The Bo Derek Wave

[jdc]

How do punters rate SF perfect 10 wave against the judges view. No doubt about it being a supurb ride

However old vids such as Sparrow with Friends reveal work than is far more mind blowing by the master.

Was this ride judged against what was possible on the wave. Some of the waves in some of Simon's vids are more, of course, performance friendly...Indo etc

Is the ten based on contest manouver scheduling (spelling) as different to what one may see in free surfing.

Now Simon might well be the only one who could answer this but in a free surfing situation would he have ridden that wave differently...and if the answer is no...perhaps thats the reason it did score a 10.

Great to have so much footage to watch from the contest

[scoop]

jdc

When judging it comes down to averages from all judges or in some cases take away the highest individual score and lowest individual score and average the remaining to get the result
This takes away individual bias
The judges look at the conditions then look at each possibility as it arises
A surfer must perform radical controlled manoeuvres in the most critical section of a wave with speed, power and flow to maximise scoring potential. Innovative and progressive surfing as well as a variety of repertoire [manoeuvres] will be taken into consideration when rewarding points for waves ridden. The surfer who executes the criteria with the maximum degree of difficulty and commitment on the waves shall be rewarded with the higher scores.” Standard Judging Criteria Surfing Australia/ Australasian Rule Book 2009 edition.

Hope that answers why he scored a 10

[jdc]

thanks scoop, seems fair enough

is this a first for kneeboarding? has a standup ever cracked a 10?

is a 10 better than a title?

[MALLEE BULL]

Dave Parkes scored a 10 at Coffs last year
So what happens when some one gets a better wave than the 10 already judged Thats why we should give high 9.what ever to leave the window open just a little.And as JDC said it was a great wave but have seen better as well.

[gumby]

Judges are not taking snap shots of the waves. The way the video shows. They are watching conditions all day. So when a good set or the wave of the day comes through. They can base it aginst the rest of the waves seen. Could the wave been ridden any better? Have there been better waves comming through on a regular basis? If another wave comes and gets ridden as well we would get another 10.......? The question is has two 10 point waves been given in a contest.

[jamie]

Simon and Gavin both scored 10 point rides during the comp.
They were given these scores generally near the end of the heat, having already scored over 8 or 9 on a previous wave, its reasonable to expect the judges thought that the 10 point rides were significantly better than there earlier waves and the 10 was proportional to the other scoring waves in the heat.
I can tell you that having been in a final when Simon scored a 10, its pretty demoralising(spelling), he had a an 8.9 as well which made it nigh impossible to catch him.

[wino]

After looking at all of the the video and pictures posted from the contest and reading Scott's color commentary, I am going to go out on a limb and say that there should not have been any 10 point rides awarded to any of the contestants. The only exception would be the guy whose picture is captioned "The ONLY TUBE in the event" or something like that. And he should have only received a 10 if he made it out the other end.

Kneeboarding is about getting TUBED!!! Cutbacks, off the lips, re-entries, etc... are just things we do between getting TUBED.

Sorry for the rant but I am jealous that I did not get to go and it looked like you guys had a lot of fun. However, I still feel that to receive a 10 point score in a kneeboarding event you need to get a clean tube ride.

Let the crucifying begin

[ross]

I think a guy is awarded a ten when he rides a wave in such a fashion that the surfer could not have done anymore to improve the ride. Simon could not have fit one more turn into that ten, and I'd be willing to bet he was feeling pretty rooted after the 10th turn

At Bells this year I heard the commentators on the live stream disussing the fact that the judges employ a scaling system, governed by the best waves in the first heat of the day. The best waves in heat one decied what needs to be done to score a ten.

These blokes are the yardstick of what we can define as a ten, for kneeboard surfers. When you consider how average the rest of us are there is plenty of room for them to be scoring tens

As for getting a tube Wino, did you see those waves ? On the whole they looked like they had a bit of push, but they were as fat as hell till they got to the end the wave. Awarding a head dip shampoo tube in the shorey a ten would make luck factor in contests even bigger, something we should try to eliminate.

