The judging of surfing is a tricky thing. Impossible, really. A perfect score shouldn’t really exist, but you can’t have surfing as a sport without it. Assigning a number to things as subjective as power and flow is a tall order, and without a speed gun, assigning a number to speed is a lost cause. It all comes down to opinion in the end. It’s funny, though, that we can generally all agree when a wave is surfed exceptionally well. Take, for example, the six waves you see above that the World Surf League kindly stitched together. Six perfect rides from John Florence, Josh Kerr, Joel Parkinson (x2), Italo Ferreira, and Stephanie Gilmore. All at Keramas. And all objectively perfect.
