March 30, 2020
The COVID-19 situation is continuing to expand across the world and the extend of which people, businesses and the whole economic systems are affected, becomes more and more obvious. This has also led to certain adaptations concerning the 2020 tourplan.
We are in close contact with all of the organisers of this season and the feedback is mostly positiv, as organisers remain optimistic about being able to run their events at the schedulded dates. This of course will depend on the local and global lift of restrictions concerning gatherings as well as travelling. To meet this new challenging situation, organisers have been given the possibility to postpone their events to autumn 2020, where dates in September are the ones mostly requested. Unfortunately the circumstances led to two unavoidable and definite cancellations for this year.
Let’s briefly go through the list of events:
EFPT Vieste, Italy: Since Italy remains one of the countries affected the most by this new virus, we are aware of the difficult position of the local organiser, who would still wishes to run the event for the set dates from the 3rd – 7th of June. However, this decision will depend on schedulded date for opening the campsite (like now planned) on the 1st of June. If the situation will not improve, the organiser wishes to move the event to September 2020. The deadline for a final decision is set for the middle of April to guarantee riders will be informed on time.
EFPT Costa Brava, Spain: The funding for the event is confirmed, with the date of the 16th – 21st of June remaining the same for now. Being aware that Spain is one of the countries struggeling the most with COVID-19, there is a chance that the event might be moved to September as well. The deadline for the final notice is end of April.
EFPT Lanzarote, Spain: The EFPT Lanzarote at Costa Teguise is still on track for now. The organisation team around Antxon Otaegui remains positive and wants to run the event from the 24th – 27th of June, unless travel and event bans will not be lifted for the Canary islands.
EFPT Fuerteventura, Spain: We are sorry to announce that the EFPT Fuerteventura will be cancelled for this year. The crisis is striking some businesses pretty hard and many funds have been frozen.
EFPT El Gouna, Egypt: Everthing remains on track for the first EFPT event ever in El Gouna, Egypt. The dates are set for the 11th – 15th of August.
EFPT Silvaplana, Switzerland: There are no changes for the EFPT Tow-in only at the Engadinaind 2020 from the 20th – 23rd of August.
EFPT Hvide Sande, Denmark: The event which has been on TBC so far will have to be cancelled for 2020 due to funding problems. The organisers wanted to run a windsurfing event next to the GKA event, which has already been confirmed. We are looking into further negotiations about the inclusion of the EFPT into next years event at Hvide Sande.
EFPT Neusiedl am See, Austria: At the moment we have no set date for the Surfworldcup Neusiedl am See, which had to be postponed from the original date at the end of April. The event remains with the status ‚TBC‘ for now.
EFPT DAM-X, Netherlands: Since the COVID-19 crisis strikes some businesses quite hard, the organisers of the DAM-X cannot make any promises to run the event in 2020. We’ll have to wait and see if there will be any change to the better in the upcoming weeks and can only stay positive.
This is all the information we can give you at the moment. The situation is monitored and we are trying to find ways to re-schedule events in case the original dates don’t work due to the circumstances. We will keep you informed and send out news as soon as we know more.
Much love from the whole EFPT team! Stay healthy!
