You be the judge (From Falmouth Packet)

You be the judge

4:11pm Thursday 26th July 2007

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The British Surfing Association (BSA) has made two major investments that will put British judging at the cutting edge.

The BSA has bought the rights to run the International Surfing Association sanctioned Surfing Australia judging courses within the Britain, 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 British contests as well as offering our trained judges new opportunities to travel and develop international careers."

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