How are waves judged and scored?

SSA uses the ISA judging criteria (SSA Rulebook 2025, Section 3).

• Each judge scores every wave from 0 to 10 in tenths. Panels have up to five judges.
• Your best two waves count; there's no maximum number of waves.
• For a wave to be scored, you must be clearly in possession of it and on the wave face, making a movement to stand with your hands off the rails. This also applies at the final horn.

Shortboard criteria: radical, controlled major manoeuvres in the critical sections with speed, power and flow. Judges look at commitment and degree of difficulty, innovative and progressive manoeuvres, combination of major manoeuvres, variety of manoeuvres, and speed, power and flow. The emphasis depends on the location and conditions on the day.

Longboard: controlled manoeuvres using the whole board and wave, with nose riding and footwork key. SUP: as for shortboard plus functional use of the paddle.

When heats are tabulated on paper, each judge's sheet gives a placing for every surfer, and the highest and lowest placings are dropped before the remaining placings are totalled.