Judging Series > The Judging Criteria

Author: Gareth White
23rd January 2008

When it comes to bodyboarding contests there always seems to be certain degree of confusion surrounding the judging of the event and uncertainty regarding particular results. Some have gone as far as to lambaste judges as being bias. Hence we at sixty40 feel obliged to publish certain aspects of the judging rulebook in order to clear the air and educate riders as to Judging Criteria, Interference Rules and the scoring Potential of Manoeuvres.

Since these are rather large topics that should be studied and understood we have decided to split them into these three categories and release them over the next month.

They are for the benefit of any rider either competing or thinking of starting to compete. Having an understanding of what the judges are looking for will only help you in the long run, which will in turn benefit South African bodyboarding.

I myself am a judge, but only started judging earlier this year and by no means have acquired enough knowledge on the subject to sit here and dictate to you. For this reason I have sourced the assistance of the South African Bodyboarding Association Head Judge, Marc "Rossi" Rossouw and one of South Africa's most experienced bodyboarders, Alistair Taylor to aid me in this endeavour.

Taylor - "In essence, for me what should win heats is a combination of clean, fast, fluid surfing, and radical manoeuvres. I also personally think that a roll is an 80's manoeuvre, and even easier than a 360, where you can catch an edge, or have your legs all over the place - so unless a roll is on a really heavy section, or on a big gnarly wave, I don't think it should be scored as well as a comparably clean ARS or backflip. If rolls are scored higher, we are setting a precedent that takes the sport backwards, and rewards safe surfing over risk surfing, which can in turn be tedious to watch, which in turn means less positive response from spectators and TV viewership. So the judges job becomes all the more important - if they reward radical manoeuvres appropriately, contestants will know that unless they take risks, they will lose - and it will be the guys pushing the limits of cutting edge manoeuvres that are winning contests and dictating the future of the sport."

To start let's take a look at the basics. What are judges looking for when you catch a wave?

The Judging Criteria

This criteria has been adopted Worldwide and 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".

Now for the English version ...

Analysis of the Judging Criteria

In order to be able to successfully understand the basic judging criteria, one must understand the elements within the criteria and how they interact.

1. "A bodyboarder" - any bodyboarder actively competing in a heat in progress.

2. "must execute" - must complete an attempted manoeuvre on a wave, then regain controlled momentum on the same wave, in order for the score for that manoeuvre to count.

Rossi - "In a nutshell your manoeuvre, or end combination, could cost you points as Execution as critical. For example let's say you are riding in your heat, there is 2 minutes left and you see a good set approaching. You catch the wave, bottom turn hard and head straight to the pitching lip and launch into an Air Roll Spin. While this is happing the wave closes out by barrelling top to bottom, your rotation is all done in the air and you land in the flats facing the beach the white water pushes you forward, you still have momentum and the judges can see you the entire time. This could possibly score you a 10 point ride!

If someone else has an almost similar wave and manoeuvre, but land half way through the rotation and in the white water, not the flats and after 3 seconds pop-out fighting to make it, should he or she be scored the same as the first example? No, of course not!

If a rider does not complete a move, irrespective of whether or not it was on a good wave or big move, it will have a very low score normally a 1 point score, provided there where no other moves executed. If the rider completed a few moves before not making their last attempt, they will still be scored for those which they completed on the wave and get a score of 1 added to the total for the incomplete manoeuvre.

I should note that Jeff Hubbard one year at Pipe attempted a 720 air reverse he landed in the flats but got eaten by the shock wave and white water. He scored a 3 point ride which is the highest an incomplete manoeuvre has ever been scored!"

3. "the most radical manoeuvres" - the most extreme, physically difficult and visually spectacular manoeuvres.

Rossi - "You can get a lot out of the pervious info I gave above, but in my experience I think its important to say that it's not just making a move that would be considered a radical manoeuvre (e.g. ARS, back flip, Air forward, Air reverse or a long floater over the barrel section in DK) .Its more vital to how that move was preformed and on what size wave and off what section. After all a A.R.S stands for "Air" roll spin so in order to gain maximum score you need to do it in the air making it more spectacular. I often get ask how come so and so got a 5 point ride for his ARS. You would most commonly find that it was either a really small inside wave or it was forced or flicked of a small or foam section. What we as judges want to see, whatever the move maybe is hard off the bottom and launching of the lip on a set wave or medium set with good shape. A good tip here is to get a mate to video you while free surfing, this will help you see the differences."

4. "in the critical section of a wave" - near the most powerful, breaking section of the wave, and if conditions permit, underneath/behind the breaking lip of the wave, within the "tube" or "barrel".

Rossi - "This one for me is straight forward and any bodyboarder should have a good understanding where the wave produces its power and that is as close to the breaking part of the wave and in the tube or barrel. Manoeuvres that are either under, off the lip or through part the lip pushing the rider into the air will always give you the best option to maximise your chance of scoring."

5. "with fluid linking and combination of manoeuvres" - with smooth transitions between manoeuvres and by performing a number of appropriate manoeuvres on one wave in succession, as to maximise points.

