World Surf League Announces It Won’t Run Any Events Through May, Lining Up With Other Sports Leagues

WSL all events through May. Photo: WSL

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In a video released by the WSL Monday, CEO Erik Logan announced the cancelation or postponement of all events at all levels through May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The evolved handling of the crisis now lines the WSL up with most of the major sports leagues worldwide.

“We have every intention of commencing the 2020 Championship Tour season, and all our tours, as soon as possible,” Logan said. “We are already hard at work doing scenario planning for what a reimagined 2020 tour might look like.”

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Due to the continued evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Surf League is postponing or canceling all events, at all levels of competition, through the end of May. This includes the postponement of the remainder of the events in the Australian leg of the Championship Tour, Bells Beach and Margaret River, as well as the WSL Big Wave Awards. The Quiksilver Pro G-land – scheduled to take place in a remote part of Indonesia in June – will either be canceled or moved to an area with more infrastructure. The love of surfing is the bond that holds our global community together. We want to share positivity during these anxious times, by continuing to celebrate that bond, and our shared passion for this sport, the ocean, our athletes and one another. We are going to keep talking about surfing, and worldsurfleague.com will continue to deliver daily content – and release awesome new content – about where surfing’s been, where it is and where it’s going. We are going to do that on all of our platforms. We are going to increase the volume of content we are producing from WSL Studios, deepen our editorial, and find new ways to stay connected all while we wait for that next opening horn to sound – and we are going to be asking you, our fans, what you want to see. We have every intention of commencing the 2020 Championship Tour season, and all our tours, as soon as possible. We are already hard at work doing scenario planning for what a reimagined 2020 tour might look like. As is the case everywhere, hardship is forcing creativity! The world’s best surfers will be back in the water very soon and we’ll continue to deliver a daily celebration of surfing on worldsurfleague.com from now until infinity. We are grateful for all your continued support. Stay safe. Keep surfing. We’ll see you out there | @elo_eriklogan Read more at worldsurfleague.com

A post shared by World Surf League (@wsl) on Mar 16, 2020 at 3:29pm PDT

The announcement comes less than a week after the League decided to cancel all events through March, which would include the Elite Tour’s 2020 Corona Open Gold Coast. The new decision means the entire Australian leg of the Tour is affected as well as the Big Wave Awards, while the WSL press release said June’s Quiksilver Pro G-Land “will either be canceled or moved to an area with more infrastructure.”

“We are a truly global sport. Moving tours and events between countries is challenging under the best of conditions,” Logan added. “Under current circumstances, it’s just not possible, and will not be for some time to come. As a league that organizes public gatherings, we are also extremely conscious of our social responsibility not to enable and accelerate the spread of the virus.”

Logan said the WSL would continue to release content around its surfers during the down time.