How do you know who’s the best surfer in the water? How do you rate a surfer’s performance in the waves? Who decides who wins a surfing heat? Judging surfing is never a scientific and objective formula; it can’t be compared with football/soccer, tennis, rugby, baseball, volleyball, hockey, running and basketball. In all of these individual and team sports, score is a quantitative measure that determines success. In surfing, however, victory and defeat are decided by a panel of judges. Professional surfing contests put athletes in man-on-man, three-man or four-man heats. The winner of the heat (or the two best surfers in each heat) advances through to the next round, in a ladder tournament format.

Read this article:
How surfing is scored

average, average-wave, combination, commitment, excellent, following, how-surfing-is-scored, judging, major, organization, professional, surfing