The ASP has been in damage mode after the feedback on the judging of Adriano DeSouza's semi against Owen Wright and to a lesser extent the final against Taj.
In the semi Adriano did a big floater and got an eight. His other scoring wave consisted of two standard back hand reos. After a couple of standard turns Owen landed big airs on both his waves, scoring sixes. The judges have released a statement saying in part that Adriano's wave were bigger and his floater was more committed than Owen's air because anyone pro can do an air.
My two cents worth - any pro (and most decent amateurs) can pull off a floater. This one was big but it wasn't anything special and the reason he did the floater is because his wave choice put him on a close out. Floaters have generally been either a linking move, to get around a section or something to finish with in the shoredump. If they are the only move on a wave they generally don't score well because it reflects bad wave selection.
Owen selected waves that gave him room to work and surfed them as well as they could be surfed. Yes they were smaller but wave size is not part of the criteria and the smaller ones weren't closing out. He did a series of moves that were committed, different from each other and used the full potential of the wave. If you ignore what Adriano got for his rides you would say they were awarded scores that were pretty close to what they deserve. Compare them to Adriano and they were high eights.
The waves for the final were pretty bad. Taj's waves were pretty fairly scored but again Adriano best scoring wave was overscored by probably two points. He blew his second move, which was a pretty standard backhand reo and did three identical moves. Personally he should lose points for claiming every wave he catches but that's not in the criteria.
The ASP have made it worse by releasing the judges statement. It just looks like they are making piss weak excuses for why they screwed up. Since the change in the judging criteria it has been almost impossible to work out what needs to be done to get a decent score. I don't like judges deciding that they will score tubes higher at his place, on this bank or tide but vertical moves in this round. Judge how the surfer surfs. If he get a wave a Chopes that suits him doing an eight foot air reverse rather than a tube give him the score it deserves. If he rips the bag out of a smaller wave because it is cleaner and holds up, don't reward his competitor who flukes an out of control move on a close out because its bigger. The ASP are starting to lose more credibility and eyes on their events with the inconsistent judging.
Judge for yourself -
Click here for the statement from the judges
The final word goes to a tweet shown on the ASP web site from Taylor Knox - "I just did a floater .... Winning !!!!!"
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