• The General Assembly held on December 27 included the vote on amendments to PASA bylaws and received nominations from venues for 2022 and 2023 events.
• Changes in the bylaws include modernization to the Olympic Cycle, as well as the increase of members of the Board of Directors.

On December 27, the Pan American Surf Association (PASA) held its General Assembly, with the participation of nine member countries and its Board of Directors.

The agenda for this assembly was the modification of the organization’s general bylaws, the approval of the qualifying system for the Pan Am Sports Santiago 2023 Pan American Games and the receipt of nominations for possible PASA event venues in 2022 and 2023.

The modification of the bylaws was carried out in order to modernize those created in 1992 at the founding of PASA and which had their last update in 2007. The general assembly unanimously approved these changes, which include adding two more vice presidents to the Executive Committee.

The new structure of the Board of Directors is now as follows:

• A president
• Three Vice Presidents
• A secretary

These new members will be elected during the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.

Another point discussed during the Assembly was to promote the creation and / or formalization of new organizations in the region, through the creation of confederations of Central America, the Caribbean and North America.

Karin Sierralta, president of PASA said:

“With the growth of surfing in the region, as well as its inclusion and recognition in the Olympic Games, we see an opportunity to encourage the creation of regional confederations. The South American Confederation already exists, and now we invite you to formalize the Central American Confederation and to create entities in the Caribbean and North America, in order to further incentivize the regional union and establish Surfing solidly in the Americas”.

Other points discussed were:

• Reduction in interest on outstanding debts, which was reduced from 50% to 10%.
• The inclusion of former PASA presidents in the assemblies.
• Qualification System for Santiago 2023

The Assembly unanimously approved to keep the same qualification system used for the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, but also to seek the inclusion of more qualifying quotas in multi-sport events, such as Central American and Caribbean Games, South American, Bolivarian and other games to be the case.

Therefore, and in order of hierarchy, the best eligible male and female athletes will qualify:

On the ISA World Surfing Games 2023, in the case that these games are held in the first half of the year 2023, otherwise calculate those of the year 2022.

The best eligible athletes of the PASA Open Games 2023, an event that will take place in the first quarter of 2023.

The best two eligible athletes of the Continental Circuit ALAS Pro Tour of the year 2022.

About this subject, President Sierralta said:

“We are inviting other multi-sport organizations to have events that include Surfing disciplines to add more options for additional event quotas, which would give Open, Longboard or SUP athletes more opportunities to qualify for Pan American Games. This is a way to encourage and promote surfing in more multidisciplinary organizations, expanding the scope of surfing at a regional level ”.

Nominations for PASA events for 2022 and 2023

During this assembly, several member countries presented their nominations to host different PASA events.

Colombia is running to host the first PASA championship for Junior categories (U-18) in 2022.

Brazil, Chile, the United States and Panama demonstrated their interest in organizing the PASA championship for the Open categories in the years 2022 and 2023.

In addition, Argentina presented the proposal to host the first PASA championship for the StandUp Paddle (SUP) categories, in April 2022.

All proposals are being analyzed by the PASA Board of Directors and the chosen venues will be announced shortly.