Tourists and look-loos stun officials by
generally obeying lifeguard orders as apocalyptically monstrous
waves pound Oahu’s North Shore!
By Chas Smith
Unprecedented times.
In these unprecedented times, it is very much
best to proceed with an abundance of caution but is that what the
general public is doing? Definitively not. Face masks are sagging
very much below noses, family gatherings are being organized,
indoor restaurants are being eaten at and application-based dating
is still being pursued.
People just aren’t listening to the experts, making what is
currently transpiring on Oahu’s North Shore confounding.
As you know, a series of apocalyptically monstrous swells are
currently lashing the Hawaiian islands. Big waves. Big waves that
put a flutter in the heart, that demand attention.
Hawaii’s lifeguards, decimated by Covid, were worried that they
would be understaffed and urged tourists and look-loos to exercise
that abundance of caution, not paddling out into the waves
themselves, standing well clear of the waterline.
A mass drowning event was expected but, lo and behold, the
tourists and look-loos are thus far obeying.
Most beachgoers stayed behind the caution tape lifeguards
put up.
“Lots of times people come out and it doesn’t look that big,
it can be between sets. We have big surf with long lulls sometimes,
and people don’t realize how dangerous it is until those sets come
in,” Lt. Atwood explained.
He said people can easily be swept out to sea.
North Shore lifeguards had an early start on Sunday
morning.
“We’ve had some challenges; today we had a few calls. We had
a missing surfer this morning off of Pua’ena Point and luckily he
was found, and everybody was OK, and we had a few other calls,” Lt.
Atwood said.
Ocean Safety has been dealing with staffing shortages due to
omicron, and they’re hopeful guards will remain healthy throughout
the week as extra-large surf continues to hit north and west facing
shores.
“Fortunately, today with the dangerous conditions we have
all towers open and a full staff,” said Lt. Atwood.
Anyone who plans on going to the North Shore during the week
of Jan. 9 is asked to stay behind caution tape, not go onto wet
sand or rocks and to stay at guarded beaches.
“Most beachgoers stayed behind the caution tape lifeguards put
up.”
A post-Christmas miracle.
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School teacher reveals missing “rubric”
that has the power to transform professional surfing into world’s
biggest global sport!
By Stanislav Franck
Disinterest and indifference to pro surfing
is at all-time high. Time to talk rubrics.
When the tour opens at Pipe on January 29, it’ll mark almost
10 years since the WSL began running the show.
Back in 2013, after the tour was taken over by ZoSea, one of the
chief architects of the takeover Paul Speaker said, “For the first
time we’re able to approach this league as a global centralized
sports league…and it’s essential for those of us who are already
engaged, and those who are invited in, see it as one of the premier
global sports in the world.”
One of the premier global sports in the world?
It’s fair to say, rather politely, that the WSL hasn’t quite
reached those heights.
The ASP gave us the world’s best surfers in the world’s best
waves concept but since then the tour has stagnated
badly.
One reason is the judging system.
And, I’m gonna tell ya why.
Rubrics.
Or lack thereof.
The WSL Judging Problem #1
On page 82 of the WSL rulebook, in Chapter 13, are the rules
pertaining to judging WSL events. Here’s a screen grab from the
section relevant to how judges score waves.
From the information contained in Section 13.05 above, I have
taken that info and used it to create a scoring rubric, seen
below.
If you’re not familiar with these things called rubrics, they’re
just fancy info charts often used for scoring. Especially in
academia land. They normally resemble something like the one below,
which my university writing department uses to grade student
essays.
Comparing the two rubrics, it’s not too hard to see the problem
with the WSL one, is it?
Yep, it’s fucking blank.
It’s got the five scoring categories along the top and the
breakdown of scores down the left side… and that’s it.
From the rule book, page eighty-two, this is what we get
regarding judging and wave-scoring. A few ambiguous bullet points
devoid of any detail or elaboration whatsoever.
And when converted into standard rubric form, it’s completely
fucking empty!
This is where I become concerned.
When your scoring rubric is completely empty and missing some
scoring accoutrements that might serve to help or guide the
presiding judges, how can you tell me that the scores the judges
are coming up with in WSL events, including WCT events, are
anything more than a hopeful, ambitious guess?
How can they be anything else when you’re working from a blank
page?
