Judge's Guide to Surfing South Africa Contests All Ages 2025

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025:

• Score every wave ridden by every competitor from 0 to 10, in one-tenth increments.
• A surfer's best two waves count; there's no maximum wave count.
• To be scored, the surfer must be clearly in possession of the wave and on the wave face, making a movement to stand with hands off the rails. This applies during the heat and at the end.
• The heat ends when the first finishing horn is heard by the Head Judge, who then tells the judges that no more rides are to be scored.

The same scale is used for shortboard, longboard and SUP. The commentator may not announce scores until all judges' scores are entered.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025 (Section 3):

Panels

• Each heat has up to five judges, rotating from a larger panel. A panel of up to seven is the minimum to run an event full-time, and no judge should judge more than three heats without a break.
• At national championships, accredited judges are selected and paid, and there are no team judges.
• The most consistent judges may be used for finals.

Conduct

• Check in with the Head Judge at least 15 minutes before your heat.
• Give full concentration so personal bias is eliminated, and score every wave by every competitor.
• Don't discuss wave scores or interference calls with other judges.
• Never comment on a surfer's chances to the public, media or competitors; you may be dismissed from the panel.
• Stay in the admin area after your last rostered heat until it's tallied and protests can no longer be lodged.
• An inconsistent judge can be dropped and given other duties at any time (Contest Director on the Head Judge's recommendation), which may reduce their fee.
• No SSA event staff member may judge a division where they have a conflict of interest, and sponsors' representatives may not judge.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025 (Section 3, Rules for Judges):

• Correcting a score: if a score isn't clear or must be changed, line it through and write the correct score in the next block. Initial every alteration.
• Missed wave: if you miss a wave or part of one, put an "M" in the block and tell the Head Judge. The missed ride is later filled in by the tabulator, under the Head Judge's direction, from the average of the other judges' scores adjusted to your scoring spread.
• Don't tally your own sheet. Hand it in promptly at the end of the heat.
• Wrong colour or timing errors: the Head Judge, with the Contest Director and Priority Judge, may consult qualified observers (off-duty judges, spotters or other officials) who saw the incident, and rules case by case.

With paper scoring, surfers (with their manager or coach at national events) may inspect the judges' and tabulator's sheets after the heat result is published.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025 (Sections 3 and 4):

• Judges rule on interference. A penalty is applied only if a majority of the panel marks it on their sheets. The Head Judge may call it only if no majority is reached, and judges who didn't see the incident can't vote on it.
• Keep scoring the ride. The interfering surfer's ride is still scored, but if the majority calls interference it becomes zero.
• Riding interference: draw a triangle around the interfering score with an arrow to the score of the surfer who was interfered with.
• Paddling interference: draw a triangle on the line between waves where it happened (or above the score if the wave was ridden), with an arrow to the interfered surfer's score or line.
• Don't discuss scores or interference calls with other judges; the Head Judge keeps judges visually separated.
• Once made, an interference decision can only be changed by the Head Judge if it relied on inaccurate video or audio technology. Judges won't discuss calls with surfers.
• Interference is announced only after the Head Judge or Contest Director approves it.

Penalties: non-priority situations, Penalty 1 (second-best ride halved); priority situations, Penalty 2 (second-best ride zero); at SSA events, blocking a potential scoring ride in the last five minutes, Penalty 3 (best ride zero), or disqualification if judged intentional.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025 (Sections 2, 3 and 5), the Head Judge:

• Holds judges' meetings before and during the event for instruction and standardisation.
• Organises the judges into panels so no judge works more than three consecutive heats.
• Identifies judges whose standard (including interference calls) isn't acceptable and, with the Contest Director, decides whether to drop them. Judges removed for sub-standard judging aren't paid.
• May not adjust any judge's scores or advise on scores or interferences while heats are running.
• Keeps the wave count for each heat (or has the spotter do it) and makes sure vest colours are clear to the judges.
• Tries to tell any surfer who was interfered with, over the PA, that they have an extra wave (surfers must still track their own wave count).
• Is responsible for official heat timing, signals when a heat starts, and tells judges when no more rides can be scored.
• Calls an interference only if the panel can't reach a majority, and approves interference announcements before the commentator makes them.
• Is in sole control of the judging area, and decides with the Contest Director on stoppages, contestable surf and re-surfs.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025 (Section 4):