Rossi - "If you watch any great bodyboarders that rides a wave well start to finish you will always notice that they start one move and as it finishes they flow into the next. Not all waves have big ramp sections all day during a contest, but it is possible to still get good to high scoring waves with flowing basic moves. Example of this is perhaps a rider bottom turns clean into a snappy forward spin and heads strait to the lip and air rolls clean of the section landing on the open face followed by a smooth cut back into reverse spin tucking into a small tube gaining some travel time behind the lip and as the wave closes out, rolls through the lip and lands in front of the white water. No big flashy moves, just your run of the mill stuff, but he or she will still pick up a good score and look to build on that wave just by powerful smooth controlled combinations."

6. "combining speed and power throughout" - demonstrate the ability to effectively harness the power of the wave so as to travel fast on it, gaining the speed essential to perform radical manoeuvres with control(as opposed to soft or weak manoeuvres).

Rossi - "As I have said in the last section powerful fast controlled moves are always going to go down well with the judges and your peers. Watch the best guys in the sport today, locally and abroad, they can all bust big on the solid waves with big ramp sections, but they can also work magic in and around the pocket."

7a. "The bodyboarder who executes such manoeuvres on the biggest ... waves" - those waves in a heat which have the greatest height and usually, therefore, the greatest power and best critical sections.

7b. "or best waves" - usually refers to waves that are of a higher quality due to a more perfect breaking form, such as waves that allow tube riding.

Rossi - "During your heat there should always be some set waves. A set wave is normally the biggest waves that have been coming through during the course of the day. These waves offer more power and most often better thicker sections that will make for more spectacular manoeuvres provided the rider considers the above mentioned examples.

An important thing to keep in mind is that judges use a thing that they call "the scale" which is a scoring scale for the types of waves viruses the level of the division in the water at that time of the day. Also taking into account that the waves might get flatter as the tide pushes or a dropping swell size and wind direction. Let me use a example here to make it clear.

Let's say the first 8 heats of day one in a contest are the Pro division and heats are each 20min long. The first heat starts at 8am its offshore and mid tide going high and the sets are 4ft breaking top to bottom on a good sand bar. The judges set there "scale" and proceed with the heats. By 10.20am the last of the pro heats paddle out but its almost full tide the wind is now blowing onshore and the sets are 3ft and foaming of the top. It wouldn't be fair on the later heat riders to still use the same scoring scale as in earlier heats so the judges adjust there scale accordingly."

8. "for the longest functional distance" - for the longest distance on the same wave, over which the rider is able to maintain momentum and complete manoeuvres in the critical section or on the open face (not whilst riding the foam).

Rossi - "The longest functional distance is pretty important thing to consider. As a rider, some waves may have one big section that can score highly or it can have really good shape and run down the beach with a good power pocket that will still make moves look good and unforced, once a wave has lost most of its power and you need to kick after each move its not likely to add much more value to your total score. Its also important for me to tell you that any moves done in front of the white water will not add to your score."

9. "shall be deemed the winner" - the winning rider will be the one judged to have met the criteria with the most exceptional ability. This is subject to other rules such as those relating to interferences.

Rossi - "In the current format we use most often these days is a riders two top scoring waves will be added together and the rider with the highest total will be the winner of the heat. I have been lucky enough to be in and around the sport/life style of bodyboarding for over 20yrs and judging for 10yrs. Judging's biggest pit fall is that judges rarely get much support due to the fact that when a rider gets knocked out the contests, most often the riders blame the judges not the level of their competition.

If you are a young up and coming rider who likes the contest scene there are going to be disappointments and hopefully for you at some point many big victories. If you feel you were under-scored or a bad call was made you don't have to like it but use that experience for future contests. Ask the head judge, when you see him or her on a break, the questions you may have. You can learn a great deal by asking questions. Even if you have no intentions of becoming a judge ask your local provinces or club where you can do the IBA level 1 course, all this will be to your advantage. Make sure you're doing competitions for the right reasons, bodyboarding for the most part is a amateur sport so make sure you are having fun. Most importantly be a good sport, it goes along way inside what is a smallish community of competitive riders and officials.

Taylor concluded, "For me as a rider, the thing about riding and judging transcends the written criteria that we all know about. One of the problems I see in judging all around the world, and it's a tough issue to address, is how every so often, a result from a heat is read out, and the riders saw the results completely differently than the judges. My theory on it is that oftentimes, the guys judging aren't themselves familiar with surfing at a level that the riders are riding at, and there is a disconnection between fully appreciating the level of difficulty of some of the moves the riders are executing. And the fact that this is difficult to explain illustrates what a complicated issue this is.

But I don't want to make this a bigger problem than it really is - it'd just be nice to iron out the kinks in judging in general. At most bodyboard contests in SA the judging is pretty good - same internationally. It's not the majority of heats where there are questionable calls - but since the questionable calls are the ones that call the contest into disrepute, they are the ones that need to be addressed."


We at sixty40 hope that this has helped some of you grasp a better understanding of the Basic Judging Criteria and that it will benefit you in your next contest.

Stay tuned for our next instalment - Interference Rules.

*Feel free to bookmark or print this page, this info is incredibly useful and will undoubtedly benefit you in the long run.

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