Latin America's premier big wave event, the Puerto Escondido Challenge, will not be part of the division's world tour in 2018, the WSL said in a statement released yesterday.

For some time now, rumors have been circulating around the sands of the Mexican Pipeline that the WSL will not return to Puerto Rico, at least not as a tournament that adds points to crown the world champion of the category, despite the fact that it was very consistent, taking place twice in the last two years.

Competitors at the event had already been told that the tournament would not take place, but the WSL had not officially confirmed this.

The waiting period for the championship last year was from May 1 to July 31. The authority did not specifically communicate that the tournament would not take place despite DUKE contacting the press department on several occasions.

Yesterday, when it was announced that the WSL would be moving its webcast platform exclusively to Facebook, the rumor and what the athletes had said were confirmed. When it was detailed that all the events of the big wave tour would be broadcast, the Puerto Challenge did not appear.

There is now talk among surfers that the Puerto Challenge will suffer the same fate as the Punta de Lobos Challenge (the Ceremonial), the Punta Galea Challenge and the Pico Alto Invitational, which resumed their independent path.

The reason for the suspension of the event was not explained anywhere, neither by the local organizers nor by the WSL.

The tour now has three rounds to be held in Mavericks, California; Peahi, Hawaii; and Nazaré, Portugal, all in the northern hemisphere, with similar waiting period dates: October 15 to February 28.

Thus, the powerful southern swells that hit the entire world year after year, ceased to be part of the main circuit of the specialty.