WSL Cancels The US Open, Eliminating Any Reasonable Chance Of A 2020 Tour

Today, the WSL announced that America’s most riot-inducing surf event, the Vans US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California, has been canceled due to coronavirus. 

Considering surfers’ inability to travel internationally and the fact that corona is making a resurgence in California, this news is not especially surprising. However, it is not without meaning.

While insignificant on the surface, this news holds profound weight when parsed with the WSL’s June 3 announcement that professional surfing will remain on-hold until further notice. Considering the League’s next announcement is slated for July 1, and that the US Open’s prospective dates were August 3-9, it’s beginning to seem less and less likely that the CT or QS will commence in any meaningful fashion this calendar year. 

The WSL has, however, promised that their window-smashing, liver-poisoning, surf-adjacent event in HB will come back strong in 2021. But that’s a long ways away, considering the sheer amount of world-altering events that have transpired just halfway through 2020—both the longest and shortest year in modern human existence.