RESULTS SEMINAR 2005

LISBON / PORTUGAL

Thank you for attending the 8th Annual International EAME Wakeboard Officials Seminar hosted by the Portuguese Waterski Federation.

This was the first year to include wakeskate within the programme with great success, current EAME Wakeskate Champion Charly Lion (France) presented the wakeskate session, together with Giovanni Bellini (Italy). It was encouraging to see 12 people sit the 3 levels of examination for wakeskate including a practical video test.

The International Wakeboard Session was again aimed at judges with experience and at a high level, the purpose of this report is to give a brief summary of the results and errors as, unfortunately we cannot evaluate each individual paper.

The results of the written paper were good and well received, however a number of people did not fully understand the heat system and the breakdown was not logical, clearly further work was required here.

The issue of a rider dispute seemed to be misunderstood as this is NOT deemed to be on the judging decision but only on a calculation programme or organisational issue. The area of judging is subjective and, as such, is not disputable.

A number of people did not recognise the difference between a Whirlybird and a handle pass KGB.

Also a number of people were not mentioning whether tricks were being completed toeside or heelside. Also some judges were not noting riders completing a bunny hop 180, which is part of the procedure for establishing whether the next trick is being performed regular or switch.

The calculation session was well received and the programme worked well. A number of people did not draw a logical heat system. Candidates for the international level practice with success the programme. Most of the EAME federation use the programme. We encourage all federation to use the same system. If your country is interested by buying this programme don't hesitate to take contact with Alain.

If you were not successful in the examination please do not be discouraged. Thank you all again for attending and we look forwarding to seeing you in 2006. A special thank you to Isabel Relvas, Nuno Eca and Joel Ferreira who organised the seminar and were excellent hosts.

Best wishes and we hope you have a great season.

The overall level of the candidates was good if we think it was the first time a wakeskate seminar was run at international level, that’s why nobody failed at all. Anyway we can divide them into 3 groups of personal preparation, the 1^st group showed a good knowledge of the rules and also a good comprehension on the video analysis making them to reach nat.1/int.2 level. The 2^nd group showed a sufficient knowledge sometimes better on the rules, sometimes better on the video analysis, which is good for level nat.2 but not enough to be chief judge even at a national event. I suggest this students after a look at their percentages to practice more on what they had deficiency. The 3^rd group showed, as requested, a basic global knowledge of wake skating, a bit better for what concerns the tricks recognition but with a few lacks especially on the rules understanding.

My final suggestion to those focused on being chief judges is to go forward to be even better and precise on most issues, for those who will be assistants I suggest to focus way better on the rules knowledge cause most of you where just at the limit of a failure sometimes making bad mistakes on crucial parts inside the questionnaire which is not often forgiven when you are performing at an event.

Good work,

Giovanni Bellini.