Every year I see competitors unhappy with their scores and nothing changes.
We have already seen many professional surfers quitting, changing professions or retiring from competitions due to judging errors (scores) leaving them very frustrated and helpless before the judges. On top of that, some athletes present complaints and it is of no use to them.
The judges have godlike reputations and many don’t know how to cutback.
As a competitor, judge, and coach, I insist on reading to the end and not giving up on your dreams, love of surfing, and not stop voicing your points complaints with the judges. Break this barrier that judges are gods and you can’t complain.
Why are the judges and head judge not rated by the competitors?
1 A judge of a surfing championship must: have been a competitor with a minimum of 8 competitions of WQS experience. Surf the wave where the test will take place (to know its difficulties and facilities). Know how to do maneuvers such as cutback, reentry, tube and aerial.
2 Those who are not able to surf the wave where the competition takes place should not be Judges, the Chief Judge should not speak and influence the judges.
3 I insist that you do not need to be in a hurry when it comes to putting the notes, having to inform the competitors and the public at the moment is a mistake.
Professional athletes know their grades and points very well, if they surfed well or not, they know if they need better waves. They feel when they have surfed well!
They only have to worry about surfing.
You only have to worry about when the sleeve starts and when it ends.
You only have to worry about choosing the best waves and surfing your best.
You only have to worry about priority.
4 If the Judges leave their posts and another team of judges enters for the next heat, and the judges who left meet with the chief judge to reassess and compare the waves through the videos, they would have another opportunity to compare well the waves. Details: of the wave, where the maneuver is executed, in which part of the wave of the maneuvers with more details: entrance, exit, the keels through which they pass, the rotations if they are 15% 50% 100%.
This way they would avoid punctuation errors, focusing more on the comparison, without worrying about the points. Worry about comparing which surfer was better and which surfer advanced to the next round.
If you compete, you know that very few championships listen to the notes, the speakers. Competitors do not hear their scores from what the speaker is talking about, due to wind, distance, wave noise and etc.
Competitors simply care about time and their competition strategies.
I have seen many competitions where the weather conditions change a lot, waves get bigger, smaller, the wind changes direction and destroys the waves, the wind changes and leaves the perfect clean waves and so on.
I would hate to see more great athletes, surfers, people giving up their dreams of competing because of scoring errors.
I would love to see athletes more relaxed and happy with the competitions enjoying more.
Surfing moves millions of people, money, culture and etc.
It is an Olympic sport.
It has to be more professional and respectful with competitors and entities.
Aloha namaste.
evandro
