The Costa Rican surfing federation has urged the Pan American Surfing Association (PASA) and the International Surfing Association (ISA) to wait for their national team athlete, Carlos Muñoz, and if they do not, they will take the corresponding legal action, the tournament's technical director, the Costa Rican federation and the lawyer in charge, Walter Brenes, informed DUKE.

Carlos Muñoz concluded his participation yesterday in the last stage of the year of the QS world tour. He is registered for the tournament and if the schedule is maintained, he will not compete in his series in the event that qualifies for Lima 2019.

As established on certain occasions by PASA, due to the full calendar of different competitions (SUP, Longboard and QS), athletes would be expected to compete in Punta Rocas.

The letter sent to the ISA and PASA argues that if it was established that all athletes will be awaited, then Muñoz must be awaited and that if this is not done, legal action will be taken that was not detailed, Brenes, the lawyer, explained to DUKE.

For his part, the technical director of the tournament, Peruvian Gaetano “Nino” Lauro, explained to DUKE that this morning the head judge sent by the ISA, Hawaiian Rich Pierce, asked to meet with him urgently. Pierce showed him the legal document and asked him to postpone the series of these surfers as long as possible, given the recommendation of the authorities of the international federation.

Lauro also explained that the spirit of this order was to signal that everything possible had been done to wait for Muñoz.

Thus, the schedule that indicated that the open men would go into the water at 9 in the morning, was moved to 12 noon, causing the dismay of several teams.

Randall Chavez, president of the Costa Rican surfing federation, referred the questions to the federation's lawyer, explaining that what they did was send a "request for collaboration" to which they have not received an official response. He did say that the executive director of the ISA, Robert Fasulo, wrote to them and thanked them for this.

Chávez had no idea that the change this morning had been made because of the letter sent by the lawyer. The Costa Rican team's dismay, insisted the authority, is that it had been announced that all the athletes were expected and all were signed except for one, the Costa Rican Carlos Muñoz.

The difference between the authorities and the Costa Rican lawyer is that the organization says it will wait as long as possible and the Costa Ricans point out that it was said that they would wait until they all arrived, without a deadline.

In the midst of this hustle and bustle that began when it was seen that it was possible that the Costa Rican would not arrive, an attempt was made to register another surfer in the Costa Rican selection, so Jair Pérez was brought in, but they did not allow him to register.

There is no official answer yet on what will happen. The two Open Men heats, two of which are the slopes that were not held in Round 1, are scheduled to take place at 12 noon local time.

At this time, SUP technical racing series are taking place.

The 2018 Pan American Surfing Championship will go down in history as the most intense and competitive of all time, both in and out of the water.