How did Lacomare lose? Photo: Aquashot/ASPEurope
First of all, I must admit that I didn’t watch a lot of the Quik Pro France heats live due to the time difference. Sometimes this affects how you view the fairness of the scores over the course of a heat. It gives you a better perspective on what the judges are doing.
However, thanks to the glorious invention of heats on demand, I was able to quickly jump through and have a look at the surfing over the first two days of competition. What I viewed was incredibly confusing, anger causing, and has almost made a conspiracy theorist of me.
I think it’s only fair to say that Gabriel Medina should have won his first round heat. He was, in my opinion, the best surfer of the day – and yet, he still lost, putting him in the second round. Julian Wilson’s two waves just weren’t on the same standard. Then, in round two, Medina went on to only just beat Travis Logie. From all accounts, Medina’s performance in this heat was the stand out of the whole contest. And he nearly lost to someone who basically can’t do airs. I’m ok with someone who can’t punt winning in Tahiti or Pipeline barrels of death, but in two foot beach break conditions, it doesn’t make any sense.
Worse than the above incident was the Parkinson vs Lacomare heat. I just cannot get my head around this one. Lacomare takes off, surfs a longer wave better than Parko and then gets scored less? Parko’s wave consisted of a cut back and two relatively mellow top turns. Lacomare had two mellow top turns and four really good quality snaps with a much better finishing turn. Lacomare’s wave offered both quantity and quality, and deserved twice the score of Parko’s. If someone out there can explain this result to me, I’d certainly appreciate it.
There needs to be a serious review of how the judges are scoring these heats. One of the major problems is that the head judge has too much power. It would be much better if five (or more) judges made calls without any influence from anyone else. I think this would iron out shockers that a single person can, and will, make.
