Was Italo’s 10 Overscored?

The 2017 World Tour season waited just over a day for its first “perfect” score of the year. With his opponent, Italy’s Leo Fioravanti, already in a combination situation, Brazilian former-rookie of the year, Italo Ferreira, found a wedge next to the rock at Snapper and launched into the kind of high velocity full-rotation air-reverse that has become his signature. He stuck it clean, and received perfect tens from the judges, which left many in the competitors area scratching their heads.

Conner Coffin: “The air was insane. At a beachbreak I’d say it was a 10 all day long. It was probably a 20 for an air but a lot of people in the competitors’ area were saying, it’s Snapper, it’s a pretty big playing field. To get a 10 on one manoeuvre is a little weird. Granted, it was a psycho manoeuvre, but if that wave had doubled up he probably could have done five huge turns on the inside. It’s apples and oranges, everyone’s got an opinion. I thought it was a nine. I feel like it’s hard to give a 10 for one manoeuvre on a pointbreak, personally. I feel like you’ve gotta leave a little room to bash the lip five times on the inside.”

Micro Hall (coach of Tyler Wright, Owen Wright, Matt Wilkinson): “I thought it was unbelievable, for sure. Not taking anything away from how sick the air was. But I thought it was more of a 10 at a beachbreak and still a high eight or eight-five but, this is my opinion, on a wave where he could have technically got barrelled before it, then it could have doubled-up on the inside and he could have done four hangers after it – there’s not any room to move at all when you’ve given a 10. Straight up, it was mental. I was psyched and I was high-fiving everyone, but score-wise it’s not a type of wave on a day like this where it was pumping start to finish, barrels behind the rock, double-ups through the inside as well, there’s no room to play with.”

Leo Fioravanti: “I heard everyone scream so I knew it was crazy. After watching it, it was even crazier than I thought. Not much you can do in a heat when someone does something like that. Pure talent and pure freak. So good on him. We are at Snapper and it is a pointbreak so you can do so many turns but that was so crazy. I think because of the scale, they already gave him a 7.83 for a couple of turns that weren’t that amazing, so if you gave you a 7.83 on an average wave, then when he does that air, you gotta give it a 10. It’s just the way they set the scale. The wave was a five foot wave and he just threw himself in the air and landed above the wave and somehow rode through the white wash. Freak.”