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Rules and Regulations
Association of Surfing Professionals

Judging
In contests surfers will be scored on a scale of 0.1 to 10.0, these scores will be broken up into increments of one-tenth. The following scale can be use in order to relate descriptions with the score: 0–1.9 = Poor; 2.0–3.9 = Fair; 4.0–5.9 = Average; 6.0–7.9 = Good; 8.0–10.0 = Excellent

Judging Criteria
Judges will base the previous score on how successfully surfers display these following elements in each wave: - Commitment and degree of difficulty - Innovative and progressive maneuvers - Combination of major maneuvers - Variety of maneuvers - Speed, power and flow Some of these elements may be more or less important base on the surfing conditions and the surfing area. This criterion is also different then in longboarding competition. All of this is focused on creating some type consistency that can be seen throughout the many different events.

The events themselves are previously declared 1-6 star events; among other things this ranking shows what numbers of judges which are required at the event. A 1-3 star events are required to have a six judge panel with four judges on each heat. A 4-6 Star event requires seven judges with five of those judges on each heat. At 5-6 star events and prime events there is only allowed to be 3 judges from any one region. This is then limited to two at any world title events. All events also require an ASP approved head judge who has the ability to make corrections to errors or any other events that may have affected the results.

Rules
There are many rules out in the water which all revolve around the idea of right of way. A surfer has right of way if he or she is closer to the area where the wave is breaking, this is more commonly referred to as having the inside position. If another surfer takes off in front of the surfer which has the inside position then interference will be called and penalties will be enacted. In most circumstances it does not matter who stood up first but who has the inside position.

A surfer can also be found guilty of inference if they catch more than there maximum amount of waves in a heat and that this takes away from the other competitors ability to catch waves. A competitor is also not allowed to interfere with another competitor’s paddling and maneuvering for a wave.

The rules of right-a-way vary slightly with the type of break. Point Breaks will always have a consistent direct of what is inside, that is the person further up the line will have right-away. In a single peak situation where there is both a left and a right two people are able to be on the wave at the same time provided that one goes left and one goes right and that neither crosses the path of the other to go one direction. If this does happen then the surfer who stood up first will get the right-a-way. On a multi peaked wave where the wave eventually comes together both peaks can be surfed until the surfers come together, when they do the surfer who stood up first has right-a-way and the other must maneuver to get off the wave without interrupting the other surfer.

In a one-on-one competition priority can be declared by the Head Judge. Once the person with priority has paddled for a wave priority is then turned over to the next person until that person does the same. The person with second priority can paddles for waves as long as it does not interfere with the other person and will only lose their priority if they catch a wave.

A surfer who has already taken off or obtained possession of a wave maintains this position until the end of their ride. If another surfer takes off on the inside of this surfer then this person does not obtain priority and is considered to be snaking. If this surfer does not hurt the other surfers ride then both people can be scored based. If the judges de/atermine that the snaking did interfere then the person will be penalized. Interference penalties are called by the judges and must have a majority to be declared an actual penalty. Interferences are shown as triangles on the score cards in various different ways depending on when or where in the heat they were made. If three or more waves are being scored then one wave will be dropped off the score card. If only the top two waves are being scored then 50% of the second best scored wave will be taken off. If a surfer has more than one then 50% of the best waves score will be taken off also. The surfer who has been interfered with will be allowed an additional wave to their maximum as long as it is within the time limit. If a surfer interferes more than twice in a heat then they must leave the competition area.

Questionable Judging
Surfing is a sport which is based off of creativity and how well the person uses what the wave gives him or her. Therefore because every wave is different, even those which are in the same set of waves, it presents difficulty when a judge is has to compare one surfer to another. This is why the Association of Surfing Professionals have set up loose guide lines for the judges to follow, but for the most part it is up to the judges experience and knowledge to decide what score a surfer deserves to get on each wave. Commonly though the rulings do come into questioning.

In the Rio De Janeiro competition on May 22, 2011 the judging in a final heat against top world ranked Adriano de Souza and Owen Wright came into questioning. From the web cast of the event it seemed s though Owen Wright was the outright winner, but when the results came in the judges gave the win to Adriano De Souza the Brazilian. After further review the decision was defended by the fact that the live camera didn't show proper angle on the waves that De Souza was catching and that the waves he was catching were shorter but more difficult then the ones that Wright was catching. They concluded wuth an official statement sayng that they would work on getting the live web casts to properly display the difficulty of the waves.