The International Surfing Association announced an IOC‑approved LA 2028 surfing qualification system that sharply reduces automatic World Surf League Championship Tour Olympic spots. The move drew formal rejection from the WSL and World Professional Surfers, the surfers’ representative group. WSL CEO Ryan Crosby said the WSL had not been properly consulted, accusing the ISA of canceling meetings, ignoring emails, and pursuing back‑channel discussions. Championship Tour surfers publicly protested, and leading competitors, including reigning world champion Yago Dora, Filipe Toledo, Caity Simmers, and Lakey Peterson, called the changes unfair and urged a return to a system that guarantees top‑ranked competitors qualify.

The ISA’s updated proposal would shrink the CT pathway. One report says available CT places would fall from 10 men and 8 women under prior arrangements to five men and five women. It proposes to determine CT‑based Olympic qualifiers using results from the first four to five events of the 2028 CT season with a June 15, 2028, cutoff, instead of relying on full 2027 season rankings.

Under the ISA framework, the overall qualification table allocates 48 athlete places (24 men, 24 women). The plan reserves ten athlete places from the 2028 WSL Championship Tour (top five per gender, capped at one per nation) and ten places from the 2028 ISA World Surfing Games; continental slots would be earned via the 2026 Asian Games, the 2027 Pan American Games, and the 2027 European Championship. Africa and Oceania slots would be awarded via the 2027 ISA World Surfing Games with a top‑25 requirement, and team slots would be allocated via the 2026 and 2027 ISA World Surfing Games. The proposal also reserves one host‑nation slot per gender for the United States and one universality slot per gender, which requires a top‑40 finish at the 2027 or 2028 ISA World Surfing Games. Lower Trestles near San Clemente, California, has been named as the site for the LA 2028 competition. Reports vary on the national quota, but one source describes a maximum of three athletes per gender per National Olympic Committee. However, other reporting says the updated rules cut per‑country Olympic quotas from two athletes to one. ISA president Fernando Aguerre defended the framework as fair and aligned with IOC objectives. The announcement highlights an ongoing governance conflict between the sport’s global federation and the professional tour over Olympic access for elite surfers.