Competition Rash Vests

Ever wondered why competitors are all wearing those bright coloured vests? Here’s where things get a bit more interesting.

As your heat gets closer, you’ll need to check in with the beach marshal to collect your competition rash vest. A good tip: don’t leave this too late. If the walk down to the water is long, give yourself plenty of time—especially since there’s usually a standard 5-minute paddle-out window before your heat actually begins. Nothing worse than sprinting across the beach and diving in already exhausted.

Once you’ve got your vest, it stays on. Competitors must wear the assigned coloured rash vest from the moment it’s issued until it’s handed straight back to beach marshal after the heat. That includes sticking around in it for awards if needed—skip this step, and you could be looking at a penalty.

And yes, colour matters more than you might think. Each surfer is assigned a specific coloured vest for their heat, and it’s your responsibility to wear the correct one. Judges rely on those colours to track your waves and score you properly. If you paddle out in the wrong colour and they can’t tell who’s who, you won’t have much ground to argue your case later.

Rash vest colours also indicate your ranking (typically known as ‘seed’) in a heat. Rash vest colours in order of highest to lowest seed are: 1. RED 2. WHITE 3. YELLOW 4. BLUE 5. GREEN