At a time when my compatriot Jeremy Flores is waiting for the ASP Discipline Committee to decide which sanction he deserves after showing lack of respect to the ASP judges at J bay, the 3D motion tracking company Xensr is about to release what could be the answer to the lack of objectivity in any action sports involving judges.
« Round2, heat 10 at J-Bay Open 2014 in South Africa this Sunday, July 13. The series opposed French Jérémy Flores against Hawaiian Sebastian Zietz. The French had dominated the duel with several points ahead until the last waves … Two minutes from the end of the session, the judges of J-Bay grants Zietz the score that he needed to lead the series, allowing him to beat the French Flores by 0.14 points. On his board, Jérémy Flores then applauded the jury, a move that has not gone unnoticed. Seconds from the end, Jeremy tried to regain his place in the next round on a last wave, but in vain. Eliminated from the competition, he came in to the beach and headed straight to the judges’ tower. Angry, Flores was seen by everyone as he swore at the judges, and now his case is in front of the Discipline Committee of the ASP. »
source: http://www.meltyxtrem.fr
Jérémy Flores applauding the jury
Judges are the ones that can make or break a champion. Even if some scoring criteria had been defined (speed, flow, criticalness…), it is still hard to believe that judges can be 0.1 accurate. However 0.14 points was what Sebastian Zietz needed to advance to the round 3.
What if the sickness of a wave could be objectively quantified ?
The Xensr devices measures speed, acceleration, G force, jump height. Integrating a device like this that provides objective metrics could be a way to balance the scale of fairness in situations like these.