Tell me, according to the WSL judging rubric above, what
separates a “Good” score and a “Very Good” score in terms of
Commitment and Degree of Difficulty?
Blank.
How do you know a score is “Excellent” in the Combination of
Major Maneuvers category?
Blank.
Why is something only “Fair”, and not “Good” when it comes to
Speed, Power and Flow?
Blank.
Then compare the WSL’s rubric and with my uni’s essay writing
rubric, and you see the difference.
Unlike the WSL’s blank rubric, all the categories have
information for graders to draw upon.
In addition, the info included in the rubric is just the bare
bones. We also have full booklets regarding each category and each
square to help our marking be as accurate and consistent as
possible.
For example, in the Lexis (Vocabulary) category, we use the New
General Service List (NGSL) as our standard. The NGSL is the most
widely accepted and cited vocab list in English language learning.
It lists the 2,800 most basic, commonly used words in English,
starting from “the” at Number 1, down to “thirst” at Number
2,801.
Therefore, when scoring the “Lexis” category, we look for fancy
words in the essay that are outside the top 2,800 words from the
NGSL.
For instance, if a student writes “The WSL judging system is
calamitous”, then that will score well.
Why?
Firstly, ‘cause “calamitous” is a great word that sits way
outside the top 2,800 word list and, secondly, ‘cause he student
has used the word in its correct adjectival form, “calamitous”, as
opposed to
“calamity”, the noun form.
What do the WSL judges have in their grading rubric? Nada. Zero.
A blank page.
That being the case, I come back to my initial point, how can
the scores that the judges give for every single wave be anything
but a hopeful, calculated guess?
Big problem.
The WSL Judging Problem #2
This ain’t the only issue.
In the WSL’s official rulebook, and specifically in Chapter 13
related to judging, there’s no clear info about whether the five
categories that surfers are judged on are equally weighted or
not.
Is Speed, Power and Flow as important as Variety of
Maneuvers?
Is Innovative and Progressive Maneuvers deemed equally as
crucial as Combination of Major Maneuvers?
On page 82, the rulebook states, “It’s important to note that
the emphasis of certain elements is contingent upon the location
and the conditions on the day, as well as changes of conditions
during the day.”
Very ambiguous, and perhaps a deviously cunning way to remain
vague regarding distribution of scores for a surfer’s
waves.
Don’t say which category’s more, or less, important, then lean
on whichever one serves your defence the best.
However, when you take the whole “maybe, might, possibly, could;
never commit and everything’s good” approach, you will always come
unstuck, eventually.
So let me give you a perfect example of why such a lack of
clarity illustrates how murky and inconsistent the WSL judging can
be.
The video below is of Griffin Colapinto at Haleiwa in
2019.
Dying seconds and he takes off on a closeout and chucks a huge
frontside air. Lands it perfectly. Crowds cheer. Ross Williams in
the commentary box loves it. Lots of wows. Clutch. Gets a 9.93/10.
Three out of five judges give him a 10.
Watching live, you might get caught up in the excitement of it
all.
However, objectively, we all know Haleiwa ain’t no one-turn
wave. Never has been. And wasn’t on this day.
So you can immediately chuck out the whole, “It’s important to
note that the emphasis of certain elements is contingent upon the
location and the conditions on the day” caveat in the WSL
rulebook.
It’s Haleiwa.
We have a problem. Let’s go to the judges’ scoring
categories.
Commitment and Degree of Difficulty? 10 all day.
Innovative and Progressive Maneuvers? Pretty massive, let’s give
him a 10.
Combination of Major Maneuvers? That’s a no. It was a one-turn
closeout Hail Mary air.
Variety of Maneuvers? No again. Just one air.
Speed, Power and Flow? Objectively, no. It was a take-off to
half-face bottom turn to massive air. But we might argue the
case.
Thus, even with our empty, blank rubric above, Griffin only
adhered to 2/5 category criteria. Combination of Major Maneuvers
wasn’t there, nor was Variety of Maneuvers. Even if you make the
argument for Speed, Power and Flow successfully, it’s still only
3/5 criteria met.
So how can he get a 9.93, including a 10 from three of the
judges, when he only met 2/5 scoring criteria categories, or 3/5 at
best on a reef wave that allows surfers multiple turns?
To hammer my point home, here’s John John’s 10 at the most
recent 2021 Haleiwa contest.
