About · Code of Conduct
How we behave.
Every competitor, coach, parent, official, volunteer and spectator at a championship event, and to championship channels online. Five sections, a way to report something, and what actually happens next. No legalese — if a rule cannot be explained to a twelve-year-old on the beach, it is not written properly.
In the water
A heat is a competition, not a licence. The etiquette that applies in a free surf applies harder in a jersey, because everyone is watching and the juniors are learning from you.
- Respect priority, in a heat and in a free surf
- Call people off cleanly and early, not at the last second
- Help anyone in trouble before you think about your score
- Give way to anyone still learning — you were them once
- Drop in, snake, or paddle-block for position
- Argue an interference call in the water — take it to the contest director on the beach
- Surf a competition venue during a running heat
Towards each other
Mauritian surfing is small enough that everyone knows everyone. That is a reason to be better to each other, not a reason to assume it will be fine.
- Treat officials, volunteers and other competitors with respect, especially when a call goes against you
- Congratulate the surfer who beat you, before you leave the beach
- Speak up if you see someone being harassed or excluded
- Abuse, threaten or intimidate anyone — including online
- Comment on anyone's body, race, religion, sexuality or gender
- Haze, initiate, or single out newcomers or juniors
Around juniors
Roughly half of the entries at any stop are under eighteen. Everything below is a floor, not an aspiration, and it applies to every adult on the beach.
- Keep coaching and contact in open, visible spaces
- Get a parent or guardian's written consent before photographing or filming a junior for publication
- Report any safeguarding concern the same day, to the Safety Officer or the Juniors Officer
- Be alone and out of sight with a junior who is not your own child
- Contact a junior competitor privately on social media or messaging apps
- Publish a junior's full name, school or location alongside their photograph
Towards the reef
Every venue we use is a living reef inside a protected lagoon system. We are guests at all of them, and our permission to run events depends on behaving like it.
- Attend the reef briefing before your first heat at a venue
- Take everything you brought back off the beach, and a bit more
- Use reef-safe sunscreen at every event
- Stand on live coral where it can be avoided
- Anchor, drive or drag equipment across the reef flat
- Leave wax paper, tape, cable ties or zip-tie offcuts on the sand
Competing clean
Results only mean something if they were earned. This is the shortest section because it is the least complicated.
- Surf your own heat, in your own division, on your own entry
- Declare any medical condition that could affect your safety in the water
- Accept the judges' decision as final, and use the protest process if you disagree
- Enter a division you are not eligible for
- Compete under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Attempt to influence a judge or official, directly or through anyone else
If something happens
Reporting it.
You do not need to be the person it happened to, and you do not need proof. You need to say something.
Tell the Safety Officer, the Juniors Officer or any committee member on the beach. If it is easier to write it down, email the Secretary. Anything involving a junior is escalated the same day.
Every report is logged with a date, the people involved and what was described. The log is confidential and held by the Secretary.
A three-person Conduct Panel is convened for the case. Nobody with a personal or competitive interest in the outcome sits on it.
Both sides are heard. The decision and the reasoning are given in writing to everyone involved within fourteen days.
Consequences
The ladder.
Proportionate, and it starts at the bottom. Anything involving a junior, or anyone's safety in the water, skips straight to the panel.
Draft policy. This is written to be adoptable, not adopted. The committee must approve it, and the safeguarding and disciplinary sections should be read by a lawyer before publication. The consent requirement for photographing juniors needs to be built into the entry flow at the same time.
Report something.
To the Safety Officer or the Secretary. Anything involving a junior is escalated the same day.