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Contest Format
The 24 man field will be divided into four 6-man heats (top 3 from each heat will advance to the semi-finals) and two semi-final heats of six competitors each. A draw will be conducted on the morning of the contest to decide which heat will surf first. The duration of these heats will be approximately 45 minutes and each surfers’ best two rides during that period will be tallied to determine his total for the heat. The three competitors with the highest tallies in each semi-final will advance to the final.
The six man final will start approximately 30 minutes after the completion of the second semi to allow for scores to be tallied and for the top three competitors in the second heat to change their contest vests and get some sustenance. The duration of the final will depend on the surf and weather conditions on the day, but is likely to be a minimum of 60 minutes with each surfers’ best two rides counting. The highest scorer in the final will be crowned the 2008 Red Bull Big Wave Africa champion!
Judging Criteria:
The criteria used by the judges to score each ride is designed to encourage the competitors to surf the biggest waves that break during their heats and is defined as follows:
The surfer who demonstrates the most commitment on the largest waves in a controlled manner will receive the highest score.
As a further incentive to wait for the biggest waves, the top scoring ride for each competitor is doubled in value and then his second best score is added to determine his heat total.
Thus a competitor riding a really big wave and scoring 9 points from a possible 10, but only 2 points for his second best ride, will total 20 points (9 x 2 = 18 + 2 = 20 pts) which will be higher than the tally of an opponent who scores two rides of 6 points each (6 x 2 = 12 + 6 = 18 pts)
Interference Rule:
Due to the life threatening nature of the huge waves and the amount of water moving around over the Dungeons reef on any day that the swells are higher than 5 metres, it is extremely difficult to pull back from catching a wave once you have committed yourself to paddling into it. Therefore, unlike small wave surfing, if two surfers ride the same wave in the Red Bull BWA there will not be an automatic interference call. However, the surfer further from the peak will receive no score and is at risk of being penalised for interference. If the outside surfer is deemed by the judging panel to have interfered with, or hindered the scoring potential of the ride of the inside surfer, the interfering surfer will have one of his scoring rides deducted, thereby making it extremely difficult to beat any of the surfers in the heat who have two rides counting.
Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2008 is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa (SSA)