[stevea]

On the subject of 10 point waves
As has been said the surf did not present an opportunity to get tubed ,had it then those guys in the top half would have been getting tubed off their heads ,but not every tube is worth a 10 .
Its all relative i think that the judges given the quality of surfing throughout the event did an excellent job
My impression from video i saw is that Gavin was turning tighter and harder into and at the most critical section of the wave putting him marginally ahead of Simon
The fact that Simon linked so many turns together showing a full repetoire
of manouvres over the full length of the wave without loss of speed at any time is the benchmark for kneeboard surfing wasting any one of those turns for as Ross stated "a head dip shampoo tube " goes totally against impressing the judges and scoring highly
A 10 is a 10 is a 10 yeah i think its almost like a title in itself congratulations to all those who competed to the winners in all divisions to those who achieved their personal best and especially to those guys who put the event together and the people who kept the rest of the kneeboarding world up to date with comentaries video and photos .The best Worlds yet time will be the judge for me im giving it a 9.5

[jdc]

Watching the wave on the vid I was reminded of "outers" at Point Impossible near Torquay Vic, a well known kneelo haunt where the strapper brand dominates.

On its day its fattish but has omph and some sections get a nice top to bottom where one can smack the kip or get a tube. It does have a section where you have to straight line on high or try and get around the white water if caught behind early.

The ten wave does have SF speeding the straight looking for a steep section whack, other waves have him generating enough speed to get from deep behind the foam to get in front of it (bruce/flashpoint!!!)

Kelly Slater once commented about Bells that he needed to learn to be more horizontal at times to set the vertical up due to the fattish nature of the wave (why not have the contest at winki???). On the 10 wave Simon seems to have followed this principal which is obviously smart surfing, setting up the oppotunity to hit critcal sections at speed.

Wino...i like the idea about kneelos and tubes but geez mate, theres a lot sessions and breaks devoid of the conditions to get shacked!

[Scott]

Having watch SF get his 10 (and another one I have yet to edit and post), I get excited about how he surfed the wave because a) it was one of the better, longer waves of the morning but b) it was not that perfect a wave, yet c) look at the way he surfed it. If you watch the video and just watch the wave itself there is nothing there that makes you want to leave home to get that particular wave--it's actually a bit of a weird wave with a strange middle and ending section. Look at it and figure out the line and attack you would have surfed on that exact same wave, and then look unusual and aggressive Simon surfed it, and IMO it's clear why it was a 10.

All great surfers probably have waves every week that, if they were in a contest, would score a 10--probably an 11 or a 12 to be truthful--but to put it together during a contest on whatever are the available waves constitutes the rare score of a 10.

[wino]

Ha, I knew my post would draw this type of response! In no way was I trying to diminish any of the competitors outstanding performance on the waves that were available during the contest. My point was that the waves they were given to ride were (in my opinion) not the type of waves a kneeboarder would generally seek out.
I would have loved to have seen the top guys get an opportunity to go at it in waves of consequence. I am sure they would put on a show that would blow minds and I feel that is a shame that we are not afforded a chance to witness that type of display.

[southpeakbrad]

Sitting there watching all of the heats and various waves, when Simon got his and surfed it all the way through, perfectly, relative to what was happening when three 10s were announced the feeling on the cliff was "cool!" Everyone just kind of smiled and nodded their heads, or shook their heads at how great that ride was, but noone thought it was inappropriate. As Scott mentioned there were a couple of other 10s given out as well and if he can post them it would be cool to see other examples.

[jdkneelo]

Barry bakers big reo looked allright too

[Tom Linn]

At the start of the contest the head judge spoke to the contestant. He explained that on any given day 10's could be scored regardless of the quailty fo the surf. What the judges were looking for was surfing that maximized the potential of that particlur day at that particular spot. In theory, 10's could be awarded in 2 ft slop if the surfer rode the waves far better than anyone else.

Another way to look at is to say that the average decent wave for a particular day and spot is worth a 5. Therefore there is always the potential for a 10 if a wave is ridden far above the average possible on that day.