There’s going to be a lot of discussion and debate as the Social Media sites are blowing up. The Judges took their time and clearly thought it through carefully. But Medina got burned in most expert opinion. Watch the Heat Analyzer when it loads and you make the call HERE
Heats are all judged on their own ‘relative’ scale based on conditions and performance. Yes, there is the specific yet broad criteria that guide judges scores, but to refine and improve the judging game in our partially subjective sport, EACH heat needs to measured against itself. A standard.
So from this vantage point it seems crystal clear that Medina’s wave and performance were at minimum a 1/2 point higher than all the rest.
The judges nerves may cause insomnia.
Judging and Points
Events are comprised of rounds and those rounds are made up of heats with anywhere from two-to-four surfers looking to lock in their two highest-scoring waves — both out of a possible 10 points for a possible 20-point heat total. A panel of five judges scores each wave on a scale of one to ten. For every scoring ride, the highest and lowest scores (of the five judges) are discounted and the surfer receives the average of the remaining three scores. There is no limit on the number of waves that will be scored, but the two best scoring waves (each out of a possible 10) are added together to become a surfer’s heat total (out of a possible 20).
Judges analyze the following elements when scoring waves (not for Longboard or BWT Events):
- Commitment and degree of difficulty
- Innovative and progressive maneuvers
- Combination of major maneuvers
- Variety of maneuvers
- Speed, power and flow
Judging scale:
[0.0 — 1.9: Poor]
[2.0 — 3.9: Fair]
[4.0 — 5.9: Average]
[6.0 — 7.9: Good]
[8.0 — 10.0: Excellent]
