Have you ever thought of heading to Japan for your surfing holidays? Well you might want
to as surfing is officially an Olympic sport with it set to debut at the Tokyo
Olympics 2020.
Yesterday the IOC voted to add surfing to the roster at the
Tokyo Olympics 2020 after the successful proposal by the event organisers back
in September 2015.
As much as the rumours portrayed, the event will not be held
in one of Kelly Slater’s wave pools but instead at the beach break Chiba which
is just under an hour from Tokyo, or quicker, those trains in Japan seem pretty
quick!
There will be only high performance short boarding with 20 men and 20
women battling it out to be crowned the first Olympic Champion in surfing in
their respected categories. Countries from all over the world will be competing
with WSL surfers also likely to be representing their countries, with Team
Brazil possibly a favourite already! The event will take two days to complete
with the waiting period for the event being two weeks, which hopefully results
in some great surf for the contestants.
It seems like there will be a great vibe around the contest
area for this first-time event with International Surfing Association president
and Reef Sandals co-founder Fernando Aguerre saying:
“The IOC has asked us to create a full-on beach scene at
Chiba that will last the whole length of the Olympics. It will include the surf
events of course, but also organic food, yoga in the morning-it will be a place
where you want to hang out. There might be a skate ramp – maybe it will be like
what you see at the U.S. Open. It’s never been done before at the Olympics.”
We can’t wait to see this first time event and who ends up
representing their country, we’re sure there will be a few broken hearts on the
WSL!
Watch the video below to see Chiba in action:
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Photo by: Atos
