Judging at Nationals

ok, in heats 2 and 3 of semifinals i think there was quite a bit of favoritism because when they first posted the scores for the 2nd heat jimmy was beating dustin fairly well. now dustin's run beat jummy's so bad that i would have to say half the jr men went up there calling it BS. dustin went and protested, and after a while it was over turned and all the sudden dustin beat jimmy by roughly 7 points.
the thing that i question is either how in the heak do you even mess up that bad when all the judges are wakeboarders/wakeskaters and can totally tell a bad run from a good one or are their favorites and living in florida does help?

another one that was crazy and still stood was the 3rd heat. first off theres no way in hell that adam beat AJ. adam's roll to blind was so sketch because he cased the wake that i would almost say it was a one wake roll to blind. so the only thing he had in his pass that was worth while was a tootsie and you would think that kyle's whirly 5 and jame's big worm would beat that out any day.
o well, its over now so theres nothing you can do but i guess most the guys were right when they said your name has to be jimmy or adam to make the finals.

now after saying that i dont mean anything against adam and jimmy because their great guys and have no control over the scores they get all im saying is that does it really feel good to win when you know your not worthy of it?
i just hope the judging next year is improved because a good run is a good run and should win if worthy. i mean these kids work their a$$es off all year at least let them be judged fairly

It has nothing to do with the fact they are Mike Ferarro's kids and will be riding for Ronix and they are looking to get a big push this fall. Politics never has influenced a judges score. There never has been a Hyperlite Rep in the judges booth or in the boat telling the judges that certain riders HAD to get through. There is no truth to any of this just all conspiracy theories.

Here we go again.....

I know most of the kids in Jr. mens & agree with Mate on one thing, they all work their a$$ off. It is a very competive division. I also thought Dustin should have beat Jimmy in the simi. The first score had Jimmy ahead by a point, when they adjusted the score after the protest and had Dustin ahead by almost 7 points I did not agree with that, Dustin did have better tricks and should have beat Jimmy, but not by 7 points. Jimmy's run, while not his best did have a lot of style and flowed better then Dustin's who had a few butt checks. I was confused by the 8 point swing when it happened and still can't figure it out. Congrats to AJ, Eddie V. & Alex Hembrick all rode their best comp of the year.

Mate,

Sometimes it is just human error that causes all the fuss. I know first hand, my son was riding in Jr Boys and had a killer run in qualifing, the highest run of the day, however, in the finals he did not have his best effort and placed fourth. After the announcements of the winners, we could not believe that the rider that placed third beat our son. My son (10 years old) went up to the judges by himself in the appropraite manner asked how this could be. The Head Judge pulled his scorecard and immediately realized that they made an addition mistake and did not credit my son enough points. To thier credit, they placed my son third and gave him a trophy, appologizing for the mistake many times over. Again to thier credit, they did not take the trophy away from the other rider even though he did not actually win it. Mistakes happen and that is probably what happen to Dustin against Jimmy.