Priority System

Purpose: To eliminate the problem of 3 or 4 riders going at the same time. It is nearly impossible to judge fairly for Three or Four man heats.

• Two are up and either can go. First with priority will be the first two on the heat sheet. Other two riders are on deck. Third on heat sheet has priority over fourth on heat sheet. When one of the first two goes, the next in line can step into the active area. Two poles will be up on the beach, near the stand. First to run thru them has priority once the heat has started.
• A ride is counted if the rider gets on the board, or tries and fails. An umpire will be posted by the gate, the margin between active and waiting zones, and he will be available for any questions. More on the gate below.
• Penalty for going out of turn. Loss of highest scoring wave. Decision by consensus of judges.

I am proposing this apply to both Amateur and Professional divisions. It is inherently simple.

Two can go at once, and the judges will not be overwhelmed.

The level of action is not diminished very much. 4 at once is way way to much, even 3 at once is very hard on the judges.

Stalling. The number one question. Think about it. Imagine you have a couple great rides and you want to sit, and block the others. That could be a bummer, but I cannot imagine a situation where two riders decide to stall together. The other rider would still be highly motivated to keep on riding.

I wanted to have as little strategy as possible in this system. No stalling, Everytime someone goes, another rider is right there to take the next wave. The contest is then more about skimming and less about tactics.

The poles will be at least midway up the beach, more likely they will be at a point slightly above where the active riders are waiting, which would be probably be close to the tower.

I will endeavor to explain this to everyone via email and any other form of social media you wish to spread this on. Please help me get the word out. My email is texhaines@mac.com I will try to publish the comments and questions as they come in. First we will publish this on our web page and then spread out from there.

Running 140 contestants with 10 or 12 minute heats requires a lot of 3 and 4 man heats. We will still run mostly 4 man heats for the amateurs and run as many 3 man heats as we can for the Pros. There will still probably be some man on man heats but that is essentially what we have with the 2 man priority system.

I hear a lot of comments like, this is too complicated, can’t we wait until next year, and shouldn’t we do a trial run. At first it seems complicated, yes. But it is not. Where would we test this between now and next year, and would it convince you? And, we tried a very brief trial run this Saturday under less than ideal crowd conditions and it didn’t seem too hard. I am motivated by the travesty of judging 4 going at once, to try a solution at the Vic this year. Anyone really want to continue with that system? The Vic has always been trying to improve itself. Change has always been a part of the event. It should be more fair for you.

Sincerely,

Tex Haines