Big Waves … Bigger Party

Surfing Life’s Oakley Big Wave Awards took a big step this year, and for me as co-ordinator it wasn’t just in the record breaking entry numbers or the great job being done by all concerned around the event. It was in the success the surfers made of a new judging system, which as far as I know isn’t used anywhere else in surfing: the peer vote. I’d been frustrated by the judging process for a couple of years, and so had some of the surfers and lensmen involved. It was clear that this was an event like no other in Australian surfing. You couldn’t run it from the top down the way a normal contest happens, where the director tells everyone what to do and the judges never put on the coloured rashie. In the Awards, everyone has an opinion, and by god they were letting us know it.

Would you take the drop? Damien “Taco” Warr did and won $20,000 last night. Cow Bombie, WA.

Not sure who it was but in the welter of back and forth, somebody (it might have been Jughead, if so thanks Jug) suggested why not have a surfers’ vote and settle the wins that way?

We put it out for comment and while most Awards surfers were stoked, a few guys raised objections: what if one crew all ganged up and voted for their mate’s wave, couldn’t the result be skewed?

Fact is there are over 70 surfers registered with the Awards and they hail from everywhere across Australia and NZ; a couple even live overseas. The numbers aren’t dominated by any one crew enough to swing a vote, even if only half the surfers chipped in. But I had to take the objectors’ concerns on board, and so we decided on a simple two-stage vote.

First the registered surfers would vote for the finalists in each division: six Big, six Slabs and three Paddles. Then, a panel of non-affiliated surfers with serious creed and experience would be assembled to vote for the winners.

http://vimeo.com/34641244