Organisers of the recently-cancelled Bells Beach Rip Curl Pro say they offered to pay quarantine costs before state government refused their charter flight.
World Surf League Australian general manager Andrew Stark told The Age this week his organisation tried to negotiate with government until late January.
But the league’s requests to land a private charter plane in Melbourne – with 125 staff and surfers on board – were denied.
“We were [offering] to pay for our flight, all our own quarantine, we weren’t asking the Victorian government for a dollar, we just needed them to allow us to land a plane and go through their quarantine system and they said ‘no’,” Mr Stark said.
“We love that event and we desperately wanted Bells to be the first opening event of the Australian leg, but it wasn’t possible and that wasn’t a decision that was in our control.”
The event will not be held at the Jan Juc break this Easter for first time since 1961, with the event instead moving to Newcastle.
The World Surf League has not ruled out holding a similar major event at Bells Beach in winter to take advantage of storm swells.
“We are currently discussing multiple options to be best prepared to get the Championship Tour back on and running,” a spokesperson told the Independent.
