With frustration and sadness, the Organising Committee for the World Surf Kayak Championships 2021 (‘Worlds’) have unanimously agreed that the competition will be postponed until 2022.

The decision has weighed heavily on the Committee, we have watched as events have unfolded over 2020 and the early stages of 2021 and we feel it is not possible to organise a Worlds that would do justice to the name or provide fair and equal access to competitors across the world. The restrictions and ongoing uncertainty are not only felt within the UK, but Worldwide.

The world in 2021 is as full of uncertainty as 2020 was, and while there is light at the end of the tunnel, it’s still too far away to be able to plan properly. The worlds are a large event, and require the co-ordination of a lot of moving parts to be successful.  We are also significantly concerned by the fast-changing nature of global travel restrictions; particularly as global variants of the virus emerge. At the very least, we know that arranging travel would need to be left extremely late and would therefore become too expensive to be accessible to everyone.

The decision has not been taken lightly, and we’ve taken into account a number of factors, including:

• The options we have and their implications, both practical and financial
• The fairness of the competition
• Protecting our local communities

Nevertheless, we are agreed that this is the right course of action for the volunteers, competitors, partners and teams.

The highest concerns have been the safety of everyone involved in the event, and the impact that a large gathering of people might have in the local area.

We will be having an online Question and Answer session with the Team leads and WSKA representatives. The date for this will be distributed as soon as we have finalised it.

Our hope is that the Worlds in 2022 will be even better because of this and will be something to look forward to after a turbulent couple of years.

The Worlds 2021 Committee

Marc Woolward, Jack Barker, Charlotte Skardon