Frontside air to tail slide into a big layback hack into a nice
tube and finished off with a faultless, frontside air reverse on
the closeout section.
Commitment and Degree of Difficulty? Yep
Innovative and Progressive Maneuvers? Yep
Combination of Major Maneuvers? Yep
Variety of Maneuvers? Yep
Speed, Power and Flow? Yep
JJF’s wave meets all criteria, he gets a 10. Fair enough.
Griffin’s wave meets 3/5 criteria at best, he gets a 9.93. At the
same location.
WTF?
More specifically, who is actually affected and why is it such a
big problem?
The Stakeholders
Pro Surfers: How often do we see surfers in heats
frustrated, baffled, or incandescent with rage when they hear the
scores announced over the loudspeaker? Pretty much every round of
every contest. It sure makes it hard to please the judges when the
judges don’t have anything to look at or guide you
with.
You want to know how detached from reality the scoring is for
surfers?
Watch this video of JJF and Jordy discussing all things surfing
and contests.
From the four-minute mark, they talk judging and scores and both
vehemently agree that the most important thing in a heat, without a
shadow of doubt, is making sure you’re on the best wave.
Slight problem. Wave selection isn’t even in the five categories
the judges use to score a wave.
Is that not the most insane thing you’ve ever come across in
competitive sports at an organisational level?
The most important thing in a heat, according to two superstars
of the sport, is a factor not even listed in the official WSL
rulebook related to judging?
The Judges: I feel sorry for the judges. How are you
supposed to adjudicate with any degree of consistent accuracy when
your help guide is a blank page?
As someone in a similar position, I can tell you, unequivocally,
those rubrics are indispensable lifesavers.
How so?
Imagine sitting in your office happily browsing BeachGrit when
your door is suddenly assailed by furious bashing and crashing.
Little Johnny is waving his essay in the air demanding to know why
he got a D.
In those moments, there ain’t nothing like calmly, confidently
pulling out those rubrics and asking Johnny to take a seat.
The conversation, paraphrased, then goes something like this:
“Oi, Johnny, did your essay have this?”
“No.”
“This?”
“No.”
“That?”
“No.”
“Then fuck off and cry somewhere else. And fix your fucking
essay”
What can WSL judges show the surfers when they storm the judging
tower?
A blank page full of empty boxes?
The Expert Fans: You can’t con the longtime fans who
know their surfing inside out. Judging controversies and blowups on
social media don’t make the sport more interesting, or
engaging.
Ridiculous scoring turns the hardcore fans away.
The Novice Fans: If you’re trying to attract new
people, you’ve gotta be able to explain to them exactly what’s
happening on a wave and why a surfer is getting X score and Y
score. Commentators can’t do that ‘cause their guess is as good, or
bad, as anyone else’s.
If the new fans can’t grasp what is going on, they won’t stick
around.
The Commentators: They’re in a hard position because
they have to explain to the viewer what the surfer’s doing and how
they’ll be rewarded. Nothing like making yourself look like a giant
peckerhead in front of thousands of people on air when you give a
wave a six and the judges give it a nine. Or vice-versa.
Commentators should be able to predict, with confidence, what
the scores will be and be able to break down exactly why.
Especially for the novice fan.
Right now, they can’t do that with any kind of confidence so you
get the endless drivel dished up that’s so often meaningless and
banal, and, at times, humiliating for the commentators.
The WSL: Old Man Ziff and Cocaine Cowboy handsome E-Lo
and all the characters up at Santa Monica HQ might have delusions
of grandeur, but if you can’t get your scoring right, nothing
progresses.
Nothing.
Disinterest and indifference to pro surfing is at all-time
high. Yeah, more people are in the water, but they ain’t marching
to the WSL’s tune.
The WSL website is seldom even in the top five surfing
websites according to most available metrics.
How do they think they’re going to attract new global fans when
judges, surfers, commentators, and fans can’t really explain the
scoring, and it often makes no sense?
The Solution
The good thing is that there is so much room for
improvement.
The first step’s pretty obvious, fill in the blank rubric.
It also needs to work with the judges on inter-rater reliability
and (re)examine the categories’ cause I imagine their internal
consistency would currently be a mess.
From there, I’ll let the BeachGrit commentariat add their views
in the comments section.
But if you really want to know every step necessary, send me an
email at: [email protected] and I’ll tell you how to fix
it.
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Dirty Daddy Bob Saget.
