Shouldn't the World Surf League give us the champion we deserve?
I woke last night in the witching hours to make a bottle for my baby and Portugal was on. I saw, through bleary eyes, a post of Filipe Toldedo on BeachGrit’s Instagram account (@thebitchycrab! Follow today!) and he was spinning like dervish, hands free, full rote, nailed landing. I scrolled through the comments only to discover that the move netted him an 8.17. In my tired state it seemed not right. It seemed low.
Then I went back to sleep and had a dream.
I had a dream that one day this surfing community rose up and lived out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all surfers are judged equally.”
I had a dream that one day on the beaches of South Africa, the sons of Jeremy Flores and the sons of Ritchie Porta would be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I had a dream that one day even in Brazil, a country sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, would be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I had a dream that my one little baby would live in a world where she would not be judged by the intention of her air but if she somehow, even minutes later, ended up on her feet.
I had a dream!
And it was to crowdsource the judging!
Everyone is crowdsourcing everything these days from driving directions to which rides have the shortest lines at Disneyland. Why not crowdsource the World Surf League’s judging? Wouldn’t it be deliriously fun to wake up and be able to lock in your scores for Adriano de Souza’s power stance’d approach? Or Aritz Aranburu’s gravity defying slow spin? It would suit surfing’s democratic nature so much better than the totalitarianism of today!
The judges do a wonderful job, don’t get me wrong, and they would be given an even larger role in my dream. They would act as Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. Their expert opinions would be a guidepost and they would each become characters, jabbering back and forth for the camera, discussing the quality of what he have just seen but the power, the final power, would rest with us the people! The Internet can handle it these days. Scores could be locked in from around the globe in the time it takes Ronnie Blakey to roll the marbles from one side of his mouth to the other.
What could possibly go wrong? Nothing that Waze and American Idol have not fixed. It is the perfect solution. The perfect future. Alexis de Tocqueville, famous Frenchman, classical liberal once wrote, “In Democracy the people get the government they deserve.” In surfing shouldn’t we have the champion we deserve?
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You maybe onto something with the community judging. What if each wave is scored the traditional out of 10 from the judges plus a bonus point or 2 added from the averaged community scores. Not that dissimilar to the bonus Mick gets from the judges each time he strokes for a wave.
Talk is cheap, Lets make it happen. Get on board and we’ll crowd source the judging for Portugal from Rnd 5 onwards.
Get in touch with Dell if you want to be on the panel.
Way to quote Tocquelville! However, the electorate that Tocoqueville was studying was informed and rather brilliant, especially compared to anyone who votes on American Idol. Finding a commonality between American Idol and “Democracy in America” might be a stretch. Get some more sleep Chas.
Crowd sourced judging…in a wave pool! This is God’s desire for His sport.
Wonderful. Let’s make the judging less accountable by casting it into the digital ether!
A couple of questions:
1. How do you legislate for the Brazilian government’s mandate that every citizen must vote regularly or have their favela burned down?
2. Does that mean that you can only win events in your own hemisphere where fans are actually awake to vote for you?
Take it from someone who has lost too much money gambling online – it is far too easy for geeks to create bots for this ever to be a fair or working scenario.
The WSL is smart enough to figure all these problems out, Chazz. Where is your faith?
The WSL couldn’t figure out a cat.
The WSL should open up the judging to the online world.
Get the social media audience active and count each surfers best wave in a heat only.
Vote on Facebook or Twitter.
Add in betting and you have a killer mix!
ive thought about this too, bear with me, why don’t we just do this:
start by crowdfunding the competition money, lets say a million in cash
the crowd votes for the comp location (id personally like to see everyone at somewhere like d’bah)
the crowd votes for the competitors (10? +each competitor has 2no. filmers, one on land one in water)
no sponsors, no fuckin shitty hats and sunnies
they have a comp period, lets vote for how long, where they can surf whenever they want, bringing into play the surfers ocean knowledge, dilligence, wave choice etc
beach is not closed for comp, they have to get their waves like every other man and their dog
at the end of the period they have a editing period where they can do whatever the fuck they want, play any music, do any angles, smoke as many ciggies as they want, have titties in the background of every shot, shave their chest in slomo, who cares. as long as all the footage is from the competition period
then we all vote!
I’m in!
At the moment we are looking at half a mil each. I’ll work nights.
Just reading that has given me a fucking headache, nevermind trying to watch it.
It would be very simple for you to consume.
You’re all fucking crazy, people can’t be trusted. Surf fans are savage trolls not civilized judges!
Wincy the Nigerian can always be trusted.
Goddam it. Point 3 of my Manifesto for Change, written yesterday but unposted to the Fantasy WSL article was this:
“3. Democratise the judging. If 4.17-gate proved anything it’s that surf fans are bubbling over with impotent fury, bobbing rudderless on a sea of patriotic wrath. What they want is control. To feel like they’re being heard. So give them a smartphone judging app and let them score along at home. Of course, the app wouldn’t have any actual bearing on who advances (the event sponsor would retain that privilege, as now) but nobody needs to know that. It’s a double win for the WSL, who’d get a few employees off the payroll and also absolve themselves of any responsibility for heat results – if the Brazilians, for example, started whining that their man didn’t get through, all the WSL would need to do is tell them that they clearly didn’t vote hard enough and to do better next time. Stick a bit of in-app purchasing in there and the WSL might even be able to follow through on their pensions promise.”
Now it just looks like I’ve been copying. And in my first ever Beachgrit comment as well. Instead of wowing a tough crowd with my insight and wit, everyone will think that I’m a lame prick. Story of my life
Welcome! And next time I am coming to you because your dream makes more sense, and is better written, than mine.
I can’t decide if “Adriano de Souza’s power stance’d approach” counts as a euphemism or a backhanded compliment. Either way it’s my favorite phrase I’ve read this week.
Also, to see exactly how this idea ends, one just has to look back to Hurley’s video trials for Lowers. It ends with a popularity contest where Will Smith’s kid and a bunch of other non-surfing randoms become a factor, but it does at least get Dane to join Instagram.
But that is exactly my point. How fun were those delirious days when the surf community had to rally around Dane to keep Will Smith’s kid in Calabasas? Truth and justice prevailed!
Oh I’m neither condemning nor condoning the idea, merely looking back to the recent past to see a version of it in action. I am all for anything that provides the WSL with a little more liberté, égalité, fraternité, and Dane! Always more Dane.
It would be 100x more frustrating to watch some guy with a lackluster performance win a heat based on a celebrity’s fan base. I wish they’d isolate the judges from one another. I feel like if that happened things would be radically different e.g. far less fraction of a point separations. Instead they just sit in a small room next to one another feeding of each other.
the judging for the WSL is a bit ridiculous. someone gets a wave, all the judges score it, then the head judge tells them all what their scores should be. every single heat’s judging is based entirely on the first real wave ridden. one heat the first wave could be an air and score super high, the rest of that heat if your not doing airs your not getting scores. the very next heat could be entirely turn based, and airs dont score shit. I do a live broad cast of a QS event every year and my camera is right by the wsl’s judging tables. lots of time i want to reach over and smack these guys.