The following letter regarding the upcoming Billabong ISA World Surfing Games was written by John Fluke, President of the Canadian Surfing Association (CSA).

Due to economic conditions, the Canadian Surfing Association will not be sending a team to the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games in Costa Rica this July and August.

Over the past five years, Canada has fielded a team at both the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championship and the ISA World Surfing Games.

Financial sponsorship from Mazda has been used to help offset the cost of sending the best Canadian surfers to these games.

Prior to Mazda’s involvement, Canada would send a team not based on the best surfers but who could afford to go. However, with Mazda’s sponsorship over the last few years, Canada has been able to send the best. This has paid off with Canada moving from the mid 30’s in international ranking to the low 20’s.

Unfortunately, Mazda has been forced to pull its sponsorship due to the worldwide economic meltdown.

We at the CSA hope this is only a small setback and we are working on finding other corporate sponsors for 2010.

John Fluke
CSA President