The world's best surfers are on Australia's Gold Coast this week preparing for the 2017 WSL Championship Tour kickoff at Snapper Rocks, home of the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro. But as is tradition -- before the new season gets started -- the new World Champions are honored at the annual World Surf League awards banquet.
2016 World Champions John John Florence and Tyler Wright picked up their heavy hardware on Saturday evening in front of a packed crowd of surfing legends. - WSL
Past Champions, influential figures and a variety of the sport's key players put on their best threads for the formal occasion. Wrangling this herd into a fancy ballroom is no easy feat, but when the lights go down and the intro video rolls everyone is quick to take their seats. For the first five minutes there is a compressed highlight reel of all the incredible drama from the past year.
This year's tribute video (above) brought the house down. To watch the entire WSL awards show, click here