It came to the attention of ILS that the International Canoe Federation (ICF) recently started claiming ownership of surf-ski championships, this being in competition to ILS and ILS member federations surf-ski championships, which have been organised ever since 80 years ago.

In the past the ICF acknowledged ILS ownership of the surf-ski event and equipment and there was appropriate collaboration, interaction and respect for each others events.

Much to our disappointment this has recently changed. New leadership in the ICF is now claiming all paddle sports belong to the ICF.

ILS Officials attempted to meet with the ICF President at Sportaccord 2010 but were unable to achieve any progress in their effort to regain a collaborative relationship. An official complaint was made from ILS to the IOC, Sportaccord and ARISF.

The National Canoe Federations in Australia and the U.K. are not in agreement with the recent move of the ICF and have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ILS members in which they acknowledge surf-ski races are under the ownership of ILS and not the ICF. In those nations there is a national collaboration on surf-ski events.

In summary, ILS requests the ICF:

• not to use the protected Surf-ski event name and competitors,
• not to use the ILS registered and protected patented boats,
• to remove mention of Surf-ski as idea originating from the ICF,
• to remove the ILS history from the ICF website.

ILS requests collaboration and cooperation to the mutual benefit of our athletes and our sports and thank everyone for their understanding in this matter.