Surf world torn apart after Quiksilver manifests Griffin Colapinto as true champion of ’25 world tour!

San Clemente and Brazil brace for unrest.

The history book ink detailing the glorious end to the ’25 World Surf League Championship Tour is still not dry and yet an unforeseen twist is tearing the surf world apart. Days ago, as you likely witnessed, San Clemente’s Griffin Colapinto came up against Brazil’s Yago Dora in Fiji to decide who would be crowned. Colapinto had started the day as the third seed, beating Italo Ferreira and Jordy Smith to take on the sitting number one. Yago, though, was not to be denied and took Griff out in the first heat, thereby winning his first big cup and Brazil’s 7th in the past 10 years.

Cut and dry, no?

Not according to onetime surf brand, and Colapinto sponsor, Quiksilver.

The “mountain and wave” lit a fire in the aftermath, manifesting surfing’s Gandhi as the year’s true champion in a provocative social media post.

Manifest Champion,” it read in bold print while “Congratulations Griffin Colapinto 2nd place finish” was presented in fuzzy, smaller, difficult to piece out red.

San Clemente surf fans, starving after a bleak decade, pounced and declared a split ’25 ticket harkening back to the dark times of college football’s pre-playoff years.

But you certainly recall those turbulent times when different rankings and different bowl weights sometimes produced split champions. The most recent came in 2003 when Louisiana State won the National Championships but the Associated Press declared USC as the national champion. Prior to that, Michigan was declared AP champ while Nebraska the Coaches’ Poll champ in 1997, Miami AP and Washington Coaches’ in 1991, Colorado AP and Georgia Tech Coaches’ the previous year etc.

There is still much hardship amongst those fan bases, to this day, as each claim superiority leaving surf fans to wonder. Will there be war or will Colapinto live up to his moniker and bring peace, allowing for a fun make-believe “manifest champion” each and every year alongside the real one?

More as the story develops.