Surfer John Anderson PI comp 2009... Photo by Steen Barns
Write up By Red Ceglowski
VIC Kneeboard Point score....The Scoring of kneeboard surfing
Everyone did a great job judging on Saturday. Judging accuracy and consistency comes with practice and it was heartening to see how many were taking their practice seriously. Kittys in a hard wave to judge, mainly because you sit so far from the break. All the turns start to look similar at that distance, so it takes a lot of effort to try to discern differences. Even after years of pro judging experience, one of the patterns I see myself falling into when judging these sort of conditions is that I start to mechanically count turns, and look how a wave was ridden overall. Since neither of these are part of the judging criteria I have to force myself to try to differentiate between turns. Was that cutback comitted on a rail with speed, or was it just a turn? Was there a visible sheet of spray or just an ejaculation?
Another one that I commit is in judging the wave and the way it was surfed, rather than manoeuvers. I do things like think, "He just did one big turn, but then didn't make the wave. Should be get as much as someone who stayed in front of the curl the whole way and even did a few cutties?" I have to forcibly drag myself to the realisation that it's all about the manoeuver and not at all about the wave or the surfer's interpretation of the medium. Heck yes, one re-entry and snow-in rates higher than a clean face with cut backs, mainly because of the relative risk in the approach. We all know that it's comfortable to stay ahead of the curl and fade back to the power. That's why I force myself to reward the person who doesn't surf in the comfort zone. I force myself to throw "good" scores (6 to 7.9) for single turns where they were of significance. That leaves the average ground (4 to 5.9) available for differentiating between all those "well ridden" but unremarkable waves. Of course, two big turns and it's into the "Excellent" category. I don't think any 10's were thrown on Saturday, but I know that there were waves with several big turns that could have been contenders.
Actually, when I'm on my judging game I'm looking to the bottom turn. You can almost score the wave based on the bottom turns. If you're seeing two fins and chunks of blasting spray, then you know that the surfer is laying into it with power, and is committing to entering their air, top turn, round house or tube section with speed. If I repeatedly see the fins on bottom turns, then I know that surfer is pushing it and should be rewarded. If you think about it it makes perfect sense. Surfers who are riding horizontal and swinging arcbacks are not fulfilling the ASP criteria which call for critical maneuvers.
Now should we be rewarding guys who get it up there and don't make it? My personal view is "yes", but that's a whole new topic for discussion.
