INTERNATIONAL WATERSKI & WAKEBOARD FEDERATION CABLE WAKEBOARD WORLD COUNCIL CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 1 of 7

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1 INTERNATIONAL WATERSKI & WAKEBOARD FEDERATION CABLE WAKEBOARD WORLD COUNCIL CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 1 of 7 ECWC meeting #26 / judging clinic 6-10 April 2010, Sukay park, Bursa, Turkey Attendees: Varna Laco CWWC president Lucien Gerkau ECWC & CWWC secretary Nenad Tanaskovic ECWC & CWWC treasurer Alex Koester (AK) Int.1 scorer George Newell Int.1 judge Aaron Armborst Int.1 judge Christian Koester (CK) Int.2 judge Sebastiaan Huizinga Int.2 judge Maximilian Gerth (Maxi) Int.2 judge Moritz Petri (Mo) Int.2 judge Victoria Young (Tor) Int.2 judge Anna-Laura Brabander (Aurie) Int.2 judge Excused: Ferdie Jansen Int.1 scorer and ECWC member Mihovil Brebric Int.1 judge Tibor Althans Int.1 judge Carole Marmonier Nat Judge and ECWC Member Julie Koester Int. 2 scorer and ECWC member INTRODUCTION Why we're here The European Cable Wakeboard Council started the initiative to form a working group of the best international judges with the main goals: Establishment of an own identity and authority for international judges to professionalize judging in general and ensure quality and standards on global level Development and organisation of educational materials, seminars and clinics - educational structures, information management Communication - internally between judges but also externally to gain reputation for and to generate interest in being a judge Keep the connection to the riders and the sport The initial meeting was made possible by IWWF, Rixen cableways and Sukay park in Bursa, Turkey and will be ran under the flag of IWWF CWWC. In 5 days time judges and present council members will address the most important topics about cable wakeboard judging and the role of the future judges' commission, practice judging and consistency by video and live performances and run a national judging seminar. Judges' Commission We'll need to agree on the name and logo for formation. The working title will be Judges Development Commission (JDC). Alex will work on a logo. Seminar during the clinic We are running a national seminar during the clinic. We have 5 participants, all new to the wakeboarding so this is a good training for the instructors for the grassroots seminar. INTERNATIONAL WATERSKI & WAKEBOARD FEDERATION - CABLE WAKEBOARD WORLD COUNCIL Contact: Varna Laco president@cablewakeboard.net fax: GSM: Istarska 63, Rijeka, Croatia

2 CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 2 of 7 PROMOTING JUDGING AND EXPANDING THE BASE Ways to encourage judges One of the main problems we have is not enough judges and officials as we're still a very young sport. Another problem is the nature of the subjective judging we have to make sure our most esteemed international judges agree on the interpretation of the criteria and pass on this knowledge to all future judges and officials. CK - Judges have to have the respect of the riders, in other sports this happens because the best riders become judges and are looked up to. If judges are able to justify their decisions when riders make complaints then they will earn respect. The fact that you can't protest a judge's decision was raised and the lack of a formal link between riders and judges was highlighted as an issue but Varna suggested that we have this system as a reaction to previous issues. Formal Debriefing - This was agreed as a solution for feedback. This will take a similar format to the 'top rider forum' after Bursa 09. However it will be available to everyone, will happen after the comp has finished and all judges will take part. People will have the opportunity to ask a limited number of questions, controlled by an official and will be able to talk to the judge panel for the corresponding heat. These will be individual questions to stop nations teaming up and complaining as groups. This will happen as well as the team captains' meeting everyday the comp runs. The judges may choose to make public any questions and answers as they see fit. We tried the formal debriefing simulating the situations during the clinic and decided we need to work on it before we introduce it. All judges should support each other and work together under the banner of JDC. No nay saying in public. Varna promised a while ago to compile a document "why to become a judge". She'd better stop fooling around and get to work! Rider Judges Everyone agreed that rider judges should be encouraged as they bring in new and younger judges and it looks good for the sport. The issue of judges being cancelled on at the last minute was agreed as something that discourages them. JDC will take control of inviting and allocating judges. Funding for rider judges: All agreed that they should be encouraged but not how. Present Council members addressed this and proposed to fund rider judges with at least the entry fee, and depending on how much they are involved during the event, up to the amount of the cost of the official hotel for the duration of the competition. These compensations will be worked out individually and for each event. It was raised that some rider judges found it too much to do both; they should just not be used in this capacity in the future. JUDGING ROUTINE Reliability and consistency Unreliable Judges - this should not be a long standing issue as they will just not be used in the future. The commission will have the job of choosing which judges to use.

