Q&A: Chad Wadsworth Talks El Rey de Lovers, Slug, Wedge, and the 2026 UST Season

Fresh off a runner-up finish at El Rey de Lovers in Cabo and earning what many considered the wave of the contest, Chad Wadsworth is having one of the strongest seasons of his career. Currently sitting second in the United Skim Tour rankings, Chad has been balancing a busy travel schedule, college coursework, and a growing list of standout performances around the world.

We caught up with Chad to talk about Cabo, The Wedge, chasing a UST title, his current board setup, and the upcoming Slug film project.

You just finished second at El Rey de Lovers in Cabo and got the wave of the contest. Tell us about the event, your trip to Cabo, and what made that wave so special.

Well the Cabo contest is obviously one of the sicker contests. It's the most similar to my local spot. Going into it, I have a certain level of confidence, but also I know that there are riders coming from all around the world. There's definitely a stress factor. Showing up, seeing the setup, I was definitely very stoked, and could see the potential and what the weekend was going to look like. In the first few rounds, I was just kind of doing the bare minimum of getting wraps and barrels. Then that one, the wave of the contest, the sider pocket started to turn on in the quarters when I was against Dane. You couldn't really read it as well as a goofy foot, so I was sitting over there thinking, you know, maybe it would come in. I saw the one, got in the pocket, and the wave set up perfectly. I tucked in, found a little bit of shade, and I was just super stoked to ride out of that. It wasn't that technical of a ride, no tricks or airs, but the line I took made it feel very special. I think the judges noticed that. Cabo was a great success. I’m stoked for Gerardo, and I'm stoked with that second.

I wanted to ask about a wave in the final. Gerardo had priority and blocked you on probably the best wave of the final and possibly the best wave of the contest. What was going through your head in that moment and after that wave? 

I saw the wave come in, and I knew I didn't have priority. I also knew Gerardo was not in position to run for the sider. So I went for it anyway. As I was on the sider, I was looking towards Gerardo, I saw him thinking about it. As I'm going for the connection, I see him come in, so I had to change my line. It probably would have been another wave of the contest, as you can kind of see with that end section. Gerardo got to it way too late and just went over the falls. I still think I got a pretty sick wave on that. but the judges were kind of distracted because the priority rider was on it. I changed my line, and then did a little turn off the top. I was still stoked on the wave, but I can't blame Gerardo for doing that. Its just strategic as a professional skimboarder. No hard feelings. The French crew came up to me, and thought it wasn't that cool, but I can’t blame him. I wasn't upset about that.

Tell us about the most recent run of waves at Wedge.

About a week ago, one of the bigger South swells in recent history, maybe even the last 10 to 20 years, came in. It wasn’t very good for skimboarding. I was doing a lot of surfing. The surf was great. The waves were huge. Now the sand is kind of in a dire situation at Wedge with the jetty being unburied. It was already dangerous enough to skim, and now it's like twice as dangerous, with rocks sticking out, poles sticking out, metal frames. It’s not the best situation. There is still plenty of skim around in my area, more just wraps and straight waves. I’ll also venture over to Laguna when I can. I've actually kind of had a bit of a hip injury the last two weeks, so I've been doing mostly surfing to get back into the groove.

Are you still going to school in San Diego?

I'm still in school in San Diego, yes. I've been doing an online program because for the last six months, me and the Slug crew have been traveling pretty much all over the world. It's been a lot easier to manage school from the computer. I think I'll be going back in person for the spring semester of 2027 but I'll be online until then to prioritize the tour and my skimboarding career.

I see you getting waves in San Diego, in Newport, in Laguna, and most recently even in Brazil and Cabo. How are you balancing all of that, and what are your goals for school, in contention with your skimboarding goals?

The balance hasn't been too bad. I pretty much just spend the day in the ocean, and then any other free time on my laptop. In Brazil, it got a little stressful trying to balance business classes and the best side wave in the world. [Laughs] I'm studying business management, and this summer I'm actually doing an internship in my dad's office at Colliers International Commercial Real Estate. I'm staying quite busy with that. I want to focus on skimboarding, but I also want to focus on a potential career in case skimboarding doesn't go in the right direction.

