Surf Competitions: How do they Actually Freaking Work?
BY MARIE-CHRISTINE AMYOT, CATEGORY SURF

Everyone can agree that everything related to surf is pretty cool. So are surf competitions. They’re fun to watch, they connect us to our surfing inspirations and it’s pretty nice to see people killing it at what they do best. But if you’re new to the world of surfing, understanding how the competition world works can be quite confusing. That is why I want to break it down for you. That way, the next time you’re watching a competition and everyone around you is talking about heats, priorities or wildcards, you will actually know what the heck they’re talking about. Let’s do it.

In the Water: Heats, Priorities and Scores: How does it work?!

Surf competitions always work more or less the same way, either it is a big international event or a national one. Basically, there are heats that a surfer needs to pass in order to move on to the next round.

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Note added at 4 mins (2020-05-29 15:30:47 GMT)
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A heat consists of 2 to 4 surfers at the same time in a pre-determined competition zone. Surfers have between 20 to 30 minutes (the duration of the heat depends on the type of competition) to catch the best waves possible. Every wave they catch is rated on a ten-point scale by a panel of judges and only the two best waves of each surfer is counted, giving them a score on 20. So if a surfer gets a 20/20 it would mean that he had two perfect waves and he’s doing fucking awesome 😉 But it’s not common!

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Note added at 5 mins (2020-05-29 15:32:06 GMT)
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The surfers that get the best results get to move on to the next round. And so on, until the finals. When it’s a heat of 4 surfers, the 2 first one get to go to the next round. When it’s a men to men/women to women heat (2 surfers), the first one moves on and the second gets eliminated.

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Note added at 8 mins (2020-05-29 15:35:01 GMT)
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this is a common term in sports of all kinds, notably athletics, and simply means a qualifying stage or round to determine who moves on to the next stage/round (quarter finals, semi-finals, etc.)