Venezuela was one of the greatest powers of Latin American surfing during the late nineties and early 2000s. The country had already created a classic against Peru, in Pan American and World Championships, in which they played neck to neck to see who was ahead.

It was a classic fight that the vinotinto sometimes won.

The country's institutional crisis caused that competition, and any other kind, to go down the drain. The federation practically disappeared and the country's presence at international events became very sporadic.

To make a comparison like the one in the first paragraph: Peru won several world team titles from that time until now, has more than 10 surfers consistently racing the QS and Venezuela has practically stagnated. All those mega talented surfers had to find ways to survive, but they were hardly seen anymore in the WSL or ISA worlds.

That pond seems to be starting to close, or at least it shows a glimmer of hope. According to what professional longboarder Ronald Reyes informed DUKE, a call has already been made to organize the lists and elect the electoral committee.

In order to do this, the legal consultancy of the Ministry of Sports authorized them to carry out the management on a provisional basis so that there will finally be elections and someone will be in charge of national surfing in view of the Pan American Games in Lima 2019 and the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.

The published notice indicates that an extraordinary general assembly of the federation will be held on April 3, the sole point to be discussed being the election of the electoral committee, and then, on April 20, a second one will be held in which the members of the board of directors will be elected.

In other words, if nothing goes wrong, Venezuela should have a functioning federation again very soon. It remains to be seen how it will impact surfing in the country and what kind of support it receives from the government.