Judges, one of the most important assets of any action sports competition. This job consists of trust, pressure, reliability, and a thorough understanding of the sport. They are a crucial part of a contest and aside from the athlete’s performance they are the ones who ultimately decide who wins or loses.
Organizations and judges, this judge sheet is extremely useful especially if you're powering your tour or event with STACT Event Manager! Work your way to the bottom for your free download and read to better understand judging and the uses of this sheet.
What is Judging?
Judging is the process where a trained individual in the sport understands and can identify the level of difficulty, style, and execution of an athletes performance. They then score or "judge" this performance between a numbered threshold which in action sports consists of 0 -10 or 0 -100 . There is a precise understanding with the flow of an athlete’s ride or wave and takes knowledge of the sport to understand it. It’s important for judges to keep their eyes on the action which is why STACT focuses on making the judging experience quick and easy.
How Judging Works in Surfing?
Judging varies between each sport but with surfing, judges must adjust their criteria depending on conditions, location and skill level. Conditions in the ocean can change by the hour and skill level changes per division so it’s important for judges to have the ability to identify these conditions.
Usually there are three to five judges. Each judge types scores from 0-10, the score is then averaged from the judges individual scores. Our system automates this process by allowing judges to enter scores on their own tablet, then scores are averaged on the head judge computer and validated.
Judging also varies per sport and organization so it’s important to know the difference.
Short-boarding is usually judged based on radically controlled maneuvers performed in the most critical part of the wave, connecting each with speed, power, and flow.
Long-boarding is scored similarly to short-board but additional factors such as using the entire board (walking), style, commitment, and variety. Nose riding, footwork, and trimming are important factors for the decision.
1. Commitment and degree of difficulty 2. Innovative and progressive maneuvers 3. Combination of major maneuvers 4. Variety of maneuvers 5. Speed, power and flow
The wave scoring will be done having in mind five quality levels: 0-1.9 (Poor), 2-3.9 (Fair), 4-5.9 (Average), 6-7.9 (Good), 8–10 (Excellent). This scale also applies to 1-100 scoring.
Each organization has their own criteria, but this is what’s generally expected. Always check with your organizer or head judge.
Eco Friendly Option for Judge Scorecards
Constantly printing judge sheets only to throw them away can become redundant, expensive, and wasteful. The best way to “go green” with your judge sheets is to simply laminate 20 copies and use dry erase markers. All in all, we want to eliminate judge sheets in general with STACT Event Manager, eventually relying solely on our system but there's a sense of security having it written down in-case power or internet fails.
Where can I find Judges?
Finding judges can be difficult and vary depending on your location. There are a handful who are qualified that participate with many organizations, so your best bet is to contact the organization directly and ask for recommendations. In the future STACT will provide judge insights and profiles for those who are seeking qualified and dependable judges for their events.
Sign Up to get your Judge Sheet!
Enter your email and we'll send you our scorecard template – download the file, place your logo and you’re ready to get scoring. Remember to laminate if you don’t want to create hundreds of copies per event and make sure to power your event with STACT Event Manager for the best contest experience!
Signing up to our newsletter not only gets you this scorecard but we'll give you important information about Event Manager updates and our road map to making the system even better. Don't worry, emails are not frequent and only provide useful information!