Pan American Surfing Championships postponed due to labour strike

The following is a copy of the notification of the postponement to the US Team; -

Dear US Team Member, coach, judge, staff, photographer, journalist, chaperone, supporter - participant in the Pan American Surfing Championships.

It is with great sorrow that I am writing this notification. We will be following it up with phone calls.

The PASC has been postponed.

In a recent email from the Antonio Sotillo, Head of the Venezuelan Committee, he informs us that there will be a National Labor Strike carried out on December 10th, where over one million businesses will close their doors in protest against some laws recently passed by the Venezuelan government.

Unsure of any repurcussions or perhaps a sort of political incident surrounding this strike, the decision has been made to postpone the Pan-Am Games to a later date. This date will be announced on Friday.

We are not sure what our plans are at this time, however, you need to contact your travel arrangements that you have at this time and cancel.

We will be working with American Airlines for the Miami to Caracas flight, and also with First Coast Travel concerning the Caracas to Margarita Island flight on Avensa.

We know everyone is extremely disappointed. And we know that everyone has put a tremendous amount of time, expense, energy in participating in this event. And we are aware that everyone of you, and your families have made huge sacrifices to participate as well. We sympathize with you and understand your feelings. We will work through this unfortunate circumstance. We will give you more information as soon as we get it.

If you have questions, feel free to give us a call, however, at this time, we do not know that much more except that the contest organizer has postponed the event - the reason - safety of the teams. And we know they plan to reschedule as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Paul West

Contests - Surfersvillage.