Judges Training Workshops 2022

Three free weekend Judges Training Workshops are being organised on the following dates:
5th/6th March – Hazelwoods
12th/13th March – Gosfield
19th/20th March – BWSW Office, Chertsey

The first day of each workshop will be dedicated to presentations and discussions about the role of a Judge and an introduction to the World, E&A and British Additional Rulebooks and will cover:
• The Rulebooks
• Judges Duties
• Chief Judges Duties
• Slalom Rules and Judging
• Jump Rules and Judging
• Homologation

Day 1 is for those who wish to become a J3 (2 or 3 Event National Judge). Day 2 will be dedicated to Tricks with a presentation about the rules for Tricks and an introduction to judging Tricks. This will involve learning the basic shorthand used in Judging and practicing judging tricks with suitable videos.

The Workshop is primarily for those new to Judging but would also be a good refresher for any J3 (National Judge 2 event) wishing to become a three event Judge or those looking to upgrade to a J2 (2 or 3 event) International Judge.

The pathway to become a Judge is set out in the British Additional Rules as follows:
20. RULES FOR JUDGES
20.1 BWSW JUDGE (3 OR 2 EVENT) (J4 OR J4*)

A BWSW Judge is a judge, who has taken and passed the appropriate Theoretical and Practical Examinations to become a National Judge but has not yet gained the necessary documented experience to be fully qualified.

Functions
BWSW Judges are not qualified to judge at any competition, they may function at an event only in addition to the required number of officials with the intent that they perform a judging function under supervision of a qualified Judge to gain the practical evidence needed to become qualified as a National Judge.

20.2 NATIONAL JUDGES (3 OR 2 EVENT) (J3 OR J3*)
Responsibility
National Judges are designated by, and on the responsibility of, BWSW according to standards set by the E&A Confederation. They must be members of BWSW and remain so to retain their qualification.
All candidates for National Judge must be aged 16 years or over. Application forms must be submitted to the BWSW Technical Working Group for approval. Approval of application will be considered by the BWSW Technical Working Group based on their knowledge of the applicant and reports of Chief Judge(s) from Calendar competitions judged.

Functions
National Judges are qualified to judge at Normal Homologation Competitions.

Examinations
The exam consists of three parts, one theoretical, one practical (for tricks) and one experience.

Theoretical Examination
The candidate will sit a theoretical exam to become a BWSW Judge. The paper will contain questions on the IWWF event rules and BWSW Additional Rules. Applicants wishing to qualify as National 3 Event judges will need to answer the questions in the Tricks section as well as the other sections.

Practical Examination – for qualification as a BWSW 3 Event Judge
The exam is primarily a Tricks reading examination which must take place during a single competition or can be a video based exam.. The candidate will also be required to show complete understanding of the slalom and jump scoring rules during the competition at which the exam is taken. (only needed if they can come straight in to National 3 event level).

The candidate shall write the Tricks runs of different competitors in the competition at which he takes the examination. He is not required to judge whether Tricks are performed according to the Rules or not. As there are not many British competitions that have enough Tricks passes of the necessary level, the practical exam may be taken using the official British Water Ski and Wakeboard, National Exam DVD under supervision of a Tournament Working Group authorised person. Each of the following will be counted as one error:
• Omitting to write a Trick performed by a competitor during the pass or immediately before or after the pass.
• Writing a Trick which was not performed by the competitor.
• Writing a Trick other than the Tricks the competitor performed.
• Omitting to indicate that the skier starts in back position.
• Omitting to indicate the end of the pass.

Only 20 second passes for which the official score (before disallowed Tricks) is 1800 points or more will be considered. Each such pass with zero or one error will be counted as a success. Each such pass with two or more errors will be counted as a failure. The pass mark is achieving 12 successes before having 6 failures.

Renewal
The conditions of renewal of nominations as National Judges are the responsibility of BWSW. A National Judge who fails to function to the satisfaction of the Technical Working Group will cease to be a judge.

Practical Experience
After the passing of the exam(s), it is necessary for judges to have acted as a judge under supervision at, at least, 3 competitions. Documented evidence from the Chief Judge on a “Judge Experience Log” (downloadable from the BWSW Web Site), should be submitted to the BWSW Technical Working Group before becoming fully qualified. Prior to this, the qualification will be as a BWSW Judge. Evidence needed is:
Slalom:
• practical experience and understanding of Tower judging, including video gates
• practical experience (where possible) and understanding of Slalom boat judging
Jump:
• practical experience and understanding of Jump distance measurement
• practical experience (where possible) and understanding of Jump boat judging
Tricks:
• practical experience and understanding of Trick writing
• practical experience of Trick Timing.

If a National Judge fails to operate as a judge for 2 years, they will be retained as a BWSW Judge and will need to obtain the necessary practical experience again to re-gain the qualification.

If you are interested in attending one of these workshops please send an email to Gavin Kelly (gvnkelly@aol.com) to say which workshop you would like to attend, and whether you plan to attend one or both days.
Joining instructions will be sent to you closer to the dates.