Author: Birgit

Judge education is a key program within the WSF. This is for everyone who wants to become an official C-Level judge to experience the progression of snowboarding from the front row.

The WSF is very proud that the free online training for judges is now available on the WSF Academy. Completely free of charge and accessible for everyone. If offers you lots of material and training tools to become a certified C-Level Judge for regional and national events. The course includes everything you need to know and covers the basics of Snowboard Judging as well as all Freestyle disciplines in detail (Big Air, Rails, Slopestyle, Halfpipe). In total it consists of 67 sessions with 3 hours of video material. 

How to obtain a C-Level Judge License: 

STEP 1: FREE online training

An easy accessible online tool to test your knowledge and to improve your skills. Enroll for it today: https://wsf-academy.thinkific.com/courses/snowboard-judges-education-2023-24

STEP 2: Certification test 

Once you have completed the online training and feel ready, you can apply for the certification test. Please note: Access to the certification test to obtain your license requires a payment or voucher.

As the WSF would love to see more women in judging, it offers the test to all female judges for free. Please contact judging@worldsnowboardfederation.org in case you need vouchers for the test. 

STEP 3: Judges Clinic

Your last step on your way to become a certified C-Level judge is to attend a judge-clinic in-person in your country held by one of the WSF Certified Instructors. For all judges who are unable to attend a training held by one the Certified Instructors, an official Online Judges Clinic is offered mid-December 2023. Everybody who completed the free online training and successfully managed the test by that time, will receive an invitation to that. 

 

CERTIFIED INSTRUCTORS

For all WSF members: If you have have any applicants in your regions you would like to nominate as a certified instructor, please send an e-mail to judging@worldsnowboardfederation.org, including a brief judging CV. All applicants will receive an invite to the in-person training coming up soon.

For more information about clinics in your country, the Certified Instructors training or questions in general, please contact judging@worldsnowboardfederation.org. 

The WSF wants to thank WSF Judge Coordinator Tom Wagener and Caz Vogan for their input and effort to put the free online course and the program together.

 

Photo-Credit Action: (c) World Rookie Tour

Black Yeti is working on the 2024 World Rookie Tour winter season, ready to make the dreams of many young rookies come true: snowboard and freeski finals, and some of the main events, are already confirmed!

Mark the dates for the 2024 Big Finals
World Rookie Tour is pushing freestyle development on all levels, and it is one of the greatest sports project dedicated to young snowboarders and their families. The WRT Finals will attract once again the best young riders from the World Rookie Tour qualifying events to compete for the 2024 World Rookie Champions titles and incredible prizes. Last year riders had the chance to earn invitations to world class events as The Swatch Nines or the Prime Park Sessions in Stubai, Red Bull Special Experiences and much more prizes which will support our champions’ carrier.

From 18 to 23 March 2024 Kitzsteinhorn Kaprun/Zell am See (Austria) will host the best rookies of the 2024 World Rookie Tour season for the World Rookie Snowboard Finals. Snowpark Kitzsteinhorn will welcome them with amazing kickers, a massive superpipe and countless rails, boxes, and fun obstacles. With the presence of numerous nations, Kaprun is the place to be to witness the future of the sport.  As always, the program will be full of fun activities and workshops,  the finals will be broadcasted live!

Watch the video 2023 recap from Kaprun:
World Rookie Snowboard Finals – Slopestyle Highlights
World Rookie Snowboard Finals – Halfpipe Highlights

More information: www.worldrookietour.com

Photo-Credit: (c) World Rookie Tour

The popular snowboard tour for young up-and-coming athletes from all over Europe celebrated its 10th anniversary last winter with absolute attendance records at all four tour stops throughout the Zillertal in Austria.

Ten years of Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY under the auspices of the Ästhetiker snowboard club. What started back then as a small, local snowboard tour is now one of the leading junior snowboard competitions in Europe.

The Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY offers young athletes a platform to measure their skills against their peers. Today, the snowboard tour serves many young snowboarders as a springboard into international professional sport. The competitions are held in the Olympic discipline “Snowboard Slopestyle” and are linked to the international point system of the “World Snowboard Pointl List” and “World Rookie Ranking”.

In addition, every year youngsters under the age of 18 have the chance to win a highly coveted wildcard for the World Rookie Tour Finals. All tour stops also count as Austria Cups of the Austrian Snowboard Association.

