RESULTS SEMINAR 2004

ROMA / ITALY

Thank you for attending the 7th annual International Wakeboard Judging Seminar hosted by the Italian Water Ski Federation.

The seminar was aimed at bringing in judges at a high level, and this year we also included a calculator’s examination, which many of the participants also sat.

The purpose of this report is to give a brief summary of the results, unfortunately we cannot evaluate each individual’s examination paper.

Most of the individuals that took the examinations were well prepared on the written examination and this clearly showed within the results. The workshop on running an event and the heat system worked particularly well and this was evident from the examination papers completed.

However, the downfall for some was the video analysis and we would once again encourage people to gain as much “hands on” experience as possible by sitting in the boat over the summer months and watching videos.

National Level 3

As this was the first basic examination level with multi-choice questions only, all participants who took this examination did excellent and we would encourage you to continue with progressing to National Level 2 through attendance at your local Judging Seminars.

National Level 2

Generally the results for the multi-choice examination were excellent, however, the video analysis seemed to be a problem for some. We would strongly suggest that more experience is gained from being in the boat at events and watching wakeboard video’s to recognise the tricks.

National Level 1 (International Level 2)

No problem with regard to the written examination paper, however it was clear that some struggled with the video analysis. Most did not make notes as to the landings of the riders, such as revert or for riders switching the board round between tricks. This had a knock-on effect to switch tricks being missed and not correctly recorded. Some also missed tricks and did not define the difference between a  Back Roll and a  Front Roll, together with recorded how the trick was executed (bad landing, top of the wake etc).

International Level 1

Again the written paper was very well received in the short time span given. The level of riding on the video analysis was exceptional, as the footage was taken from the highest level during the 2003 WWC World Championships. This is the level of riding and typical tricks that judges would be expected to see after achieving International  Level 1 status. All of the basic tricks were picked-up and many managed to record the high end tricks that we saw. Certain passes were complex and some candidates were unable to keep pace once they had lost one trick. It was good that some of you recognised the Heelside blind 540 and also recorded the nose grabbed Crow Mobe that was in the same run as Rider K. Still missing from the score sheets, however, was the detail that we covered over the weekends seminar, such as grabs on inverts. Irrespective of the level of riding, the grabbing of complex tricks such as a nose grab Crow Mobe is just detail that can make the judgment on a rider gaining 1st or 2nd position in a competition. A couple of you spotted the Whirlybird 540 also, which is encouraging.

However, it is important that the riders name (or in the case of the examination – the appropriate Rider Letter) is written on the trick sheet and a number of candidates failed to include this, which made marking the paper a little difficult.

All candidates must remember that as judges you are accountable for everything. If there is a dispute you need to be able to know every single trick that a rider has performed exactly and be able to relay an entire run back without missing a trick, grab or smallest detail. That is why it is so important for everything to be included on your trick sheet.

We hope you find these general comments constructive and we are you can appreciate that we cannot evaluate every candidates examination paper on an individual basis.

We would personally like to thank you all for attending and would also like to thank the additional work from the slider group, which proved very helpful for all concerned including the excellent work after the seminar. We would also like to thank Stefano Duranti (EWA Committee Member) for single handily organising the seminar in Rome, which we are sure you will all agree was first class.

If you have not been successful in the examination please do not be discouraged, experience and practise is all that is required to achieve results.

We look forward to seeing you all in 2005.

Best wishes and have a great Summer.
 

Colin Hart                                         Alain Nieles
WWC Chairman                                 EWC Chairman
Examiner                                            Examiner