NEW BSA TECHNOLOGY ENSURES UK CONTEST JUDGING IS TO HIGHEST POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

The British Surfing Association (BSA) is continually committed to the highest possible international judging standards and recently made two major investments that will put UK judging at the cutting edge.

The BSA has bought the rights to run the International Surfing Association sanctioned Surfing Australia judging courses within the UK, meaning that all judges to train with the BSA will now be qualified to judge anywhere in the world at any level of competition.

The BSA has also invested in a new computerised judging system which will mean that scores will be tabulated more efficiently. The wireless judging terminals in watertight cases give judges greater mobility and allow scores from each wave to be sent wirelessly to the tabulator to be calculated.

Scores are broadcast to the beach live via the event p/a, adding excitement and interest for spectators whilst also letting the competitors know what’s going with their scores (i.e. what they need to do win), as is done at international competitions.

The computerised judging system is the method used at all European surfing events and has been developed by ‘Refresh’ judging in Portugal. The Refresh judging systems have been used since 1997 on nearly all European Surfing Federation and Portuguese Surfing Federation events.

Karen Walton of the BSA said, “These moves are really exciting for British surfing and show that the British Surfing Association will only accept the highest standards of judging. Training all of our judges to the top global standards and ensuring that they are all up to speed on the electronic systems will continually improve performance and accuracy at our UK contests as well as offering our trained judges new opportunities to travel and develop international careers.”

The Refresh equipment was first used at the world bodyboarding tour in Portugal three years ago and has received very positive feedback from all who used it including judges, technical directors and competitors. Providing by the minute scores, judges evaluation and statistics, event statistics and heat reports at the end of each heat online and in print, the equipment also allows realtime score broadcasting to any website. Every detail of the heat in progress can be observed, from a single judge’s score on any given wave to the overall heat standings.

The Refresh Computer Aided Judging Systems is the official judging system for the European Surfing Federation as well as the Portuguese Surfing Federation and has been used in some of the most prestigious events around the world, from Hawaii to the Cape Verde Islands. Now Fistral Beach, Newquay can be added to that list!

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