WSL Surf 101

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WSL Surf 101: Judging Criteria

In this episode of WSL Surf 101, we're going to break down what the Championship Tour judges are looking for when it comes to scoring a complete wave.

In a competitive round a panel of 5 judges score each wave on a scale of 1-to-10. For every scoring ride, the highest and lowest judged scores fall off, and the surfer receives the average of the remaining three scores. In any round, a surfer is looking to lock in their two highest-scoring waves. The top single wave score is a 10, for a possible 20-point heat total.

Judges analyze the following elements when scoring waves: Commitment and degree of difficulty, innovative and progressive maneuvers, combination of major maneuvers, variety of maneuvers and speed, power and flow.

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