It’s been a strange time for the bodyboarding community. The International Bodyboarding Association (IBA) canceled the finals of the 2013 World Tour after a sponsor pulled out, and strangely decided to give the winning title to Ben Player, despite the final Fronton Challenge not being carried out. The IBA awarded him the win based on the previous year’s results, which had not only the entire community confused, but Player himself. The IBA went on to cancel the 2014 season and has even deactivated its official website.

“It is with great disappointment that the IBA has decided to cancel Fronton,” said IBA World Tour General Manager Richard Nimmo, according to SurferToday.com. “The team at the IBA has worked tirelessly to pull the event together, yet a last minute withdrawal of a key sponsor has meant that we can no longer contemplate running it. Events must be profitable or at worse break even.”

Player said despite winning all three IBA World Tours, he doesn’t think the competition was fair. “It is a bitter sweet [sic] victory. On one hand, I am really excited to be a three-time world champion and winner of the 2013 World Tour title, but on the other hand I wanted to win in the contest arena and I pity the other contestants—especially Amaury—who didn’t get their final shot at the title due to the event’s cancellation. It’s not a great way to win or a fair way to lose. Although I am officially the winner, I will always feel as though I finished up equal first with Amaury Lavernhe, who had an amazing year,” he said, according to SurferToday.com.

While the IBA has quietly disappeared, the Association of Professional Bodyboarders has been formed in conjunction with the International Surfing Association taking over for future planning of events. The ISA has announced the fourth annual World Bodyboard Championship, which will be held from December 8 through 15 in Iquique, Chile. The competition will be held in Punta 1, which is a location in Iquique that provides “a world-class reef break that will invite bodyboarders for tube riding and high performance maneuvers.”

“Punta 1 will be the perfect venue for the best bodyboarders in the world. It will be a fantastic competition, and we look forward to a long-term relationship between Chile and the ISA,” said ISA President Fernando Aguerre. 

Each team will include no more than seven riders who will compete in Open Men (3), Open Women (1), Junior Under-18 Boys (1), Junior Under-18 Girls (1), and Open Drop-Knee (1).

Image from Evan Fa on Wikimedia Commons