Tory Gilkerson Named Olympic Surf Judge
“A reflection of the ISA’s commitment to promote and develop more women judges in Surfing”
USA Surfing is stoked to see Tory Gilkerson selected as a judge for surfing’s first Olympic Games!
The International Surfing Association (ISA) announced the panel of judges for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, postponed until 2021. The panel includes a Technical Director, Contest Director, and 11 judges — two head judges, seven judges, and two priority judges. The selection includes officials from seven countries across four continents. Three are from the U.S.: Gilkerson, technical director Erik Krammer, and Richard Pierce, one of two head judges.
The announcement calls Gilkerson’s selection, “a reflection of the ISA’s commitment to promote and develop more women judges in Surfing.” The panel represents the highest levels of expertise and international experience in surfing.
After shadow judging with some of the nation’s best, Gilkerson judged Western Surfing Association and USA Surfing Prime Series events and then USA Surfing Championships while she was on the WSL Longboard Tour winning world championships and gold medals on USA Surfing’s 2018 ISA World Longboard Championship team.
She has been climbing the ranks of WSL judges and is consistently evaluated as one of the highest performing judges at ISA World Championships, which was the foremost factor in her selection to judge Olympic surfing.
“I am very excited and honored,” shared Gilkerson. “If there are girls out there interested in judging, they should reach out to their local organization and ask for some training, then put in the hard work of observing and learning, and they could be judging and traveling the world just like me.”
“Kudos to the International Surfing Association for selecting Tory,” said USA Surfing CEO Greg Cruse. “And for their commitment to opening a development pathway for more women judges and continuing to refine and improve how the sport is judged.”
How it works
Judging surf performances provides a front-row seat to the best performances on the world’s best waves. A panel of judges from several different countries (usually between five to seven) score each surfer’s performance using a scale of one to 10 with two decimal places.
Performance on the wave is based on criteria including size of the wave, speed, power, flow, and the combination of major maneuvers performed. For each wave, the judges highest and lowest scores are discarded. The surfer is given the average of the three scores remaining.
A surfer’s two highest-scoring waves are combined for an overall total. A perfect ride is 10 points, making a perfect heat a total score of 20 points.
The duration of each heat can vary between 20 and 35 minutes — depending on conditions.
“Surfing leadership must continue challenging ourselves to get more, better and diverse judges who are keeping pace with the rapid progression in maneuvers,” Cruse said.
*For more read: Your Guide to Watching Olympic Surfing and Olympic Channel’s Surfing Explained: How the New Olympic Sport is Judged
