Do you want to screw the establishment? Just click!
It used to be tough to be an activist. You’d helicopter yourself into Newfoundland or wherever, string yourself up next to a Russian ice-breaker as it attempted to collect the pelts of clubbed baby seals or you’d pilot your zodiac between harpoon and sperm whale.
Watch activists in action here!
It’s different now that most of us are affixed to little computers or telephones with dazzling high-resolution screens. With a tap or a click we can announce to the world that we care about the wretched hordes climbing over Europe, that we, too, demonise the racist pigs with the black man in their sights or, in the case of this online petition, demand the WSL “end the corruption” of their judges.
Noa Aikau has lodged an online petition (click here) that seeks one thousand pointless clicks. Let’s examine, for a moment.
“Demand the World Surf League “WSL” to show transparency & consistency in their judging criteria! Recently the WSL judging system or ‘criteria’ has been put under serious scrutiny do to the lack of consistency in judging and lack of transparency, heat arrangements, long delays in the delivery of some crucial score results and favoritism or bias judging. These corruption problems have been part of the organization for decades when it was still called the “ASP”. Surf historians, retired judges, sports analysts and tour athletes have all come in defense of surfing and have pointed out the organizations lack of transparency in their judging criteria. Since the Association of Pro Surfers “ASP”, auto-transission themselves by changing their name to World Surf League “WSL” there has been an increase in sponsorship but also an outrageous amount of questionable and doubtful critical calls from the judges.”
All of it springs from, I’m guessing, the four-and-a-bit Kelly Slater was thrown for his unmade air at Trestles. What does Noa want? A tour of throwaway airs? Here are the demands.
1. Make the judges panel internationally even.
Ex. 1 Australian, 1 American, 1 Brazilian, 1 South African, 1 Pacific Islander, 1 European
2. Disclose the name of the Judges and where they are from before every transmission.
3. Have the Judges deliver the score within 15-20 seconds from the finish of the ride. Unless a replay is required.
4. Judges don’t get to know other judges scores, nor the score result needed for a surfer to get the lead on a heat or pass to next round.
5. End the corruption.
Anyway, I tossed ’em at the WSL’s Dave Prodan, the media guy, for responses.
1. Make the judges panel internationally even. Ex. 1 Australian, 1 American, 1 Brazilian, 1 South African, 1 Pacific Islander, 1 European
Fair point and an essential part of removing (even the perception of) bias on the judging panel. Fortunately, this has been a part of the formulation of the ASP-now-WSL judging panels for years – every men’s and women’s CT event has judges from North America, South America, South Africa, Europe, Australasia and Hawaii as do major QS events.
2. Disclose the name of the Judges and where they are from before every transmission.
All judges are logged into the scoring system with their respective IDs so athletes or the Commissioner’s Office can go back and discuss scores with individuals if needed. If I’m not mistaken, the judging panel is something that is often outlined during both the broadcast and beach commentary (I know Dave Stanfield is a big fan of that particular role call) so there’s certainly no effort made to hide who the judges are. They’re the best in the world, and they’re frequent subjects of discussion and the WSL is fortunate to have such a committed and talented group of individuals in this arena.
3. Have the Judges deliver the score within 15-20 seconds from the finish of the ride. Unless a replay is required.
That’s certainly the goal and it happens the majority of the time. However, the petition’s author is correct – occasionally, replays are required to ensure the score is accurate and within the scale of the current heat. Additionally, there are a number of extenuating circumstances that may delay a score from dropping – multiple surfers up at the same time is a frequent one. However, to track back to the initial point, the judges endeavor to deliver the most accurate score in the fastest way possible on every ride – it’s not only essential to the viewers at home but also to the athletes in the water.
4. Judges don’t get to know other judges scores, nor the score result needed for a surfer to get the lead on a heat or pass to next round.
Fair points points and discretion and objectivity have been foundational elements of the ASP/WSL. Judges are not permitted to review one another’s scores before logging them into the system. What a surfer needs, in terms of advancing through a heat, is not a factor when scoring a wave.
