Pictured above: Zoe McDougall is hoping to get the USA into the top two at the Pan American Surfing Games; if that happens she will qualify for Lima 2019, if not, Canada's Bethany Zelasko will go. All photos: ISA/Evans/Reed

The definition of the first teams to qualify for Lima 2019 generated a lot of excitement on the part of fans, athletes and leaders, but also a lot of confusion. Several scenarios were elucidated over the days, which are detailed below:

A qualified Peruvian opens a place for another foreigner

The ISA World Surfing Games opened up two spots for men and two for women, but will also open it up to one local athlete if he or she manages to get into the qualifying zone.

When Santiago Muñiz finished first and Lucca Mesinas third, the question even among the top managers was: does Lucca occupy the host's place or one of the international spots? The answer, after studying it by the authorities, was that Mesinas is occupying one of the two places guaranteed for the locals, therefore the American Kevin Schulz, who finished fifth, earned a place.

Now that Argentina and the United States have secured a spot, how do other athletes from that country go about securing another spot?

Only three countries will be able to host two open men and two open women. These are: Peru, as hosts, and the two leaders of the open shortboard ranking at the 2018 Pan American Surfing Championship.

Thus, if an Argentine wins gold at the Pan American Surfing Games, but the Argentine team fails to place among the top two countries (not counting Peru) in the ranking, the Pan American surfing champion would not qualify because that country's quota is limited to one per gender and that quota is already guaranteed to Santiago Muñiz.

A situation regarding the rule that only three countries can go with four opens to Lima 2019 is given to the United States, which has the two best Pan American women of the World Surfing Games: Summer Macedo, copper medal, and Zoe McDougall, ninth.

If the United States manages to get into the top two countries in the Pan American Surfing team rankings (not counting Peru), McDougall will go to Lima 2019. If this does not happen, the Canadian Bethany Zelasko, who finished 11th at the World Surfing Games, would go.

What happens if Peru is among the top two teams at the Pan American Surfing Games?

The third ranked country gets the right to host two men's and two women's open tournaments..

What happens if Peru is not among the top two?

The team will also participate in Lima 2019 with two open men and two open women, a spot it earned by being the host country. The 1st and 2nd in the PASA shortboard team ranking will earn the right to take two open men and two open women.

How are local representatives defined?

Peruvians qualify following the same guidelines as all athletes. They must seek their classification in the following events: ISA, PASA, ALAS, in this order of hierarchy.

They already have one guaranteed, Lucca Mesinas, bronze at the ISA World Championships. The next one is expected to come from those who are among the first six eligible in the ranking of the Pan American Surfing Games.

If there is no Peruvian there, which would be strange, but you never know, we would go to see the first two in the ALAS ranking.

Now, what happens if there are no premises in the individual classification zone?

This would be strange, but perfectly possible. In that case, according to experts, everything would refer to the ISA-PASA-ALAS hierarchy. Then they would go looking for the best Peruvian in the ISA World Surfing Games, which was Tomás Tudela, who finished 11th in the world championship.

That is to say: If Peru does not manage to get any athlete among the top six eligible in the PASA men's ranking or among the top two in ALAS, this means that it will go to the ISA World Surfing Games.

If we continue with the example of Peru, Sofía Mulanovich (13th in the ISA World Cup) and Analí Gómez (37th in the ISA World Cup) would qualify among the ladies.

Similar situation with the two countries that get two quotas per gender

How do you determine who the two surfers are from those two countries? In this case, something similar would happen. If you don't get one of the first six eligible spots in the PASA ranking, you would go to the top 2 of ALAS and if there are none by those means, you would go to the ISA ranking. If, for example, you didn't participate in the ISA World Championships, you would continue down the PASA ranking until you find the eligible surfers from those two countries who finished in the first two places in the ranking by country in the shortboard divisions.