Will the World Surf League, WSL pull out of Hawaii?  Recent news stories in the Honolulu Advertiser indicate a showdown between the WSL and the City Parks Department.  The fight is over a request by the WSL to change the status of two of its event permit applications.  The City in a letter to the WSL  states that it would be unfair to the rest of the surf contest applicants to do this because all of the allocated time slots are in contention.    Background; the City Parks department  rules allow for a limited number of events on the North Shore.  These rules are generally supported by both the North Shore and surfing community because they cap the amount of time, beaches, and surf spots are restricted from free surfers.  With all of that said there is an exception in the rules that allows the Parks Director  to do whatever he/she wishes.  For example, there is a rule that states that no two surfing events can run in the same permit period. However, the Eddie Akau event has an annual holding period that runs through multiple other contests, this works because the Eddie needs 20 ft or large waves to run while the competitions require the surf to be 12 ft or less. (Note: wave scale is Hawaiian.)  Consequently, there is no way that that the Eddie would interfere with any other events.  Ok, back to our storyline or rather why the WLS is threatening to pull its surfing contest out of Hawaii.  The City has a concession  rule that states it can issue no-bid concessions or in this case, surf contest permits only for 14 days at a time and only on an annual basis.  So if the City did something more business-friendly and allowed multi-year  contracts it would have to put the process out to bid, this would enable big corporations  to take over the surf contest scene on the North Shore of Oahu. On the other hand, 3-year schedules would allow for more money to get into surfing and shed light on the fact that there is no women’s professional contest held on the North Shore.  So to answer the questions Will the World Surf League pull out of Hawaii?, I think not.  The WSL and the City need to realize  that their interest is aligned and work it out.    Things will work out as long as the WSL realizes  that it needs Hawaii more then Hawaii needs it especially considering that surfing including pro surfing is indigenous to Hawaii.  Below is a newscast on the issue; http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/clip/14104000/dispute-over-permitting-may-jeopardize-wsl-tour-in-hawaii