Special coverage presented by Swellboards, Capi Bar, Ecuasal, The Island, PASHA, Surf Open League, International Surfing Association, O'Neill Uruguay, Golden Motors y SurfCycled Surfboards - All photos by Pablo Jimenez 

The news that surfing would not be broadcast live, at least in the first few days, came as a complete surprise to the surfing community; from the average fan to the family and even to the biggest authorities in the sport.

It is clear that surfing is not football, or, in the case of the Pan American Games, it is not athletics or swimming, but it is not far away either.

In fact, one of the data that resonated from Tokyo 2020 was that among the top 5 sports that had the most impact on social networks, which rule the world today, was surfing (skateboarding was in first place).

In August 2020, the IOC itself reported that in Brazil, on TV, surfing was the fifth most-watched sport during the first week of the aforementioned games.

I don't have numbers for Lima, but I was there and I saw the stands packed, I saw the world following surfing, my aunt Celina and my mother wrote to me to tell me about the surfing they had seen on TV.

The packed crowd, those who had run out of tickets, gathered outside the surfing venue, trying to see what they could from afar.

But Panamsports decided that there will be no live surfing for the first few days or they won't have read what I read or they will have other information.

What I understand is that surfing, skateboarding, climbing brought more viewers to games that had already become boring and that viewership was a success for the broadcasts.

So in the end, it wasn't just the surfing fans who couldn't see surfing live who lost out. It wasn't just my aunt Celina and my mom who lost, and I dare say lost more, it was Panamsports who could have gained a lot by broadcasting surfing these days.