Alan Cleland Quiñonez, a 22-year-old surfer from the Pacific Coast state of Colima, is about to make history — again — as the first Mexican to compete on the worldwide Championship Tour (CT), surfing’s marquee circuit.
The 12-event tour run by the World Surf League (WSL) kicks off its 2025 season on Monday in Oahu, Hawaii, with the Lexus Pipe Pro event presented by YETI. Competitions from Brazil to South Africa to Australia will continue through the finals in Fiji near the end of summer.
Being promoted to the WSL’s top-level tour comes on the heels of an already historic past 20 months for Cleland, starting in 2023 in El Salvador when he became the first Mexican to win the International Surfing Association’s World Surfing Games.
Then in 2024, he represented Mexico in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, making it to the third round (one level shy of the quarterfinals) before being eliminated. The competition was held on the famed waves of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, 16,000 kilometers from Paris but part of French Polynesia.
Less than a month after that, Cleland made history again as the first Mexican to win the U.S. Open of Surfing, an annual event in Huntington Beach, California, regarded as the world’s largest surfing competition.
“The first Mexican to win a Challenger [a lower-level WSL event], the first Mexican to surf in the Olympics, to now this,” Cleland told Surfing Magazine. “It’s been a huge rollercoaster, but I wouldn’t change anything. It’s been a great year and a great learning experience.
“It’s crazy to think that I’m going to be on the CT now. I can’t get it through my head right now, but it’s a good feeling.”
Cleland’s promotion to the elite tour follows the decision of three-time world champion John John Florence to sit out the 2025 season to focus on other projects. Florence announced his hiatus on Tuesday, leaving a vacancy that Cleland eagerly steps into.
Cleland was born to a Mexican mother and an Irish father in Boca de Pascuales, a remote fishing village — and surfing hotspot — in the municipality of Tecomán, Colima. His father, also a surfer, put his son onto his first surfboard when he was only 2 years old.
As he grew, Cleland became better and better, turning professional at age of 13. Eight years after that, he qualified for the Summer Olympics in Paris — but it wasn’t necessarily an easy ride.
In 2021, he faced a period of uncertainty, spending nearly a year without a major sponsor and questioning his future in the sport.
After learning of his CT spot, Cleland told Stab magazine, “It’s really hard to process right now … It’s been so much time and hard work, but the real hard work actually starts now. It’s just like, holy shit, I’m ready. It’s been my whole life waiting for this.”
Joining the 2025 rookie class, Cleland brings a well-rounded skill set and a competitive edge honed through years of surfing some of the world’s most challenging breaks.
He is particularly excited about competing in Hawaii, comparing the waves at Banzai Pipeline (often called “Pipeline” or just “Pipe”) on the North Shore of Oahu to his “home” waves in Boca de Pascuales, Colima.
“When it’s second reef Pipe, it feels really similar to Pascuales,” Cleland told Stab. “I feel at home with all the water moving around.”
To prepare for the season, Cleland has committed to an intense training regimen, blending physical conditioning with meditation.
Cleland’s debut on the CT might be a turning point for Mexican surfing, a sport that has seen steady growth in recent years. His accomplishments have begun inspiring a new generation of surfers in Mexico.
“I’m ready to show the world what I can do,” said Cleland, who will turn 23 on June 19.
With reports from Récord, SDP Noticias, Excélsior and Olympics.com
