This article originally ran in the May 1966 issue of SURFER. It has been slightly shortened and edited.

Yes, from the viewpoint of the guy out there in the water with the numbered T-shirt, the Makaha contest is the worst in surfing competition: a glaring example why surfing doesn’t have the acknowledgment and recognition given other competitive sports on the international scene.

The contest is fine as a for-the-crowd event because that’s exactly what it is. This was underscored by a recent 

 article pointing out that pointed out during the last contest that heat winners were [often the surfer who appeared as] “humorous for the spectators.” Twenty-four competitors jammed into each 30-minute heat pretty well assures the spectators of humorous incidents.

But among the top competitors who year after year show up at Makaha, there’s general agreement that the contest rules and scoring methods are as outmoded as the old redwood plank of bygone days. The Makaha contest is famous for its judging prejudices and yet year after year the big-name surfers flock to Hawaii to sign up for a meet that is actually detrimental to the development of surfing. This is somewhat puzzling, but I feel the contest is supported by surfers strictly out of enthusiasm for competition as well as the honor and fame that goes to the winner.

Take my case. I entered the Makaha event last year because I really love surfing competition, and because I feel that by competing I’m better able to form opinions about the contest and surfing as a whole. As a competitor, Makaha’s shortcomings became quite clear. At the same time, I was able to see the great potential of this contest as a truly international meet. Certainly, I would be willing to give my full support if contest officials and the competitors would get together and—with the help of the United States Surfing Association—seek out the opportunity to improve. But with the Hawaiian attitude, the chances of this are slim.

Surfing’s changed an awful lot over the last ten years, and yet the regulations governing last year’s Makaha championships differed only slightly from those used in 1956—the first year I entered the contest. Some of the really outmoded rules have been dropped, but plenty of outdated principles and even a few ambiguous rules have been added. The regulations no longer limit the number of waves a contestant may ride, but the mass of contestants (550 signed up last year) make it virtually impossible for any single contestant to ride “too many waves.” Discontinued, too, is the use of distance markers for added points. Still, distance is still a key factor in picking up points from the judges.

Makaha’s regulations were originally set up on the premise that big-wave riding was the only true test of surfing ability. Rules and scoring were created to reflect this. The surfer scored points the height of the wave and the distance of the ride. Even though most of the Makaha competition has been run in small surf, the judges’ system still stresses the big wave, and no rules have been set up to accommodate small surf experts.

In order to obtain points, according to the Makaha rules, a surfer must stay in the critical part of the wave (the hook next to the breaking section) at all times. This may be a logical way to ride a big wave, but it can’t be applied to surf under eight feet. In small surf, keeping the surfer in the most critical part of the wave limits his opportunity to perform. So a Makaha competitor who takes off, trims, limits his maneuvers, and rides all the way to shore, will rack up more points than the surfer who leaves the most critical part of the wave by cutting back, climbing and dropping—even though this surfer returns again and again to the critical portion of the wave.

Wally Froseith clarified the Makaha’s judging criteria when he said, “A surfer who catches a wave outside and rides it all the way to the shore definitely has more opportunity to perform and will, on the average, get more points.” Yet officials have never explained how the judges determine if “opportunity to perform” is present. And if it is, how do the judges determine if the surfer takes full advantage of this opportunity to perform?

This is unfair to surfers, considering that there are usually a dozen, even two dozen, surfers in the water in each heat. If a surfer is lucky enough to catch the largest wave in a 30-minute heat and have it all to himself—and then ride it all the way to the beach—his score should not be based on luck, but rather on his ability in taking advantage of “the opportunity to perform.” That is, how well did the surfer demonstrate his ability on the wave?

Just about all Makaha contestants agree that this emphasis on wave height and distance ridden overshadows a contestants’ performance on the wave. In my opinion, a true international champion doesn’t purposely place limits on his ability to perform. The champion, for my money, is a surfer who displays not only endurance, judgment, and balance. He is the surfer who also gets the most out of each and every wave by pushing his ability to the fullest. And since the rules at Makaha limit the ability to perform, I don’t feel the contest produces a true champion in any sense of the word.

There was something new in last year’s contest: points were deducted for unsportsmanlike conduct. Now, nobody can argue that good sportsmanship has a place in every competitive arena. However, the way this rule was applied at Makaha was bad because many contestants didn’t even know about the rule until after the completion of their heat. And it’s still not clear to me what guidelines were used by the judges in determining what actually constituted a deliberate lack of sportsmanship. The judges never defined what they meant by "unsportsmanlike conduct," yet they still deducted the points. In many cases, surfers lost points when, attempting to get the most out of the wave, they accidentally bumped the rail of another competitor’s board.

Surfing has progressed to the point where it should obtain the recognition given other competitive sports. However, even though I’m one of surfing’s greatest boosters, I can’t honestly say that our sport deserves that recognition now. Every competitive sport, whether a team or individual, has a governing body to set forth uniform rules and regulations that apply to meets. Surfing doesn’t have this. Even though the sport does have such a body standing by—the United States Surfing Association.

The USSA has attempted to standardize surf contest rules and regulations, but a lack of support, principally by contest promoters, has blocked this. And so it’s impossible for the USSA to enforce uniform rules at every surfing meet, whether in California, Hawaii or New York. A surfing competitor can surf in one contest under one set of rules and then enter another contest in another city or state where a completely different set of rules apply. This condition, I think, is uncommon in any other sport—yet it happens every day in surfing.

I believe all of us want surfing to be accepted as a competitive sport. I know I do. But we must remember that to reach this degree of sophistication, we must strive for the certain found in other sports. We must profit from our past mistakes, including the use of outdated regulations and poor scoring systems. We must change or eliminate run under rules that hinder favorable acceptance of the sport by the general public.

Above all, we must keep in mind that blame for badly-run contests such as Makaha should not entirely be put upon the shoulders of a small group of officials or sponsors. We, the competitors, share this blame because we let it happen. By competing in these events, we ourselves are a part of the problem.

"THE MAKAHA CONTEST IS THE WORST!" BY DEWEY WEBER (1966)

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