| New bodyboarding judges announced for the 2012 IBA World Tour |
| Thursday, 26 January 2012 09:37 |
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Simon Thornton, Dudu Pedra, Pat Caldwell and Ben Seversen are new faces of the 2012 IBA World Tour judging team. The former professional bodyboarders will be scoring the best waves on the planet, starting at the IBA Pipe Challenge, in Hawaii.
Simon Thornton, from Tahiti, had a strong presence on the Australian Pro Tour prior to relocating to his country, in search of big perfect barrels. "It can be hard judging all day when the waves are good but I’m looking forward to being apart of the judging team and working under both Chico and Craig", Thornton said. Ideally judges are required by the IBA to sit out of GSS events for a year, before being allowed to judge at the highest level to create a distance between the judge and the athletes. Another criteria that IBA look for in a new judges is no brand association with industry labels to minimize any perceived bias. "They must be able to keep concentrated while everything happens around them, some events like the The Box (where the panel was positioned in a boat) can be very challenging and distracting. Have the ability to keep a cool level head when under acute pressure, at times heats get very stressful. They also must be able to operate as part of a team, we all work, travel and stay in the same places", he adds. Craig Hadden will be focusing on managing the ratings and memberships whilst developing judging manuals and courses in 2012. He also selects the panels because he has long been regarded as the best bodyboarding judge in the world and will come to selected events this year as one of the 4 traveling International judges on GSS panels. |