• All SSA events use a priority system; the Contest Director and Head Judge choose a 2, 3, 4 or 5-surfer system.
• The Priority Judge makes the priority calls and may consult the judging panel on close calls.
• Priority is shown on a coloured display matching the surfers' vest colours: top to bottom if vertical, left to right if horizontal. Once set, surfers must check it themselves.
• Priority goes to whoever the Priority Judge believes reached the primary take-off zone first; if it looks simultaneous, it goes to the surfer who didn't have the last priority.
• The Priority Judge sets new positions after an interference, decides late arrivals' positions, and handles jet-ski pick-ups and drop-offs, broken boards and surfers washed out of the zone (suspending and restoring priority).
• A surfer leaving the primary take-off zone has priority suspended; all attempts are made to warn them over the PA, but surfers shouldn't rely on that.
• Losing priority for blocking or excessive hassling is decided by the Priority Judge and/or Head Judge.

If priority is disputed or the system malfunctions, the rulebook provides for consultation with the Technical Director and Head Judge, which may lead to a re-surf.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025 (Section 7, Duties of the Tabulator), when results are tabulated from paper sheets:

1. The tabulator checks every sheet and the wave counts, and records interferences. No tabulation happens until the Contest Director approves it.
2. Missed rides: under the Head Judge's direction, a judge's missed ride is filled in by averaging the other judges' scores for it and adjusting to fit that judge's scoring spread. The Head Judge makes sure the value is written on the sheet.
3. Interferences are applied under the penalty rules.
4. On each judge's sheet, the two best waves are circled and totalled, and that judge's placings are worked out (highest total first). If a judge ties surfers, they share the average of the places (for example a tie across 3rd, 4th and 5th gives each 4).
5. Placings are copied onto a tally sheet, one column per judge. For each surfer the highest and lowest placings are crossed off, the rest are totalled, and heat places are decided from the totals.
6. Ties then go to the tie-break rules.

Panels have up to five judges.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025:

On paper tally sheets (Section 7):

• In a four-surfer heat, compare the tied surfers' placings on each judge's sheet with a plus/minus system: "+" to the higher placing, "-" to the lower. Most "+" marks wins.
• In a three-way tie, use plus/minus to find the top two, then again to split them.
• If still tied, go back to the best wave on the tied judges' sheets (drop the lowest wave score) and recalculate.

Re-surfing ties (Section 4): only completely unbreakable ties that affect who advances are re-surfed. Before that, the tie is broken by:

1. the best single score, then third best, fourth best, and so on (surfers with two priority interferences and zero top-two waves can't use lower scores);
2. the average of all five judges on the two best scores, then one, three, four best scores and so on;
3. if still tied, a re-surf of no more than 15 minutes, involving only the tied surfers.

If both tied surfers advance, the original team seed or previous-round scores break the tie. If both are eliminated, they share the place (for example equal third for a tie between third and fourth, or equal fourth if neither started) and the points for the places involved are averaged.

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025 (Section 3), the Contest Director and Head Judge apply these rules:

• Judges, the spotter, announcer, Head Judge and Priority Judges must have an unrestricted view of the full width of the wave at all times. A side-on view isn't acceptable.
• If the contest moves, judges must be placed at the best vantage point, even if that needs a temporary structure on the beach. Any fixed podium is set up in consultation with the Contest Director and Head Judge.
• Judges must have a suitable weatherproof shelter.
• The Head Judge is in sole control of the judging area.
• No unauthorised people: coaches, managers, agents, sponsors, competitors, friends, family, committee or Board members who aren't part of the panel or contest officials.
• No smoking or alcohol in the judging area during the contest.
• Judges and officials on duty must have cell phones off; only tablets or laptops used to run the event may be on.