For surfers in Europe, this recent wave of shutdowns helps confirm 2020’s status as The King Year of Suckiness (or whatever you want to call it.) Although not as draconian as the first round of shutdowns, this one hurts especially bad because many of us thought we were on the rebound to reopening. Now The Wave, that bright spot of surfing health and activity, is the latest to get ruled by the ‘Rona.

“Following the Government announcement regarding a second national lockdown, we are very sad to announce that we will be closing our doors from Thursday 5th November to 2 December,” The Wave said in a statement. “It is so disappointing that we will not be able to run the surfing sessions that so many of you have booked for November.”

It’s a tough call for wave pools. BSR Surf Resort has remained open all year except for a brief closure last Spring. One of our reporters visited last month and observed strict respect for social distancing and mask protocols at Waco’s favorite wave. To date, the state of Texas (roughly the size of France but with half the population) has counted 965 cases of COVID and 18,650 deaths.

Urbnsurf in Melbourne closed with the initial wave, then opened for a few weeks until Melbourne became ground zero for Australia’s second wave of the virus. They opened just last week and business has been booming as Australia slides into the Southern Hemisphere summer.

The Wave said they will be issuing gift vouchers for canceled bookings. Within the next 10 days, customers will receive an email. They also noted that “Our Customer Service team will be working hard to get them to you as soon as possible.”