Leo did it. First win on the Championship Tour.
At Punta Roca, Leonardo Fioravanti took down the world number one to claim the first CT title of his career — and the very first in history for Italy. Here's how he got there, heat by heat.
The moment
Saturday, June 13, 2026. Punta Roca, El Salvador. In the Final, Leonardo Fioravanti stood across from Italo Ferreira — world number one, yellow jersey, Olympic gold medalist. The kind of opponent that defines a career, win or lose.
Leo didn't blink. He opened with an 8.33, backed it up with a 7.00, and built a lead that Ferreira — surfing with eight stitches in his knee — simply couldn't run down. When the horn sounded, Leonardo Fioravanti had his first-ever Championship Tour victory. The first in history for an Italian surfer.
But a Final isn't won in 35 minutes. It's won over a week. So let's rewind.
The road to the Final
Round 2 — power over flash. Leo drew aerial specialist Mateus Herdy, who threw down a 7.83 to pile on the pressure early. Fioravanti's answer was pure forehand power on the Punta Roca wall — no fireworks needed, just control. Heat won. Tone set.
Round 3 — the scare. This was the one that could have ended it all. Against Samuel Pupo, then world number 7, Leo came out swinging with an 8.17. Pupo punched back with an 8.60 to briefly steal the lead in a restarted heat that went right down to the wire. Most surfers tighten up there. Leo found one more, answered the call, and booked his Quarterfinal.
Quarterfinals — the statement. Up a gear. A 9.00 over European standout Marco Mignot, arguably the cleanest single wave of his entire campaign. By now, one thing was clear: Fioravanti was the most consistent man in the draw.
Semifinals — the head-to-head. A tense one, against childhood friend Kanoa Igarashi. Friendship parked at the water's edge. Leo held his nerve, won the exchange, and earned his shot at the title.
The Final, in full
And so back to Ferreira. Three CT Finals into his career — the last one, at Pipeline a year ago, slipped away at the death and, in his own words, broke his heart. This time there would be no late twist. The 8.33 and 7.00 did the talking; Ferreira's 7.50 was a fight, but a second score never came, and he finished at 10.90 on his two waves. Dominant from first wave to last.
"It doesn't feel real. So many years of believing, never giving up," Leo said, fighting back tears. "That Final last year really broke my heart. But I never let my head drop."
Bigger than a result
To understand the weight of it, you have to go back to the beginning. And the beginning is family.
It started with his mother. When Leo was eight or nine, she saw how completely the sport had taken hold of him and made the decision that set everything in motion: she went on the road with him. "Without her, I definitely would not be here," he has said. The family eventually found its way to Hossegor — and that's where the story becomes ours.
Because in Hossegor, Leo's mother met Stephen "Belly" Bell. Australian, raised in Victoria, Belly had landed on the French coast in the eighties to shape boards for Quiksilver, spent years in Kelly Slater's corner, and in 1990 founded the glassing house that would grow into Bell itself. He and Leo's mum fell in love. So Belly became Leo's stepfather, his godfather, and his coach — the man who would guide a Roman kid into a world of CT events and world-class waves, growing up in a house on the beach with the best surfers on earth a few steps away.
That isn't a sponsorship. That's a household. The years that followed were years of learn, learn, learn — alongside Belly, alongside Slater, board after board, season after season. The fractured back at Pipeline in 2015, at an age when plenty would have walked away. The two Olympic Games as Italy's first-ever surfer. The 2022 Challenger Series title. The Final lost at Pipeline a year ago. Every one of those chapters was written on that same foundation.
And the boards he rode to this first CT win? Still shaped in Hossegor — around a hundred of them a year — carrying the same craft Belly has poured into the label for over three decades.
So when we say this win is ours, we mean it in the most literal sense. This is the Bell legacy. A first for Italy, by a surfer this family raised. It's everything our philosophy stands for — Make the Next Move. Don't wait for the perfect wave. Take it.
What's next won't keep us waiting: Leo jumps to world number three and rolls straight into the VIVO Rio Pro in Saquarema, June 19–27.
We're celebrating with you. To mark Leo's first CT win, the whole site is 15% off with code LEO15 (up until 22.06). The right moment to make your next move.
Credits photos : WSL
