The current system is the wrong system. Photo: Shutterstock
Kill the head judge. They have way too much influence on the final score. Instead, create a bigger judging panel. Leave them free to do what they’re there to do — judge. See what happens. You’ll get a fair result.
While I was watching the Rio Pro webcast, Peter Mel, one of my favorite surfers who is also a well-respected commentator was impressed (surprised, really) that there was a one point gap between a couple judges. I don’t recall which heat it was, and it really doesn’t matter for these purposes. Now why is it wrong to have a one point gap? It isn’t wrong. One judge simply felt that the wave worth was worth four points, the other, 5. And for the most part, that is the richness on having a panel, a five-judge panel comes with precisely that: enough judges to create a score from the “likes” of all of them.
Why was Pete Mel impressed? He was impressed because behind the judges sits a guy called the head judge. This “judge” is in charge of putting an order to things and suggesting the non-main five judges to consider different aspects of each wave. Are judges sometimes wrong? Probably. But do they need to have another judge there to let them know what they must, in turn, judge? No, not if you trust them enough to be on the panel in the first place.
Have you ever seen a head judge working? He or she runs behind each judge, breathing down their necks, putting things “in order.” Having a guy or gal hovering over the judges is not constructive. And this is easy to prove when you see what happens with sports that have over 100 years of continued events. We are talking about 50,000 gymnastics events, and not even 1,000 surfing contests.
What do the the gymnastic events have? They have a ten-judge panel. And that’s it. Each judge puts his or her score in and they calculate the average using an algorithm that takes into account outliers. It is as fair as it can be.
With the amount pressure all the judges are already under, adding the head judge distorts how the judges naturally and initially feel about a wave — and therefore it distorts the score. This is not appropriate. His job is not only irrelevant, but it is an added and unnecessary prejudice. Judges should determine the winner. Not a single person called head judge. And that is the way it effectively plays out.
What do we need to do? Get rid of the head judge. Hire a ten-judge panel and trust them — let them do their job and determine the scores. You may get gaps of over one point, but that is how judging works.