3 CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 3 of 7 It was agreed that judges can be expected to judge hard comps if JDC believe they are qualified. If they have issues like the pressure because of the prize money or judging very hard categories they should talk to the chief judge and the rest of the judge panel about this. This was the view of the present judges. However, Council members pointed out that the organizers pay the cost for the judges, and they have to be efficient and overcome those issues. It was agreed that no rules will be made governing which judges are able to judge i.e. family members or friends. Furthermore nationalities will not be considered as judges are trusted to be above this when qualified. Judge panels should be set before hand, with the chief judge doing this provisionally and then going over this with the judges. This should be done the night before the competition as the heats are made. It was agreed that judge panels must remain fixed for each category for consistency. Where possible judges should not be swapped during a competition. One Score Everyone agreed they understand the two subjective criteria and can use only one score for both to make things faster and easier. The current explanation will stand and the 50 points will change to 50%. ****Riders guide and rules to be reworded *** Judges could score on their paper out of 100 to reflect the final combined score. Alternatively, we can keep the scoring out of 10 and use one more decimal when needed. One Judge Overruling the other two One judge should not be able to dictate the outcome, however for now he should have the opportunity to change their minds. It is very important that head judge gives the range after the first rider in the heat and his colleagues to follow. ****Programming team to put a warning in the program for when this happens.***** Debriefing The only way we can learn from competitions and improve the judging is having a critical debrief straight away afterward while the memories and emotions are fresh. This will be exercised during the clinic. We agreed to use one camera to film the entire heats from the judging tent and use that video internally and for the seminars. This way we'll also have the video available for future clinics for more judges to watch the heats where results were very close or anyone objected. It is clear that the results delivered at the comp are final and will not be changed; the video analysis will serve the purpose of improving the quality and consistency of judging. Fast Scoring System We will put a system in place to formalise the time taken to score. This will make timetabling and live feeds easier to implement and more structured. It is important that the judges do no feel harassed when scoring but do it fast. By setting rigid time limits in advance and formal procedures for extensions both they and the TV will know where they stand. The TV will know how much buffer time they should account for and how large the gaps to fill will be allowing them to prepare content for these gaps. There will be one minute from when the rider finishes his run to when the score is published in which time the judges can make their decisions. By the end of this the score must be finalised. If this is not possible the head judge should ask for an extension of predetermined length as soon as it becomes obvious it is needed, allowing the film crew to show the filler content. At the end of this extension the score will be published without exception.

4 CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 4 of 7 We must agree the length of the extensions, how many are available and what will happen if not all judges have scored in the allotted extension time. The proposed timings are: 1 minute from the end of a rider's run for the judges to produce a score, and the crisis extension of 5 minutes, max once per category in the finals. Judging Priorities Judges will base their decisions on the following categories still using the old descriptions as well. Kickers Sliders Risk Composition Amplitude Style Execution If there is a tough call between two riders the judges can follow the following procedure: The head judge should co-ordinate a vote for each of the above criteria. Each section will be marked to one or the other rider. There will never be a draw as each section will be decided by 3 votes and there are an odd number of sections. The rider awarded the most sections will be given the higher placement. This system can be implemented very quickly by the chief judge using a printed table or by memory and will resolve disputes if two riders are so close they can not be distinguished between. EVENT PLANNING It was pointed out that running a seminar the week before the comp would help smooth out any issues. It was agreed that judges should ride the cable before the competition. Even for judges who don't really ride they still need to understand the physics of the cable. They should also talk to the riders before the event about the cable specifics that impact their performance. Obstacles Commission wants to play a central role in the approval of competition contracts regarding the obstacles they use. All obstacles to be approved by the commission and makers can submit new designs to be approved whenever they want or they must do so in order to have the obstacles used in a comp. Once approved obstacles will get a special AK logo. Course The course should not be set in the rules. The commission must decide on a course with the organisers and media partners based on the location. Varna would like different courses to be tested at smaller comps first. For wakeskate brakes in the course should be considered to improve the competition. As with obstacles this must be considered as and when contracts are formed as after this it will be too late. The commission should be addressed when this is happening. COMMUNICATION We will make an IWWF cablewakeboard.net fan page which will be used to send out updates

