How are junior heats run and scored?

Under the SSA Rulebook 2025:

• Heats are 15 to 25 minutes (usually 20), with up to four surfers (five in Round 1 and repechage). At least half the surfers advance from Round 1 and from Round 3 onwards.
• Each judge scores every wave from 0 to 10 in tenths on the ISA judging criteria (commitment and difficulty, innovative and progressive manoeuvres, combination and variety of manoeuvres, and speed, power and flow). A surfer's best two waves count.
• Surfers wear a coloured contest vest, and must wear the right colour.
• A horn (one blast to start, two to end) and a disc (green to start, red for the last five minutes) mark the heat. The commentator counts down the last five seconds.
• All SSA events use a priority system: the surfer with priority has right of way, and interfering with them costs the interfering surfer points (the second-best wave counts as zero).
• The draw, schedule and heat times are published on Liveheats.

Surfers can signal from the water to ask for time left (tapping the wrist), their priority (arms up) or their situation (arms out sideways).