You're sitting second in the UST rankings right now. Are you making a serious push for the title this season?

I'm definitely making a serious push this year. I see myself in second, and I see the other top 5 to 10 riders. I feel confident that if I'm skimming my best and I'm putting the time…you know, they’re good skimboarders, but I feel that I could perform better and potentially end up on top this year. I'm definitely putting the time in, and that's definitely at the top of my list, winning the tour.

In Cabo and at home at The Wedge, you've built a reputation as a standout when it comes to siders. What do you credit for that success, and how do you think your approach compares to some of the great Wedge riders who came before you?

I would give credit to the local Wedge guys for letting me skimboard there growing up. I kind of got to it late. I started skimming Wedge when I was 13 or 14. The sand had kind of disappeared at that point, but I think that's what maybe made me a better sider skimmer.  The Wedge sider wasn't in the best condition, so every time you're skimming it, it's pretty much the hardest side wave to skim. Then when you put yourself in front of an easy side wave, like Aliso or 10th Street or West, or even Cabo, it's like a wave pool. It's perfect. If you practice skimboarding on crappy waves, and then when you skimboard good waves, you’ll do a lot better, if that makes sense. As far as a personal credit, I'd probably throw that toward Jeremiah Sheldon. Growing up watching him skim, he was kind of my idol. He was doing huge things at Wedge and M Street, and I just wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Tell me about the Lovers bomb you caught last year in Cabo. A lot of people have been saying it’s among the gnarliest waves ever caught there. 

That session was definitely magical. That contest ran Friday and Saturday. Everyone thought it was going to be too big Sunday, so we wrapped the contest up Saturday. Sunday morning was sick, and then we came back Sunday evening to Lovers. It was just me, Dane Cameron, Chance Boyer, and I think of one of the Brazilians, maybe Leo Freitos. It was a small crew, and that's really when the swell started to pick up. We were going on a couple, and    I ran for the sider, thinking I wasn't going to get it. I kind of popped over the first initial water line, barely stayed on my board, and then I was in rhythm with the sider and saw the thing lining up. You could kind of hear the locals on the beach yelling, “kick out!” “Don't do it!” I was already committed. I almost fell on the connection, did the front grab, and locked in my line. It was just a full close out, right on the sand. But it wasn't as gnarly, as it might have seemed. I traveled all the way to the sand, and it almost felt like I was just falling into a foam pit. From the iPhone POV, it was one of the gnarlier waves ridden there. I don't want to take credit for the gnarliest sidewave connection, but I would admit, it's probably up there.

Tell us about your current board setup. What shape, size, and construction are you riding, and what makes it the right board for your style?

I've been riding a pro shape, normal rocker, 5/8ths thickness. I kind of vary between medium large, and then sometimes I'll ride a size between medium and medium large if the waves are a little smaller. My thing is big waves, big wraps, and I like the medium large for those type of waves. The pro shape, it feels just like a short board [surfboard]. It can make those quick turns, those quick bottom turns. It doesn’t have a lot of drag. It's good for slide outs. Good for airs. You see Dane do some pretty crazy airs riding one. I definitely give credit to Dane for introducing me to that model. I originally started on one of his old boards, and then I got my own. Now I've been riding that shape for two years. So, yeah, medium large pro shape 5/8ths. That's where it's at.

What else is next for you? 

Let's talk about Slug. We've been filming for six months now on a Slug film. We're trying to put out an hour-length skimboard movie, kind of like the old days. No one's really produced something like that in the last 10 years. There maybe isn't the biggest market for it, but for the skimboarding community, we think it'll be huge. We're gonna have places like Brazil, Cabo, maybe even get out to Europe, or Sri Lanka is on the list. We want to keep filming for that, take it slow, and make it perfect. No timeline on it. Just whenever the boys, me, Jack Lee, Ethan Redefer, Dane Cameron, have time for that. We're going to make it happen, and hopefully give a good gift to the skimboarding community, and we hope everyone appreciates it.