The WSL's posting of the new calendar yesterday sparked a storm of criticism from surfers and fans, and from a few CT members, who would surely have been more if Joel Tudor had not been suspended for expressing his opinions a few months ago.

Two top five Tour riders, Tatiana Weston Webb and Johanne Defay, challenger Kirra Pinkerton, free surfer Brett Barley and others called for more lefts.

Several supported it and others reasoned: The tour has 5 right-hand spots, one left-hand spot and the rest are almost equally left and right (Rio, Surf Ranch, Supertubos, Pipe and Lowers).

Shane Beschen, a former vice world champion who has a reputation for being very effusive in his opinions wrote a very polite letter to WSL CEO Erik Logan: “From the beginning, the excitement, the fun of surfing culture has grown from the inside out, making the infectious spirit of surfing slowly reach the masses through the enthusiasm of the endemic market.

Your endemic market has spoken loud and clear about the mid-year cutoff, ending Lowers and now this calendar.

As I am now just an observant fan, it seems like a good idea to listen to the people who have brought the sport to where it is today. The surfers and the fans.

I'm from San Clemente and love Lowers but the strategy for this year's finals is giving one of the best performance waves a bad name when people are used to the aftermath of Pipeline claiming the title most waves fall short of the excitement.

I wish them the best as I will always be a fan of surfing and today’s surfers are setting a new standard which is incredible.”

The WSL announced yesterday the 2023 schedule in which the final will be repeated at Lowers. They had initially announced that the finals site would be in a location that would change from year to year.

On the other hand, they left out the G-Land stage and will use Kelly's wave pool instead.

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