Oshiro-Labbe of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and a core of wave-pool specialists who earned every spot through qualifiers and US Trials competition.
Team Europe answers with depth from across the continent. Defending men’s team anchor Marius Gerlach (third at the 2024 CSC), 2025 Swiss National Champion Rivan Rosskopf, three-time German Junior Champion Toni Meier and international wildcard Gilbert Yeh of Singapore round out a roster built for exactly this kind of extended team competition.
THE WOMEN’S COMPETITION: CHAMPIONS MEET CHAMPIONS
The women’s draw may be the most decorated in the event’s history. Team USA sends defending champion Cash Hoover of Kailua, O’ahu — she won the 2025 Lopez Invitational and arrives as the surfer everyone has to beat. Alongside her are 2026 Battle of the Butte champion Maya Cowan and Lakeside Surf homegrown competitors Reese Bordner and Sierra White, both US Trials qualifiers.
Team Europe has assembled a formidable powerhouse at the top of their lineup. Valeska Schneider of Germany — a three-time German national champion and CSC titleholder — and Alena Gubler of Switzerland — a three-time Swiss national champion — form one of the most decorated 1-2 combinations the women’s field has ever seen in this event. Together, they represent six combined national titles and will give the young American women everything they can handle.
ABOUT LAKESIDE SURF & THE CONTINENTAL SURF CUP
Lakeside Surf in Chelan, Washington, is the premier standing wave surf destination in the world. It is powered by citywave® technology and has an unmatched combination of power, steepness and width. As the founding home of the Continental Surf Cup, Lakeside Surf has been the proving ground for the world’s top wave-pool surfers since the event’s inception. The Continental Surf Cup is the only team surfing event in the world structured after golf’s Ryder Cup format, with national team pride and individual glory on the line simultaneously.
