Every wave from the first First Ten Foot Aussie Titles Final:

Great idea putting up the scores of each wave. It was interesting to see how the scores related to the manoeuvres.

Wow, loads of talent in the drink
Inspired

thanks for that! Good to see the SUP longboarders going for it.

Thanks Casso. The boys did well in bumpy conditions, especially Jame's 9 pointer - that was definitely the standout wave.

Surf judging is interesting...

It seemed they were rewarded for making a 10' board look like an 8' board. Is that why there is a 10' category or is it primarily for the older/heftier rider? Maybe you need different conditions to properly nose ride, etc.

James' 9.0 wave was great, but he was rewarded for being on the biggest wave - is that luck, good fortune, good planning, patience, or was everyone else too scared to take it? In other words, it was fun to watch, but was he rewarded for something mother nature created? (He did well though!)

Watching vids to watching live makes slot of difference.

Select to expand quote

cantSUPenough said..
Surf judging is interesting...

It seemed they were rewarded for making a 10' board look like an 8' board. Is that why there is a 10' category or is it primarily for the older/heftier rider? Maybe you need different conditions to properly nose ride, etc.

James' 9.0 wave was great, but he was rewarded for being on the biggest wave - is that luck, good fortune, good planning, patience, or was everyone else too scared to take it? In other words, it was fun to watch, but was he rewarded for something mother nature created? (He did well though!)

So that I can understand your comment better, are you saying that:

James is an awesome surfer, greater 'waterman' in general who can jump on a raft of different types of boards on different waves around the world and look amazing, at competition level and often win those various competitions; and

He surfed beautifully in the conditions of the nationals in the 10' longboard division, with great wave selection, and some sensational carving turns that combined together for some joyous waves that few of us on here could do on the best day in the best conditions, and surfed to match the judging criteria that was part of the specific competition; but

Taking nothing away from James in view of the above, but looking forward for the newly setup longboard 10' competition division as it will only grow from here and around the world, there possibly needs to be a closer examination of the judging criteria when in a 'longboard' comp (which many of us have watched and/or participated in on prone longboards for decades), a rider can be awarded a 9 yet never (until the wave was over anyway) move forward of the handle. Therefore, no noseriding, cross-stepping, trimming, drop knee turns, which are all maneuvers unique to longboarding v it's shortboarding cousin. Otherwise we have a 'longboarding' division for SUPs which is just the same as the shortboarding one but with a long nose to fling around. This may be a little disappointing for a number of us longSUPers who like to spend much of our rides up the non-fin end of our boards and why we also spend a fair bit of our time re-watching online vids of Jackson Close, Patrice Guenole, and others to get our fix away from the water.

Again, no disrespect to James as he put together a great ride in a comp final (the nationals no less) that I'm sure under the judging criteria was well worthy and deserved of a 9 and the win; but, is this judging criteria what we are looking at for the future of longSUPing comps?

DHUPEDNORTH1, I agree wholeheartly with what you say, even though I am not practicing longboard SUP myself anymore.

Note also that James earned its 9 not only with mere rollers, but also that they were in the most critical parts of the wave. Other riders had threaded rollers, but far from the curl and scored less than 5.