ISA And WSL Settle Differences, Agree To Split Time With The Kids

The ISA and WSL have reached a deal to allow all CT surfers to compete in the ISA World Games in Peru in November.

In July, we released a story breaking down an ISA decision that limited how many CT surfers would qualify for the Olympics.

Here’s the short version:

CT slots for LA28 were cut from 10 men and eight women in 2020 and 2024 to five each in 2028. The qualifying window shrank to just the first four events of the 2028 season. And only one surfer per country, per gender, could qualify through the Tour.

The part that inflamed CT surfers the most? The ISA never consulted with CT surfers. Yago Dora, Filipe Toledo, Leo Fioravanti, and more went public in the Instagram comments, and the usually laconic WSL CEO Ryan Crosby condemned the ISA’s decision as “back-room discussions.” 92% of the CT reportedly agreed to skip ISA qualifiers entirely. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent a representative to Raglan to get both sides to play nice.

Then in July, the ISA made some concessions — they raised the number of CT slots to eight per gender, gave CT surfers a higher seed in ISA events, and increased the qualifying window to 10 CT events for a larger sample size.

However, there were still gripes. The ISA would not budge on a rule that limited the number of surfers who could qualify for the Olympics via the CT to one per gender. This was a clear push to incentivize CT surfers to show up at the World Games, an event that CT surfers traditionally had conveniently dodged, citing sudden illnesses and the like.

Then, the WSL added Cloud 9 to the schedule (Oct 31 – Nov 10), directly on top of the 2026 World Games dates in Peru (Nov 6 – 15). The WSL insisted this wasn’t a shot across the bow, but something that had to be done because of the canceled event in Abu Dhabi. Up until this week, CT surfers were not going to be able to compete at the World Games and clinch their Olympic spot through the 2026 ISA World Games.

And, now to today’s news —The ISA just announced that CT surfers (who are seeded into R3) won’t compete until November 11th in Peru. The last day of the Cloud 9 waiting period is November 10th, so it’s going to be incredibly close if Cloud 9 stretches til the end of the window and a CT surfer makes final day. To make this feasible, the ISA included a repechage round after Round 2, meaning that if a CT surfer misses their first ISA, they’ll still have a second chance to compete.

For context, Cloud 9 is 11,220 miles away from Punta Rocas, Peru, where the ISA World Games are. Based on available travel routes, it would take roughly 41 hours to go from comp site to comp site. Punta Rocas is 13 hours behind the Philippines, but that only nominally helps — even if a CT surfer won the Cloud 9 comp, instantly took a Tesla kickflip car to Siargao International Airport, their pilot put that thing in sport, and their Peruvian taxi driver flipped a Nos switch in the Sentra, they would arrive on the night of the 11th and would miss their heat and be forced to surf the repechage.

So, surfers and their Olympic federations will still have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze.

And, what is the juice anyway? A safe slot in the Olympics per gender. For dominant surfing countries like Brazil, Australia, and the U.S. who are nearly a shoe-in to clinch two spots, it’s also an opportunity to clinch a secret, sinister third thing: a bonus slot in the Olympics.

As far as competitors are concerned, Team USA’s roster was just released… and they’re going big. On the Women’s side, they have World #1 Carissa Moore, World #2 Gabriela Bryan, and World #5 Sawyer Lindblad. On the Men’s side, they’re sending World #6 Griffin Colapinto, Crosby Colapinto (who’s just outside the cut line), and Jake Marshall, who is currently in the last spot inside the cut line.

Brazil has announced that it will be sending World #1 Yago Dora, World #2 Italo Ferreira, World #3 Italo Ferreira, and on the women’s side World #6 Luana Silva, Laura Raupp, and Taina Hinckel.

Team Australia has yet to publicly announce their 2026 Games squad.

To wrap it all up, here’s the breakdown of the entire pathway to qualification for LA28:

2028 WSL CT (16 total athletes)
Top eight (8) eligible athletes per gender between August 15, 2027 and June 15, 2028. Maximum one (1) per nation.

2028 ISA WSG
Top seven (7) eligible athletes per gender. Maximum one (1) per nation.

Continental Slots
Asian Games 2026: One (1) slot per gender. Highest-ranked eligible athletes*.
Pan American Games 2027: One (1) slot per gender. Highest-ranked eligible athletes.
European Surfing Championship 2027: One (1) slot per gender. Highest-ranked eligible athletes.

2027 ISA WSG
One (1) slot per gender for Africa and one (1) slot per gender for Oceania, awarded to the highest-ranked eligible athletes. The athlete must place within the top 25 overall.

2026 & 2027 ISA WSG
The highest-ranked team per gender will earn one (1) slot per gender for its nation.

Host Nation Places
One (1) slot per gender will be guaranteed for the host nation of the USA unless already filled through the above hierarchies.

Universality Places
One (1) slot per gender for underdeveloped nations. Eligible NOCs will need to apply. The nominated athlete must place within the top 40 at the 2027 or 2028 WSG.

*Kanoa Igarashi and Mirai Ikeda are the first provisional qualifiers for LA28 via the recently concluded Asian Games.