5. End the corruption.
I’m willing to put dimes to dollars that, in terms of international sports, the WSL judges are some of the most honorable and respectable officials on the planet. Surfing’s a subjective sport and fans are very passionate. I’m a fan and I’m passionate and I don’t always agree with every score, but I do acknowledge that I’m not a judge. The panels that score the world’s best surfing are made up of committed, talented individuals who are not only damn good surfers themselves, but have unique and unparalleled abilities in terms of breaking down surfing performance as well as memory retention for scaling throughout any given day. They’ve cut their teeth offiating amateur events, then shadowing WSL pro junior event judges, then cycling in, working up through QS events and onto CT panels. They have no regard for where someone is from, the stickers they have on their board or what the pundits are going to say when their favorite surfer gets beaten fair and square by a lesser-heralded individual. All they care about is the best surfing on the planet and, as intimated previously, the WSL is exceedingly fortunate that we have them at the helm.
So far the petition has 86 clicks from countries including the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. The majority it seems, are from Brazil. Which seems odd to me, considering the current world champion is a Brazilian and three of the top seven surfers on the WSL are Brazilian.
Will you sign?
Yay!!!
Maybe they should use the Survivor model. Judge’s scores can win you immunity, but for the rest, it’s down to the vote. And in Round Five, spectators can vote back in someone voted out in an earlier round (Simpo). Fins are removed, rather than torches extinguished. I’m not sure where I went wrong in life.
Makes sense actually, Survivor is celebrating 30 seasons on TV right now, Paul Speaker’s probably taking notes
Judges were right at Trestles, imo. But they have had some shockers. Denying Gabriel two final wins against Julian, in the quest to make Julian a star. Denying JJF the semi win over Kelly at Chopes, otherwise it would have been a 1 horse title race. The worst, scoring MF at 9.5 at Pipe to win the world title. What happened there? Did Quik bribe the judges so they would not have to pay Kelly a multi million dollar bonus for 12 titles? Is that why Kelly quit Quik soon after? Even the great MR was allegedly gifted his 1st world title due to the corruption of the head judge (who was his sponsor).
How about going down the Gymnastic route. Scores for artistic merit (4.17 becomes 10) and scores for technical ability (Mick gets 10 every wave) combined. Evens out the Fannings and the Florences.
You got it all wrong……
Corruption is not so much with the Judges as with the Head Judge. He dictates what an excellent, good, average score etc… will be.
Imagine you’re a judge who’s worked hard to get on tour. Do you really wanna go against the head Judge’s direction (strong arm tactics) ? I doubt it, You’ll find yourself back home doing local events again.
Head judge in turn takes his direction from WSL execs. The judges are just there to give proceedings some form of credibility and to be the fall guys if need be.
Being a yes man as a Judge will only get you so far… and not all the way to the top.
A good judge gains respect by relentlessly nailing the right scores. This conspiracy theory angle weakens your valid argument that a head judge is not required at CT level…
The WSL isn’t a judging conspiracy, it’s an attempt to write a thrilling, saleable competitive sports narrative–a novel if you will–in a sport with little narrative unity and fewer interesting characters each day (in the comp world…the layman’s surf beach is still, proudly, rife with weirdos).
Relevance? Judges and management not helping their top guys through heats come mid-season would be tantamount to their writers killing their already boring protagonists in the most mundane and unspectacular fashion possible. Like giving Goliath tetanus and sending him to bed with a complication instead of David stoning him in his fucking face and goring him into the nether. We already know the story, so you can’t water that shit down. Remember, there are, as we all know, MILLIONS of viewers who are watching for the narrative, not advice on how to slide fins further at the end of a wrap.
Millions of viewers?
On a Wednesday morning?
Shirley you jest?
Bobby Martinez made some very good points in his Surfline interview today. They should do that.
its easy to throw stones, anyone one can do that.
bob aint got a job a WSL nor does he want one, so it really dont matter a fuck what he thinks.
Bobby still travels the world with his wife & kid. Where does he get the money? Oh, from his former glory days as a professional surfer paid by the industry. Yet he always complaining.
*Rich wife
The truth is any sport that is decided by judges is not really a true sport. Even in boxing nothing is really settled unless there is a knock out. Judging is completely subjective in any circumstance, outside of sports as well. Just look at the justice system.
Also can’t believe number 4. What a coincidence at Chopes last year John John finishes exactly .01 behind Kelly? That was the judges saying close, as close as possible, but not close enough. They gave him the highest score possible to still lose the heat.
Good points.
Boxing releases score cards post fight so you can see how each judge scored each round. That’d be cool to see with surfing. Add a new facet to what you can complain about.
Late to the party here, you spin some crazy stuff, but you can’t seriously expect us to believe that you understand how a boxing match is scored??
