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In a brief release this week, the World Surf League announced it was postponing all events through the month of June. As the NBA, the Premiere League (soccer), the PGA and the NFL have all approved plans to continue respective seasons, this latest announcement puts the WSL’s 2020 campaign in jeopardy.
“Due to the continued evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Surf League (WSL) is continuing to postpone or cancel all previously scheduled events, across all tours, and the next call will be early July.”
The WSL announced in late April that it would cancel all events until June 1 at least, trying to salvage the Oi Rio Pro and the Quiksilver Pro G-Land. They also announced major changes to the 2021 tour and that details on those changes were still being worked out – the most groundbreaking of which was a new playoff format that would rank athletes as they moved through the season for an end-of-year championship event. But this week’s announcement officially ends any chance of running Brazil or Bali in 2020. The presser does leave open the chance the J-Bay could be saved.
Unlike many of the above mentioned sports leagues, professional surfing is completely reliant on international travel and moving through different countries with different travel restrictions during the pandemic. Here’s hoping things become more clear by July and we can see the world’s best on clean J-Bay walls.
