Great topic Doc...
As you know I put together an article over a year ago about the internationally recognised
Basic Judging Criteria in order to assist our riders grasp a better understanding of what it is that they should be doing in their heats in order to impress the judges.
Follow the link if you're interested.
The Basic Judging Criteria reads as follows:
"A bodyboarder must execute the most radical manoeuvres in the critical section of a wave, with fluid linking and combination of manoeuvres, combining speed and power throughout. The bodyboarder who executes such manoeuvres on the biggest or best waves for the longest functional distances shall be deemed the winner".
As far as changing the Basic Juding Criteria is concerned I believe that the wording is 95% correct (see end paragraph), but perhaps (as you have already said) the maximum scoring potential of certain moves needs to be revised.
I don't believe that riders should be scored highly for incomplete ARS, Backflip, Inverted Air Revo etc...attempts because let's face it, the pro's should be able to bust flips with the greatest of ease - and believe you me, they can. If we score kids a 5 or 6 for an incomplete when they're progressing through the ranks they're going to be bleak when they surf their first pro comp and score a 1.0 for the same move they've been scoring a 5.0 for - an incomplete flip.
In my opinion the line has to be drawn somewhere.
I do agree with the fact that progressive bodyboarding needs to be scored accordingly and "old school" manoeuvres such as spins and rolls scored on the lower scale of judging - unless performed on the most critical section of the wave. It's a tough call because how do you compare the waves ridden recently in Chile to those competed on in Portugal. You can't, but judging still needs to be done irrespective of whether or not the world's best are competing in 10 foot bombs or 1 foot slop.
There is also a difference between an ars (lower case) and a Air Roll Spin (PHAT!). Rossi helped me loads one year with this simple breakdown, which actually helps with loads of other moves. Look at the first word in the moves name.
Air - how much air did the rider get and how much of the move did they complete in the air?
Like I have said previously, Pro's can bust flips on pretty much anything so when judging them one really has to be critical when seperating the Flop Air Roll Spins from the AIR ROLL SPINS. What judges want to see is full rotation completed in the air with the rider landing facing the beach on the open face of the wave and continuing with their ride.
For those of you who were lucky enough to watch the Hubbard brothers face off in Arica you'll know exactly what I am on about and for those of you who couldn't tune in here's a breakdown of what went down.
Within the first few minutes of the heat Jeff landed a sick Backflip and scored very highly, Dave applauded his boets (brothers), efforts and got up DK on the next wave as if to say well done Jeff, you owned it. He must have thought that he could never top Jeff's score and pretty much resigned to the fact that he would lose the heat. Little did he know that minutes later a set would roll through and Jeff, who had priority, would leave it thus opening the door for Dave to get a perfect 10. If someone was able to score more than 10 it should have been Dave for this ride. Solid set in the 10 foot region, if not bigger. Scooping bottom turn straight up to the lip and BOOOOM a high flying Flip full rotation in the air landing back on the wave facing the beach - as smooth as silk. He carried on riding and got another section BOOOOOM Flip number 2 almost as good, but done on a smaller section and the landing wasn't as clean as the first, but it was still at least a 5.0 manoeuvre. Dave couldn't believe his luck and claimed it so hard. For me I give the first flip a 9.0 and the second 5.0 leaving Dave with a score of 14.0 for that one ride - well we all know that can't happen, but still it was siiiiiiick!
I don't like seeing riders win comps by spinning and rolling their way through their heats, but it happens. Especially if conditions are poor, such as those found in Portugal recently.
Contests with fixed dates and fixed venues are always a hit or miss affair because no one can predict what the waves will be like when the dates are set. Not to single an event out, but just look at the Cape Classic 2007, 2008 and 2009.
2007 - weekend before the comp and Cape Town cooks...going off it's nut. Waves everywhere from the East to the West coast. Weekend of the comp. Gale force winds and weak swell. No waves anywhere other than where the comp was held and even then it was 2 foot at best.
2008 - What an event. Day 1: COOOOOOOKING Hoek...solid 4 to 6 foot bombs throughout the entire day. Some of the best waves I have seen for a comp absolute perfection in the eyes of both the riders and organisers. Day 2: Got Caves pretty good until the wind picked up 3 to 4 foot. Day 3(finals day): Clean 2 to 4 foot Caves - pretty much the perfect end to a great comp.
2009 - Flat, Flat, Flat...Day 1 postponed due to lack of swell. Day 1 started in sick conditions at Caves and they stayed ok throughout the day, but waves were a little inconsistant. Day 2: No swell anywhere and back at Caves we found 2 to 3 foot rideable waves but nothing to write home about. Conditions went poo later on and the comp looked like it was going to be a complete wash out with the finals held in 1 foot slop, but thankfully that wasn't the case and most of the finals saw some sick sets rolling through in the corner - the riders were stoked and the organisers were relieved.
You see...comps with fixed dates and even roaming venues can never be counted on to produce the goods and even comps with lengthly window periods sometimes fail to impress - not due to anyones fault, it's just the way things are. We cannot control nature.
I for one am more interested in seeing the top flight of our riders competing in serious surf, on waves of consiquence, and for this reason I would like to see a speciality tour set aside for this purpose. The tour doesn't have to be big - 2 or 3 events would be enough to start with. I know that in South Africa this is probably more of a dream than a reality, but I do feel that elsewhere in the world (Australia perhaps?), this is something well worth looking into. Events like the Cave Rock Challange, and this years Shark Island Challange are the way forward for our Pro's (especially in South Africa where very few of our guys can afford to compete internationally). These events are also a lot easier to market to the media because of their extreme nature, and the quality of shots/footage coming from them, and therefore this should be attractive to sponsors.
In SA this year we have had one such event and it would have been great to see another, but perhaps next year something can be done.
Back to the judging, and my final point. Bodyboarding is not like surfing in many ways and our judges do need to be aware of this. Bodyboarding, for me, is about catching the biggest wave in the conditions and busting 1 solid move or 2 if you're lucky enough (like Dave was in Arica). Sometimes I read the Basic Judging Criteria and think that perhaps certain parts of it lean more towards surfing than they do to where bodyboarding currently is. I tend to think of guys like Kelly Slater riding for miles at J Bay doing cutty after cutty, snap after snap and floating a couple of sections inbetween before finishing off with a weak air floater effort and scoring a 9.0. I suppose that it all depends on the wave being ridden as to how many moves can be completed, but I'd rather see a bodyboarder take off at J Bay, pull into the barrel and boost the sickest tweaked invert or twisted flip as they exit the pit - over and done with 10 point ride thank you very much.
Next.
It's kinda like the difference in cricket between a 5 day test match and 20/20...one is a hell of a lot more exciting to watch.
But then again...I'm just bias.
Happy days.
