The Judging Sucked - Billabong Pro Rio Wrap Up

The much talked about floater. (Photo: ASP)

The Rio event is done and we find ourselves with a new man atop the ASP ratings. Adriano De Souza won the Bong Pro Rio and in the process moved to the top of the ratings. One wonders how well that success sits with him though after a week of woeful judging and huge repercussions for the title fight. Kelly Slater bowed out in in Round 3 heat, though I feel he was simply beaten for once. Bobby surfed well to beat him, but some might say he was over scored. Others will point to the fact that this normally happens for Kelly. Next up in the title chase was Jordy Smith up against Josh Kerr. The judging had been rewarding 3 turns or more and even good tube rides and excellent airs had been getting lower scores, till this heat. Suddenly Kerr beats Jordy with a single air score. Mick Fanning was up later in the third round and he exited to a Brazilian with very close scores. Take a look at the 3 heats and make up your own mind.





Ok, so the Title Race is now wide open and we entered the Quarter Finals. Step up Da Souza versus Owen Wright. Adriano started the heat well with a massive floater and I do mean massive. Where I disagree, is that he scored a 8.3 for this. In a contest where multiple maneuver waves had been scoring way higher on average. The heat progresses and Owen fights back. Towards the end of the heat, Owen needs a 7.6 for the win. He paddles into a great looking wave, smacks a big first turn, does a second good turn and then finishes off with a highly difficult and pretty big Slob Air. We wait for the scores and he gets a 6.6. In another heat it could have been an 8. Take a look, then see the excuses from the ASP below.



The Asp responded:

Now, Adriano’s final wave was a lot bigger than what was shown online as the camera missed the bottom half of the wave – this makes any subsequent analysis of the heat nearly impossible when utilizing only the Heats on Demand version. When De Souza lands you can see the size of the whitewash behind him and the amount of distance that he covered during the floater, how critical the section was and how difficult it would have been to land would not have been entirely visible on the webcast, and is not representation in the Heats on Demand.
The part of the sandbar that De Souza executed the maneuver was waist-deep, hence the critical section. The waves on the final day were two-to-three-maneuver waves. The surfers could take the smaller ones that would run a bit further, but were a lot softer and easier waves to ride, or they could take the set waves which were a lot shorter but also a lot harder to ride

(I will get back to the size of the waves in a moment, when we get to the final.)

Owen’s rides in the Quarterfinal heat were on the smaller waves that offered more room but less punch. During the final day, many single-turn waves received scores that would not normally be that high, but as the waves only allowed for two-to-three turns, we had adjusted the scale. It’s important to note that there is nothing in the criteria that says surfers must complete multiple turns. We’re in the business of surfers going big and that’s what we’ve been seeing in the last 18 months.
The vision also fails to truly reflect the speed of the waves. The set waves flew down the bank while the smaller ones ran off a lot slower. The camera angle often failed to truly reflect the surfing being done at the time, as well as the depth of the wave, where the surfer took the wave in relation to the bank and how critical the sections are.
Our job as the judging panel is to score the surfers that are pushing the criteria to the limit. Both of Owen’s airs were good maneuvers (they are also the bread and butter for nearly every surfer on tour these), but executed on the easy sections of the waves. Where as Adriano’s floater was done on such a critical part of the wave. I would probably add that if Owen’s first turns on both scoring waves were bigger or more critical, then both waves would have been scored higher.
I pose the question, would you, as a fan of top-level surfing, prefer the surfers to do a good turn on a small easy wave or a good turn on a wave that is going flat-out with a heaving, unforgiving closeout section?
It was absolutely a close heat, but we have close heats every day as we are dealing with the best surfers in the world.

Thank you ASP Judging Panel. Then why in the final did Taj Burrows not only catch bigger waves, do bigger turns,only to come in second? Check the heat out.


My bottom line is that the judging has to be consistent. In this contest is was not. It is going to have a major influence on the WCT Title Race and if I were one or two of the surfers, I would be pissed! It has become a scene that the ASP have had to answer to, because of how important this may turn out to be. They have even tried to back their response with a lame attempt at discrediting the Video of the Owen/Adrianno heat by saying - Full disclosure: the ASP International Media Department is looking into improving the current Heats on Demand (HOD) product that the events currently provide. The current Heats on Demand product consistently mis-tags waves with incorrect scores, fails to show completed rides and to provide an accurate representation of what is actually occurring during the event. We appreciate the feedback from our fans and are looking into remedying the issue as soon as possible. Lets hope the ASP Judges sort out their criteria and consistency before Jbay, or we might have a farce on our hands! What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know.