As for the teahupoo reference, the judges scores are averaged, meaning they would have had to confer and do some really quick math in order to make your statement true. Unbelievably unlikely in my opinion
Ahh! but was it really that quick?
At the end of the day If a contest surfer goes out and does a combination of crazy turns and massive maneuvers on two waves. He will win. Surfers need to step up and take the necessary risks to reap the rewards.
Well that’s not fair. Waves judged at the end of the day should be judged equally to waves at the start, or even the middle of the day! Let’s put an end to this disparity. Click here to sign.
That makes no sense Wincy.
And its only really fair, that waves next week should be judged the same as waves last week, but waves next week should be scored first, then jump in the Delorean and head back in time to score the first week
Just like Mick Fanning in Trestles?? Crazy turns and high risks??? C’mon…..
I was meaning if Gabes had gone out and done a combination of crazy turns and massive manoeuvres he would have smashed Mick. He didnt. Mick won and progression lost.
Medina did.
His 8.67 ride, with 5 backside hacks, was more powerfull and massive than both Mick´s “Richie Porta´s signature” 9 pointers foam climbs.
no matter how powerful they were. 5 backside hacks dont really fit into my combination of crazy turns/ massive manoeuvres train of thought … Christ its like talking to my dog he hears the voice but not the words.
Then you should say the correct words: speed and flow (Mick did a lot), and not crazy turns and massive manoeuvers (Mick didn´t).
http://youtu.be/qR5AUjKR9Dg
Great Lord Negatron, master of the 3 to the Beach!
I don’t often agree w this dude but in this case he’s right. That 8.67 shoulda been a 9.5. Go back and look at how he blows the back out of that right and gets all drifty at the same time. Best wave of the heat hands down imho
Exactly!!
Some people think they know everything about surf judging, but in fact they know what Jon Snow know’s……. NOTHING! Is this petition because the judging is not in line with his fantasy surfer picks?
He clearly has more spare time to waste than any of us
There’s one clear way to tell that this list is total bull shit, he didn’t once call for the firing of Turpell!
disagree with your comment on point 4. the judges show pretty well every event that they know exactly what score the surfer needs to win on a buzzer beater, if he needs a 8.93 to progress you better believe he’s magically getting a ~8.95 or ~8.85 regardless of how he surfed the wave, maybe if it’s two sick surfers they’ll chuck out a 8.93 so they can talk about how tight it was while allowing the surfer in world title contention to slip through on countback.
The closeness is highlighted by fact that head judge pretty much usually calls the score – then it is 0.5 or so either side. Know guys who have judged CT events and that pretty much case with head judge marching behind.
Maybe just removing head judge may solve the problem
that doesn’t surprise at all. i’d love to see just as an experiment what would be generated if you had all judges separated / away from announcers and not aware of any of the scoring.
Gotta vote YES for this
This guy is a morron (not Derek, the one with the ”ideas”). I’m not crazy about Slater but a couple of years ago he said something that I really agree. He said that the ASP (he said a few years ago, so it wasn’t WSL just yet) can and should improve (and who doesn’t?) But he highlighted that he feels they are really trying (and remember that this guys tried to make the so called ”rebel tour”) and people are just complaining and not showing any ideas. I feel the same. Surfing is a very subjective sport. And even when you have a net or a goal people complain about the result. So competitive surf will always have some controversy.
But, imo, most of the times the judges get it right.
I have the solution. End judging.
Hey man….I’ve got a beverage here!
#6. Numerous, tiresome, and exactly identical backhand snaps will not score Excellent point rides anymore for Ace Buchans & alike
#7. 1984 wants it’s 10 point ride back Freddy P
Hmmmm. As shitty as the judging is, I don’t think any of these things are the cause of it. That said, I don’t believe this “What a surfer needs, in terms of advancing through a heat, is not a factor when scoring a wave.” for one second.
I agree with you my friend, I definitely think certain guys (no one in particular) have gotten a push from judges in order to create a better title race.
100%, the WSL dream end of year shootout at Pipe to decide the world title. you can be sure the Adriano / Filipe / Owen’s of the world will be given the benefit of the doubt in any close calls through the Europe leg. (i’d say the same for Mick but he’s already on top and already gets the Mick scored i don’t think he needs the same help)
Agreed. And notice how he says “its not a factor” instead of they “dont actually know the score needed”… sounds like bullshit to me