Rules?!?! For an Online Video Awards?!?! Yes, rules, regulations
and requirements to assure this competition is smooth and fair and above-board and to avoid poaching and/or voter fraud and head off insurrections.

Kai Lenny at Jaws. Motion created with Plotaverse apps

There are thousands if not tens of thousands of quality surfing and surf-adjacent video clips zizzing around in the ether, and this competition is designed to collect, collate, categorize, display, nominate, vote on and reward$$$$ the best of the best.

In order to form a more perfect, entertaining, fair and orderly Online Video Awards, below are the rules, regulations and requirements.



THE RULES

RULE #1

Obey all rules.


ON FOR ONE AND ALL

Brave new world. Anthony Walsh and Jamie OBrien double up at Teahupoo (?)There is so much cool stuff out there it’s ridiculous. The S URFER Online Video Awards will collect it all in one place.

The SURFER Magazine Online Surf Video Awards are open to any and all cinematographers, videographers, selfiestas, smartphoneographers, GoProtagonists, bloggers, Vloggers, dronedarys, influencers, content curators, marketers, TikTokers, Instragamographers, Facebookworms, YouTubers, community organizers, brand managers, content producers/specialists, filmmakers, multimediasts, video directors, moms, dads, BFFs and significant others professional and amateur by land, sea and air.

It’s “on for young and old” as the Australians say.

Open mic. Open auditions.

Send it and we’ll make a place for it.

TIME FRAME

The last SURFER Magazine Surf Video Awards was held in December of 2020. The cutoff date was October 1, 2020, so let’s just say anything shot since October 1, 2020 is fair game for this first Video Awards.

We know, that’s casting a wide net and it’s gonna pull up many tons of slithering anchovies, but there’s so much cool stuff that’s happened in the last three years - lots of all time days from Wedge to Teahupoo to Nazare to Snapper rocks; the 2022 Eddie; Kelly and Seth Moniz at the Pipe Masters final; Kai Lenny winning the Triple Crown of Getting Caught Inside - Mavericks, Jaws, Nazare - that we’re going to allow it all.

How many clips is that gonna be? Thousands? Tens of thousands? We shall see. Send it and we’ll make it fit. Somehow.

NO POACHING: OWN IT

The person submitting the clip(s) must have the legal right to submit the clip(s). Either be the owner of the clip(s) or have the permission of the person who shot the clip(s). Please don’t poach or cheat. You will be outed/doxxed/publicly reviled/shunned.


IDEAL DIGITAL VIDEO FORMATS

The ideal digital format is ???? but we can accommodate MP4, IGTV, MOV, AVI, MKV, WEBM, HTML5 

If you want to convert your whack, old school 20th Century video format to MP4, use this website: https://cloudconvert.com/mp4-converter

PREFERED CLIP LENGTH AND FILE SIZES

Maximum clip length is ????.

Maximum file size is ???. 

If you can find the happy balance between downsizing your file size and clarity that is the preferred way. Be tech. Ask a friend.

If you need to downsize your file size but maintain quality, go to this website: https://www.freeconvert.com/video-compressor



GOOD EDITING IS GOOD: SHORT CLIPS FOR SHORT ATTENTION SPANS

Concise editing is preferred. Brevity is the soul of the shiznit = make it snappy in other words. Get to the good stuff. This 21st century generation have short attention spans.

SUBMIT!
When uploading a clip and submitting it for categorizing and nomination, please fill out all these criteria:

First name
Last name
Nickname
Your personal website URL:
Instagram
Facebook
Tiktok
Other social media
Where else can this clip be scene
Title of clip (??? characters max)
Clip Category: MAYBE A CHOOSE ONE BOX?
Or Create a Category Title
Length of clip
Time code for the juiciest bit
Who is in the clip
Shot where
Shot when
Shot with what camera (be specific to brand, model, lens, etc)
Tell the story in 50 words or less
Do you attest - under pain of public ridicule - that you have the legal right to this clip: Yes___ No___



NO JUDGES. MAJORITY RULES

Voting on Best Clips in any category will be done by the public. There is no panel of judges. This is a democracy. Majority rules. No Electoral College or any of that nonsense.

The Surf Video Awards will take pains to assure the voting is fair an unbiased. No ballot stuffing. No riots.


VOTE TALLIES CONSTANTLY UPDATED

Like a fun GoFundMe, the vote
tallies will be constantly updated, along with the total prize pool and breakdown.



REGISTRATION FOR SUBMITTERS AND VOTERS

All clip submitters and voters must register with name, affiliation, contact information. This will allow the competition to collect and/or reward prize money. And this way we can inundate you with emails updating the competition.

And also contact you about the extended warranty on your vehicle.



CLIP $UBMI$$ION FEE

Or how about: Perfect 10: Best Wave Ridden in a WSL Event.

Maybe the WSL would sponsor a category for the best-ridden wave in a WSL heat. There’s lots of them. Here is Slater doing the impossible against Seth Moniz.

The SURFER Magazine Online Video Awards asks for a Clip Submission Fee of US$????. This will allow us to pay for this enormous website, Brontobytes of server space and the staff of 100 keeping it all clean and fair - and also accumulate a prize pool which will be awarded to the best five??? clips in every category.


VOTER FEE

In order to head off ballot stuffing - and also to stuff the prize pools and pay for all of this - there will be a nominal fee of $??? per vote. So if you’re gonna fudge, you’re gonna pay for it.


PRIZE POOL ACCUMULATIVE AND BREAKDOWN

The prize pool for every category will be constantly updated. Prize money will be awarded to the top five clips at a rate of:

  1. 50% for top vote getter.

  2. 25% for second place.

  3. 13% for third place.

  4. 7% for 4th place.

  5. And 5% for 5th place.


VIOLATORS TREATED HARSHLY

The overseers of the SURFER  Magazine Online Surf Video Awards will take every pain to assure that clips are submitted properly and legally. Those who submit illegal clips will be dealt with harshly.

NO VOTER FRAUD

 SURFER Magazine Online Surf Video Awards will also take every pain to assure that there is no voter fraud or Ballot Box stuffing. We do not want to incite anymore riots.



CREATE A CATEGORY

The foundation of the Surfer Magazine Online Surf Video Awards will be categories that are The Usual Suspects:

Has anyone topped Jay Morirarity’s Iron Cross wipeout at Mavericks in the early 90s? Many have tried.

Best Barrel
Biggest Wave
Worst Wipeout
Best Maneuver
Worst Drop In
Best Edit Male/Female

But the SURFER Magazine Online Surf Video Awards encourages creativity in alchemizing new categories and sub categories.

Koa Smith at Skeleton Bay. This kind of stuff. There’s lots of it. Create a Category.

Best Selfie While Getting Caught Inside and Not Drowning.

Best in the Barrel Selfie.

Best Drone Cinematography.

Worst Paddle Out


A Worst Driving contender from another time.

Best Noseride
Best Fight
The Jeff Spicoli Memorial
Best Tandem Ride
Best Surfing By a Celebrity
Biggest Kook
Worst Driving by a PWC or other WaterCraft
Best Driving by a PWC or other WaterCraft
Best Rescue
Best Artificial Wave Barrel or Maneuver
Most Surfers on One Wave.
Best Wave Riding by a Wild Animal.
Closest Encounter With a Shark or Other Wild Animal

A surfing whale. Who woulda thunk it? Why let the dolphin have all the fun?

You're creative. Be creative. Create A Category.