How are judges' scores combined into heat results?

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.