It is quite unfair to the best South American athletes that those invited to the trials of the only CT in the subcontinent, the Oi Rio Pro, are Brazilians who are clearly inferior to their Peruvian colleagues.

Anyone would say that the rest should do their own CT to choose their own wildcards, but it seems reasonable to think that since this is the only CT of the season in South America and the event is held under the supervision of the WSL South America, the best of their own ranking should be rewarded or respected in some way.

Looking back, in the last four years, since the WSL South American ranking was created, Peru has won four times: Sofía Mulanovich in 2015, Analí Gómez in 2017 and Dominic Barona in 2018.

All the surfers who competed today in the Saquarema trials were not only far behind the aforementioned South American champions in the past rankings, but also behind the second, third, fourth and fifth. And the winner not only placed seventh last year at the regional level but is now 69th in the QS. She has three South Americans ahead of her: Mimi Barona, Josefina Ané and Melanie Giunta.

And at the junior level, the supremacy of the rest of the continent has been even greater. Since 2013 (the last record on the WSL website), five of the last six South American junior circuits have been won by Peruvians. The last two were won by Sol Aguirre, Milluska Tello won twice and Melanie Giunta won once.

Considering that Saquarema is the South American stage of the CT, and being fair to the level of surfing of all the South Americans, it would be appropriate to see other surfers being part of those trials.

Finally, the same could perfectly apply to men in the rest of South America, so why not an interesting, more cosmopolitan trial? Looking at the rankings, you can see a lot of the same as what happens with women.

I hope it happens one day.