What's with the politics in ASP?

[BaNZ]

While watching ASP live on youtube. Every time when "insert player name" does well or not well. Seems to occur more frequent with the top 10. People always says the judges are being bribed and the scoring system is unfair. How the sponsors our bribing the judges etc.

Are these just speculations or it is common knowledge?

[oldmansurfer]

I sometimes wonder why judges do some of the scores they do. My guess is that it is a difficult job and perhaps what it takes to wow the judges depends on their past performances. So the top guys need to really perform well to get a good score but some unknown guy could do something less to impress them. I think it is just human nature and not any bribing or favoritism. Some contests you can look at all the rides and understand easily how they were scoring and other times it's difficult. If you could go over the waves and look at them all from the beginning of the contest to the end then perhaps the scoring would be clearer and instant replay I am sure makes a difference too. If it was all bribes I am sure someone will be coming out with the details soon.....still waiting....just takes one unhappy judge.......still wating....

[oldmansurfer]

So BaNZ aren't you there in person?

[BaNZ]

I heard one of the commentary said the judge gave this particular surfer a low score probably because they believe he could do much better and they were waiting for something more amazing. But because of that, time ran out and the surfer lost the heat even though he performed better than the others. That is just so wrong, it's a competition and not a solo performance.

I will arrive over the weekends, I've been having ebola symptons for the past few days! Haven't surfed for 2 months, I don't even know if I'll have the strength to surf 2-3 feet waves and the forecast is like 5+....

[oldmansurfer]

The commentators don't speak for the judges. They are just like us guessing at what's going on with the judges. From what I hear that area is loaded with breaks so if it is too big somewhere it will be smaller somewhere else. There was a forecast 10 to 12 foot swell, sure wish the contest started in that. As far as your ebola symptoms well if you are bleeding from every orifice I would advise you don't go in the ocean because you will attract sharks and we don't want to give them ebola

[BaNZ]

haha if I'm bleeding I think I'll head to the hospital straight away!

Sharks with ebola... hmmmm that might wipe them out and leave us in peace!

[waikikikichan]

ASP is too scrutinized to be able to cheat. It's all out there for everyone to see. What's good is the top and low score is thrown out. But to say all 5 judges are being paid off, I don't think so. What you could do is go back and look at all the contest that were won by a surfer sponsored by that contest. Kelly winning Quiksilver, Parko winning Billabong, Medina winning Ripcurl, and so on. If you see a trend then something might be fishy. I don't agree with one maneuver air 9.0 + point rides ( okay Kelly's New York one was insane, but the one behind Wilko was not )

Here in the Japan, the Japan Professional Surfing Association is horrible. I have seen defending champions advance because of what they call " Name Value ". I have seen sponsored riders move up when clearly their waves sucked. I pulled a noseride 360 helicopter and got a low score. Talking to the judges they said my spin was due to " equipment failure " . ?????? They are very biased against foreigners. For most of the past 10 years a foreigner from Hawaii has won the JPSA longboard championship. (Kekoa Uemura, Eugene Teal or Genki Kino ) So this year they made a ruling that you must have a Japanese Passport to be a JPSA member. ( thus I can't enter ) Their national sport of Sumo is now being ruled by Mongolians, they tried blocking out the wrestler from Hawaii from attaining the highest rank of Yokozuna. But again with it being scrutinized and out in the open, they had to give in.

[oldmansurfer]

Japanese seem to place great value on prestige and tradition and conformity. A very different set of values from the USA.

[BaNZ]

Wow that sucks to be in Japan. Japaneses people seems to be very polite and respectful. I know they are biased against foreigners but I didn't expect them to cheat. I thought they have more honor than that.

[oldmansurfer]

I don't think they look at it as cheating. It is upholding the traditions and honoring the history of the sport in Japan. I know it is difficult for foreigners to understand but they just think a little different

[oldmansurfer]

It's very difficult to understand a different culture but they may actually know it is wrong but think of it as the lesser of two evils. I am sure that among themselves they discuss this issue.