All indications are that the 2020 World Surfing Games, the most important tournament in the history of the International Surfing Association, will be held in May in El Salvador.

The best of the CT will meet the best of all the emerging nations in their quest to secure the last 12 available spots for the Olympic Games.

There will be blood: The qualifiers and the first substitutes: Slater, John John, Steph, Kolohe, Medina, Italo are going to be there making life difficult for the Olympic hopefuls from every nation on the planet.

All this has a huge economic value, Slater alone moves millions, John John thousands, adding Medinan, Italo, Carissa, Steph, Owen, Julian to the equation results in a bomb, which is going to explode if we take into account the dozens of countries that will compete trying to make the last effort for Tokyo 2020.

IT MAY INTEREST YOU: At the same time this note was published, confirmation from the ISA arrived (read here)

Sources close to the ISA They pointed out for a report previously published by DUKE, that the tournament fee (what the ISA earns net from each tournament) reached up to 700.000 dollars when the normal is less than 500.000 if there is demand (if negotiated, the ISA can close an event X at 100.000, but lately it is very much on the rise).

And that fee has been the stumbling block for the five countries that are fighting to host the event, according to DUKE and confirmed by the ISA: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain, Australia and Japan.

Sources consulted by DUKE ruled out Spain and Australia because they do not reach the mentioned fee. That leaves Japan, Costa Rica and El Salvador as finalists.

Japan has already hosted the last qualifier for Tokyo 2020, the previous World Surfing Games, the 2017 Junior World Championships, and will host the debut of the Olympic Games… It would be an undemocratic move by the ISA to leave everything in the hands of Japan. In addition, May is a month with few waves in Japan… If you compare that with the wave power of Costa Rica or El Salvador for that month, it will be difficult to hear that the World Championships are on Japanese soil.

That leaves, based on this analysis, two finalists: Costa Rica and El Salvador. Both countries have interest, money and desire to have the World Surfing Games take place on their home turf. The difference is that for El Salvador, surfing is now, since Nayib Bukele took office, a state policy and that is not seen in the same way in Costa Rica.

Last week, the Costa Rican surfing federation sent a statement outlining President Carlos Alvarado's commitment to holding the event in his country. It felt like a desperate attempt.

And in El Salvador, there is secrecy. Some sources were consulted and they chose not to say anything, as if they were guarding a bomb that will explode when it has to.

It seems that the Bukele government has no problem putting up the money needed to make the tournament happen there. It also seems that the ISA likes the idea that the image for the institution will be of a qualifier with perfect waves that leave the surfers happy, which if nothing strange happens will be real.

The final word will be given by the ISA in what we believe will be a press release that will be sent out soon.

The date for the official announcement of the event location is now very close.