Photos and video: Pedro Malevini / Franco Rivas / Alvaro Arano

Two-time world champion Santiago Muñiz has made public his request that buses in Mar del Plata, the great capital of Argentine surfing, allow people to travel with a surfboard.

For years now, passengers carrying surfboards have been denied access to public transportation on buses in La Feliz. In response to this, Muñiz created the #Subamoslatabla campaign. “It is not a demand, I don’t even want it to be seen as a complaint. It is a respectful request. And more than just mine, it is a request from a community that is growing every day and that needs this help to continue developing its passion,” says the Argentine in a press release.

Santiago himself, as shown in the video attached to the press release, is seen being denied boarding of buses. In various groups on social networks, everyone's disagreement with this measure had been made public.

“This summer, like in previous years, I came here to do the pre-season before starting the world circuit and, as I don’t have a car, I wanted to take the buses and all the drivers told me that I couldn’t go up with the boards. I was surprised. And I was very saddened. That’s why I decided to visualize the problem with a video and raise the concern to see if we can get a favorable response from the companies or help from the municipality,” he added.

“I felt bad, very strange, because we are talking about the capital of surfing, a city that has two world champions and Fernando Aguerre, one of the most important executives in the world. And it is a very healthy sport in every sense, which has grown a lot to the point of becoming Pan American and Olympic (…) In Brazil, Australia and the United States, the issue is regulated and you can go up with boards. In some cases they go in the back, on racks with ropes so they don’t move or fall. Or in others, behind the buses, on board racks. We don’t tell them how many buses they can go on or where they should put them. We only ask them for help to develop our sport,” he said.

The statement details that five years ago, in response to a movement organized by local surfers, the Argentine Surf Association sent a letter to the Mar del Plata Municipality requesting a Municipal Ordinance to regulate the transportation of boards and, later, in 2015, the Ombudsman of General Pueyrredón recommended to the General Directorate of Urban Mobility of the Government Secretariat that it promote the implementation of units with devices on the front of buses.  that would allow the transport of boards and bicycles, “but this came to nothing,” the press release concludes.