PWA World Cup: Inside Judge Tower - how waveriding is judged

How is a wave heat actually judged? Many people are probably asking themselves this question, because you don't get to know too much about the judges during an event. At the beginning of the term of office of the new Head Judge Luis Maria Escribano Guirola, who everyone calls "Pick" for short, some changes were made to the judging system. It currently works as follows: Most of the time, four riders are on the water at the same time, with the first two from each heat progressing to the next round. Only in the final stage of the double elimination, which is a kind of second round in which a rider can fight his way back through the individual rounds, are only two riders on the water at the same time.

Wave, freestyle, slalom: all about the rules and procedures at the World Cup Sylt

In an elevated container with a glass pane and a good view of the entire competition area, there are a total of nine people: three judges on the left, three judges on the right and Head Judge Pick in the centre. Behind them, the two "spotters" walk around equipped with large binoculars. The atmosphere is stuffy, the mood calm. Everyone is looking intently at their tablet computers while a large clock ticks down on the right. One minute to go until the start - beep - it's off, and suddenly everyone is shouting in confusion: "Backloop from Salmonn ... one handed ... Double from Paré, oh, Victor already on a wave ...but where is Dunkerbeck?"

New judging system since 2024

What are they up to? How can you keep an overview? Pick explains after the heat: "Our new system means that three judges (on the left) only judge the wave rides and the other three (on the right) only award jump scores. The guys with the binoculars keep an overview and tell the judges what's going on out there in general. That works really well."

Pick has been a judge since 1996 and has seen a lot in his career - he appears calm, even after a fractious final. His job as head judge in the centre is to keep track of the scores and make sure that everything runs smoothly. For example, that all the judges have submitted their scores. The PWA livestream is also running on a screen next to him, where he can check the replays if anything is unclear.

How the jumps in waveriding are rated

But how are they scored in detail? "Jumps are relatively simple, as there is a clear score in the wave discipline from to depending on the level of difficulty," explains Pick. For example, according to the list hanging on the wall of the container, a backloop can be awarded 3.5 to 6 points. If the backloop is low and wet, the score is 3.5, if it is high and clean, the score is 6. 0.5 points are added for the one-handed or one-legged version, and 1.5 points are added for both at the same time.

In principle, this also applies to all other jumps such as forwards, double forwards, push loops and push forwards. As the number of jumps that come into play in the wave discipline is small compared to freestyle, the list remains manageable and the jump scoring is relatively straightforward.

There is a clear trend in the jump scores: the judges now penalise "wet" landings, where the sail is briefly in the water and the rider is in a kind of water start position (even if only for a second), relatively harshly. For example, a wet double loop is only awarded five points, while a clean backloop is awarded six points - a high, clean double loop, on the other hand, is awarded eight points.

Wave riding: Better real wave riding than freestyle elements

Let's move on to the other side of the judging table: wave rides can't be defined quite so clearly and vary in score depending on the conditions and spot - a perfect ride doesn't look the same on every day and every spot. "What we don't like and generally don't rate particularly highly is freestyle on the wave, we want to see proper, critical riding over the rail to leeward, real surfing," says Pick. So far, so good, but what does that actually mean? For a windsurfer who is not involved in the sport of surfing, the wave scores can sometimes be difficult to understand. After all, a long backside ride to windward with a lot of wind in the sail, a shaka or two as an upwind 360 and a taka pushed into the rippling white water at the end may look cool at spots with a diagonal onshore wind like Cabezo, but it doesn't score nearly as many points as a combination of two critical turns to leeward on a much shorter but more powerful wave. This is perhaps a good way to visualise it: If you think of the sail away, the ride over the board must basically look like a surfer using the thrust of the wave in the right places, at the right time, to generate speed at the bottom in the bottom turn and get projection from the lip of the wave at the top in the top turn - the pressure of the wave must take over more than the pressure from wind in the sail, then there is a good score.

Freestyle on the wave? We don't like that. We want to see real surfing over the rail." (Luis Maria Escribano Guirola, PWA Head Judge Wave)

But why is that? "What is more difficult is also rated higher," says PWA commentator and wave expert Ben Proffitt. "Picking the right wave here on the Cabezo reef and finding the right sections and utilising them is an art, a skill that not every windsurfer has." He is not so sure whether a ten-point ride in Cabezo includes manoeuvres such as 360s or takas. But one thing is certain: if they are, then they have to come out of proper bottom turns and really crash at the critical points of the wave - and not be built in as a freestyle move on the open part of the wave.

The average of the three scores forms the score

Julian Salmonn describes his imaginary ten-point ride in Cabezo as follows: "You hold full against the first, steep section of the wave in front of the bunker from the bottom and rotate straight through a slid-through 360, air taka or goiter and manage to connect it cleanly with two more fat rail turns."

To get ten points, each of the three judges would have to type in an even ten, because the scores are automatically added up and divided by three, which is how the crooked decimal numbers on the scoresheets come about. The computer adds up the best two waves and the best jump and the higher score wins. However, many heats are extremely close - it happens from time to time that the decimal place decides whether you make it through or not.