Watch Bob Saget’s turn as surfboard shaper
and “Dirty Daddy” in Sterling Spencer comedy, “I shaped that
tri-fin that won Tom Curren the Stubbies Pro win in ’83! We used to
smoke weed together!”
By Derek Rielly
"Sorry I said that stuff about your mama. She's a
good woman."
Earlier today, the stand-up comic Bob Saget, better
known, although he shouldn’t be, for his role as the Daddy in
Full House, was found dead in an Orlando hotel
room.
It wasn’t murder and it ain’t drugs, say the cops.
But, real sad, funny guy, and Saget, who was sixty-five, had a
surfing connection, appearing in Pensacola surfer Sterling
Spencer’s surf comedy Gold.
Spencer, who is thirty-six and the son of Gulf Coast legend
Yancy Spencer III, became pals with Saget over social media.
“Feel like our voiceover connection brought us together,”
Sterling told me today.
Saget appears around the ten-minute mark as Sterling’s shaper
and lover of Sterling’s mammy, Lydia.
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In watershed moment, shark attacks foil
surfer in Florida thus shattering aura of invincibility surrounding
Mark Zuckerberg, his best friend Kai Lenny, shaper to the stars Jon
Pyzel and more!
By Chas Smith
Unprecedented times.
The game has officially changed. In a stunning
moment, a shark has attacked a foil enthusiast in Florida thus
shattering the aura of invincibility surrounding Mark Zuckerberg,
his best friend Kai Lenny, shaper to the stars Jon Pyzel and all
those who have taken up foiling.
Hovering above the water’s surface, as if riding a magic carpet,
foiling was seen as immune to the ugliness under the surface of the
sea including, but not limited to, jellyfish stings, those weird
fuzzy bubbles that sometimes float by and dreaded shark
attacks.
All that changed, days ago, when Florida kite foiler Erika Lane
became the second known foil shark attack victim. There she was
south of Anna Maria City Pier in the gulf when a shark swam right
up behind her, jerked her foil causing her to tumble then bit her
right in the leg.
“I saw sharknado,” she told the local ABC
affiliate, “like a cartoon character or Jaws coming at
my face. I just didn’t know what was going on so I was screaming
with my hands in front of my face, thinking I was going to get
bitten or something. Then it was gone and I looked at my wing next
to me and I just jumped on it like a pool raft.”
Luckily, Lane’s friends were nearby and they helped her to shore
where they all wept loudly together over lost innocence. The first
attack on a foiler happened in Maui but, in that case, the
35-year-old man was in the water, not upon his magic carpet, thus
no different than you or me.
Florida shark experts believe the shark to be around four feet,
based on the bite marks.
Foilers everywhere, from kite to electric, paddle to pump, are
currently reassessing life choices.
Unprecedented times.
Difficult days.
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Ten year old boy on track to surf 1000
consecutive days at Jersey Shore, knee-high snow, ice on beach and
zero degree water be damned!
By Derek Rielly
What’s your longest unbroken run of surfs?
Carter Doorley, a ten-year-old shredder from Brigantine
in New Jersey, is five hundred and ninety days into his plan to
surf for one thousand consecutive days or a little short
of three years straight.
Put that into perspective.
What’s your longest unbroken run of surfs? I’d guess maybe
thirty at some point, although I cannot confirm, I ain’t one for
collecting milestones, but defs ten days straight on those Ments
boat rides.
I do recall moments on those long hauls that various performance
barriers were trounced and, briefly, creating a modicum of style,
my face no longer contorted into a grimace of fake
unawareness.
Doorley, a classic tow-headed grommet with a fine style on his
various crafts, says he got into the consecutive surf thing ‘cause
he had nothing else to do during a pandemic that cut a swathe
through his home state, thirty k dead from almost two-mill
cases.
The kid’s mama, Dawn, keeps his dream alive.
First goal, one hundred days, then one year, now one thousand
days.
“Me and Carter’s dad, we’re just so happy that he found his
thing. And the ocean has always been his thing that kind of calms
him and grounds him,” Dawn told News12 Bronx. “He’s so happy to be
out there and we’re happy to help his passion every day.”
Doorley’s been using his fame to raise money for wronged animals
(three hundred bucks raised for the Funny
Farm Rescue Animal Sanctuary), bums (1100 cans of food) and five hundred
towards repairing the local skate park etc.