Cover photo Regional ranking leader: Sophía Medina by WSL/D'Andrea 

The WSL South America press office informed DUKE yesterday that the women's quota for the region was reduced from five to four and the change was made due to the low representation of South Americans on the world stage.

“It was a technical analysis due to the low representation of South American surfers compared to other regional boards (…) The justification is that, the technical level of South American surfers. There are 14, 15, 16 year old girls from Australia, Hawaii and the United States who are winning championships and entering the CT. Do we have the level of Bettylou, Luana Silva, Molly Picklum here?” the representative asked in contact with DUKE.

The quota that left South America went to Asia, the WSL reported.

Now the classifieds will be like this:

Australia 8
North America 8
Europe 8
South America 4
Hawaii 6
Asia 6
Africa 3

The last stage of the QS circuit that qualifies for the challengers will take place in Florianópolis in early April and the ranking (by which the first four will qualify) is as follows:

01: Sophia Medina (BRA) – 3.500 points
02: Daniella Rosas (PER) – 2.900
03: Arena Rodriguez Vargas (PER) – 2.600
04: Laura Raupp (BRA) – 2.500
05: Summer Macedo (BRA) – 2.150
06: Larissa Santos (BRA) – 2.100
07: Isabelle Nalu (BRA) – 2.000
08: Sol Carrion (BRA) – 1.500
09: Tainá Hinckel (BRA) – 1.400
09: Melanie Giunta (PER) – 1.400