5 CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 5 of 7 along with twitter. We will put a fan box on cablewakeboard.net. There will also be JDC facebook group that will invite all judges and be administered by JDC. JDC will have its own private facebook group for organisation, discussions and preparations for seminars and clinics. JUDGES AND OFFICIALS LEVELS The current levels are not working and need reform. The backwards numbering and the national/international levels are confusing. On top of this there are issues with the progression up the levels. Thanks to Lucien's brilliant idea we'll introduce a new system. As we now have the events ranked from one to six stars, qualification levels of judges and officials will reflect this system as follows: * (1 star) Judges & Officials new level, entry qualification ** (2 stars) Judges & Officials former National 2 level *** (3 stars) Judges & Officials former National 1 level **** (4 stars) Judges & Officials former International 2 level ***** (5 stars) Judges & Officials former International 1 level ****** (6 stars) Judges & Officials new level, granted by CWWC to the most esteemed judges and officials Judges and Officials will be eligible to work at the events corresponding their 1-6 stars qualification. For each level participants will take the seminars and exams. The Officials will level up by passing the theoretical exam and Judges by passing both theoretical and practical exam. Levelling up is described in the next chapter "Seminars". The top 6 stars level will be reserved for the best judges who we would trust to be ambassadors of the sport and our competitions. They must be very knowledgeable in ALL aspects and have a wealth of experience in judging and running competitions. SEMINARS It was agreed that seminars and council meetings should not be scheduled during competitions. They can be done the week before or after with the week before being preferred. Judge riders can be used to run national seminars before the competitions as they should have more time (apart from top competitors) and will be able to test the cable and obstacles. Varna: seminars are important as all participants will get involved with comp organization and will transfer the knowledge to the riders. We need to develop countries like Turkey, so they can run their events independently and at a lower cost with their own officials. Seminar Types There will be three different course levels: GRASSROOTS WORKSHOPS - this will be a two day program of drop in modules on various aspects of the sport including: trick recognition, wakeboarding practical skills, coaching, run composition, competition management, calculating etc. The actual program will depend on demand and the instructor. This will be marketed to all levels of wakeboarders and non wakeboarders and national federations will be encouraged to send team members and

6 CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 6 of 7 federation members. These workshops would be best to run before national championships and the instructor would stay on as the chief judge for them. JDC will make all materials for these workshops available publically without branding so that national federations can run them independently as well. However they will only be officially branded when a sanctioned instructor is present. INTERNATIONAL JUDGING SEMINAR - This will have an entry test which will require a basic knowledge of wakeboarding tricks and understanding of competition to pass. A grassroots session can be run before hand to facilitate this, however should not be used as a way to fast track people with a lack of understanding of the sport into judging. Content will include trick recognition, judging criteria and judging skills. The test will culminate in practical and theoretical tests with the focus being on judging ability and competition management. CWWC CLINIC - this will be accessible to all 3-4 level judges and officials with the entry test (same as for the previous seminar). Content will focus on training existing judges and very skilled new judges to make tough calls, judge at speed and act as a chief judge. It will also start to train candidates to reach an elite 6 stars level. The focus here should be on a high quality of judging and creating chief judges. This also culminates in a test which will be more extensive and allow a qualification to the 5 stars level. Calculator session during seminars will be run where practical, with examiner making decision at end via tests, to help people choose the right path for them. The detailed program for all 3 level seminars will be described and published in a separate document. Video exams These will be fixed point judging videos of entire heats (no reverse order) with 1 minute between runs. Judges will have to judge them individually with the head judge giving them the initial scoring ranges (printed on the judge sheets with the name). Test criteria for tricks recognition: 5 perfect 4 miss 1 detail but got the trick right 3 missed multiple details but got the trick right 2 missed some detail and made a mistake but got the trick 1 got the name of the trick 0 named the wrong trick Positioning - this should be correct for unless there are predetermined tough call gaps. For easy tests the quota will be (+,-,+,+,-) For hard tests the quota will be (+,+,+,+,+) percentages to be set for each judge level 2-5 Judging for nationals We are aware that the education of the National judges and officials is in the hands of the National Federations. However, in order to create a minimum standard and a good image for CWWC, JDC proposes to register the National championships only when one internationally sanctioned judge of at least 2 stars is present. If there is not one available within the country, the National Federation and CWWC will work together to try and provide a JDC instructor for a grassroots workshop and the competition. If there is no funding for this another solution could be to train, test and qualify a judge via skype. This should only

7 CWWC Clinic Bursa 2010 Page 7 of 7 be done in extreme circumstances as it is highly unlikely that a suitable candidate will be available for this and will not have been able to attend another seminar. Present Council members in general agree with this proposal and will see how it goes in 2010 and get back to determining the conditions firmly at the November meeting To Talk About Roles and responsibilities chief judge vs. judge vs. calc vs. official CONCLUSION The minutes cover only the meeting parts of the clinic. Apart from that, judges worked hard all the time, held the national seminar, practiced judging by video and live performances simulating events and filming them for further use at the seminars. In opinion of all present CWWC members, the clinic provided even more than expected. It made us very proud, proving we have a valuable young workforce to play a key role in developing our sport. Minutes taken by Alex Koester Edited by Varna Laco Cable Wakeboard World Council Varna Laco president Lucien Gerkau - secretary