You can only keep a crew of surfers roaming the South African coast for 10 days under wraps for so long. The talk on the beach and from what we have seen so far is that they found everything from pumping beachbreaks to heavy slabs. We’ll get the full story when the film drops on September 25, but for now, Natural Selection has pulled back the curtain on the judges and how they’ll decide who actually surfs best.
Natural Selection has taken a different approach to judging.
Across five sessions, surfers are ranked from first to fourth based on their overall performance rather than individual waves. Judges work with the CREDO criteria — Creativity, Risk, Execution, Difficulty and Overall — with points carrying forward to create a running leaderboard.
So, rather than waiting for one perfect wave, the idea is to reward the surfer who consistently surfs the best.
“The guy who surfs the best overall wins,” says head judge Nathan Fletcher, who is joined on the panel by South African surf heavyweights Greg Emslie and Sean Holmes.
There is still room for a standout moment, though. A single exceptional wave, surfed at the highest level, can influence the result, but it forms part of the bigger picture rather than determining the entire heat.
Among the surfers putting the format to the test will be South Africa’s Eli Beukes, who joins the international field for the Western Cape event.
After four sessions, the top four men advance to a final, while the women’s competition goes down to the fifth and final session, with cumulative points deciding the winner.
It’s a simple premise, really: forget the score. Watch the session. Who surfs best?
Natural Selection Surf South Africa premieres September 25 on Red Bull TV and YouTube, with the event available on demand afterwards.