Followed by a proposal for modifications to the scoring system
5.5 Competition Format - Squirt Boat
5.5-1 Variety Score
5.5-2 Judging Parameters - Mystery
Judges will use this guideline as a basis for their score but may use their discretion on the level of proficiency achieved. For a competitor achieving a head under mystery with a poor sloppy exit, and the appearance of random luck, the judge can award almost no points.
10%
20% - Boat un-sustained
30% - Boat sustained
40% - Chest deep un-sustained
50% - Chest deep sustained
60% - Shoulder deep un-sustained
70% - Shoulder deep sustained
80% - Head under mystery with controlled exit
90% - Sustained head under mystery with controlled exit
100% - Multiple sustained head under mysteries with
controlled exits
5.5-3 Style Score
Judges will use their discretion and give a score based on their overall impression of the ride. Factors that will be considered in this are the difficulty of tricks, form breaks, smoothness and maximum use of the river features.
Judges will base their style score on these guidelines:
100% - Form breaks - High difficulty in tricks - Maximum use of
multiple
river features.
75% - Minimal form break - good use of features and good tricks
50% - Low smoothness / High form breaks but good use of some of the features
and completed a few difficult
tricks.
25% - Minimum difficulty of tricks - Minimal use of features - High degree of form breaks
5.5-4 Scoring Calculation
Example: Variety of 10, mystery score of 50%, style score of 75%
Therefore (10) + (10 x 5) + (10 x 7.5) = 135
6.0 Judging
Proposed Modifications:
Developed 5/02 at the pre-worlds in Austria with input from:
Deb O'Keefe USA
Jesse Wilenski USA
Scott Docherty Canada
Bob Campbell Great Britain
All Squirtboaters present at the competition were in favor of changes. This included paddlers from Japan and Germany in addition to above countries mentioned.
Rationale: Squirt boaters felt that a list of scoreable moves should be provided prior to the competition. In addition, current variety system (5.5-1) awards only 1 point per move. It was felt that moves should be awarded a point value based on difficulty. Thus, moves could be worth 1, 2, 4 or 6 points depending on difficulty. Clarification is needed to address the following areas:
Technical/Variety Score
1. Variety and technical are incorporated into one score. Like the current system, a move is only awarded points once (Right and Left are noted as separate where we felt it appropriate). If the move is repeated, that will not generate additional points. See attached list of moves, with point values attached.
2. Verticality: all vertical moves must be between 70-90 degrees (squirts, cartwheels, stalls, splits, switchblades/wheels) or 90-170 degrees (screws, screwing around/whirligigs, bandits) to earn the score. Only exceptions are washouts (which will only be counted as such if they are past 120 degrees).
3. Stalls: must be established for minimum 2 seconds
4. Trophy moves may be included in the scoring if discussed prior to the competition. These may include: flying fish, party trick, zero-to-hero, unarmed bandit, etc.Style Score
The style score will have a total possible weight of 15 points, broken down into the areas of flatwater style (1-10) and mystery style (1-5). This will be a subjective score, based on judges' assessment of the overall quality of each portion of the ride. Form breaks will be penalized heavily, while smoothness will be rewarded.
Flatwater - a perfect score of 10 would require a seamless and dynamic ride with no form breaks, that takes advantage of all available features (ie. eddyline and flatwater). Rolls, extra strokes, choppy transitions, etc. would all detract from the quality of the ride, and points would be taken away accordingly.
Mystery - a perfect score of 5 would be awarded to a rider who demonstrates a controlled and intentional charc going into the move, obvious control while down, and control on the exit.
Mystery Score
New method for scoring mystery moves, using the mystery move as a score multiplier ([technical+style] X mystery). This would be similar to the way that the variety score multiplies technical score in K1 competition, and will require the paddler to have good control of all aspects of squirt boating (flatwater AND downtime).
The multiplier used will be within a range of 1.0-2; the paddler's mystery score would be a decimal value. Compare to the current system: a mystery of 5 under the present rules would be a multiplier of 1.5 under the new system, a mystery of 8 would be a multiplier of 1.8, etc. For the final score, the paddler's technical score and style score are combined, then multiplied by the mystery score. In competitions where lengthy mystery moves are available, the judges may need to determine additional values to award points for longer rides.
Final Score
Final score is calculated by adding the technical/variety score to the combined style score (flatwater and mystery), and multiplying that total by the mystery score. For example: a paddler accrues a technical/variety score of 48 by combining various moves. Judges award him/her a flatwater style score of 7, and a mystery style score of 4. A mystery move score of 1.8 is awarded.
Calculation: (48+7+4) x 1.8 = 106.2
The paddler's final score for that ride would be 106.2.
Judges
Instead of having 3 technical and 3 variety judges, this system would be better served if there were 3 technical judges (whose tasks are solely to observe and award points for different moves), and three style/mystery judges (who would award points based on the overall quality of both portions of the ride, as well as decide upon the mystery score awarded based on the criteria outlined in the current system).
Scoreable Moves for Squirtboat Competiton
Bow Squirt 1 Stern Squirt 1 Bow Stall 2 Stern Stall 2 Bow screw R/L 2 Stern screw R/L 2 Switchblade R/L 2 Cartwheel R/L 1 Clean Carwheel R/L 4 Superclean Cart R/L 6 Switchwheel R/L 6 Splitwheel* R/L 4 Washout R/L 4 Vertical Washout R/L 6 One-armed bandit R/L 4 Wirlygig/Screwing AroundR/L 6 Mystery Move 1 Light-Loop 4 Trophy moves 8 * Splitwheels will only be scored when performed off the bow, and must incorporate 180 degrees of rotation on the long axis before the split.
Style (flatwater) 1-10
(mystery) 1-5
_____________________
Total: 1-15Mystery 1.0-2 Multiplier