All results and winner videos from last season can be found at https://valleyralley.at

In December it starts  with the first Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY tour stop 2023/2024. All dates are already fixed:

1st tour stop 16.-17.12.2023 Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach, First Holiday Region in the Zillertal

2nd tour stop 20.-21.01.2024 Zillertal Arena, Actionpark Kreuzwiese

3rd tour stop 09.-10.03.2024 Penken Park Mayrhofen, Mayrhofen-Hippach in the Zillertal

4th tour stop 27.-28.04.2024 Hintertux Glacier, Betterpark Hintertux, Tux-Finkenberg

 

Photo-Credits: monEpic.at, Gustav Hersmann

The WSF Technical Meetings in preparation for next winter season are taking place in Zurich from September 24^th – 26^th, 2023. Find the full schedule including all planned working group meetings below. Please note that your participation in the Change Workshop on Sunday is essential, read more about the project and the workshop schedule here. As it is one of WSF’s lighthouse projects your participation in the workshop is very much appreciated. For the WSF members who are unable to attend the Zurich meeting in person, the presentations on Tuesday are also offered online.

Registration WSF Technical Meetings: https://forms.gle/eAxLfFj8i2WcrEmH7

Accommodation: We are based at Hotel Allegra as in the past. Find all info about the hotel and prices in the registration form. Important: Only direct booking with the hotel will allow you to receive the special rate offered to WSF members. To book your room, please e-mail allegralodge@welcomehotels.ch and communicate that you will be attending the WSF Technical Meetings to receive the WSF discount.

AGENDA (UPDATED)

Sunday, September 24th 
Arrival
14:00 – 14:30 Welcome
14:30 – 18:00 Change Workshop (in-person only)
19:00 Dinner

Monday, September 25th 
09:00 – 12:00 ExCom Meeting (Closed Meeting – ExCom only)
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 15:00 Board Meeting (Closed Meeting – Board only)
15:00 – 18:00 Internal Meeting (Closed Meeting – Invites only)

Tuesday, September 26th 
09:00 – 10:45 Recap + Season Kick-Off (Hybrid – Online)
10:45 – 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30 Recap + Season Kick-Off (Hybrid – Online)
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch (Hybrid – Online)
14:00 – 15:30 WSF LH Event-Management Training (Hybrid – Online)

PROGRAM DETAILS

Sunday, 24th of September –  “Change” Workshop:
This is an inspiring workshop on change processes within the WSF and its members. It raises the question: How do we build competitive and relevant sports organizations to enable long term development? Pandemic, energy crises, economic challenges and sedentary lifestyle are just a few examples of societal challenges that affect sports. How does the WSF tackle current challenges?
Please note: The participation is only possible in-person at the Meeting Area. In case you are not registered yet but still want to attend, please register here.

Monday, 25th of September: internal closed meetings only

Tuesday, 26th of September is open for everyone! 
First on the agenda is the Season Kick-Off. There clear facts for the coming season will be provided. Followed by another training session of the new WSF LiveHeats Event-Management-System, which will be run by our partner LiveHeats. In this Training session you will receive all necessary information and training, how to submit/register an event to the WSPL and the World Rookie Rank for the upcoming season. For everyone who didn’t join the first training session, we strongly recommend to join this one!

 

Photo-Credit: (c) WSF, Andreas Amplatz 

WSF members from across the world travelled to Innsbruck, Austria, for the General Assembly 2023, which took place from June 15^th – 18^th, 2023.

The 3-days-schedule was packed with lots of reports and presentations, as well as the SafeShred Closing Conferene and, last but not least, the GA elections. Still there was time to enjoy Innsbruck’s beautiful mountains with a hike up to Nordkette, some typical Tyrolean food like Schnitzel and of course to have fun together.

All in all, a very productive weekend with lots of positive vibes and great projects in the works for the future of our sport. Including some intense discussions of course. Nonetheless, the members are more united than ever before. It was exciting to see SafeShred, a project which kept a lot of WSF members busy for the past three years come to an end with the Closing Conference. Great materials our among the many achievements, like the E-Learning course for kids which is accessible for free on the WSF website. New WSF partners LiveHeats and Wyldata introduced their companies and platforms und offered a workshop for WSF members.

All WSF Vice Presidents gave an update their respective fields and the strategies and plans according to the ”Agenda 2026”.

NEW LEADERSHIP

The last day was the day of the elections. Congratulations to Dominic Kuhn (GER), former WSF Vice-President of Finances, who got elected as new WSF president until 2026 and Balazs Becsy (HUN), who got elected as the new VP of finances. Another round of applause for the newly voted Board members, who are Shigeru Ishihara (JPN), Mike Mallon (USA), Josef Harml (AUT, Flachauwinkl), Satu Järvelä (FIN) and Laurent Prodie (FRA).

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT DOMINIC KUHN

Kuhn’s presidency is based on Agenda 2026, presented in 2022, with which Kuhn wants to lead the WSF into the future with a clear vision: “A fundamental goal of my agenda is to improve young people’s access and participation in snowboarding through the development of innovative practices in the field of grassroots and youth competitive snowboarding.” Kuhn is looking forward to the new challenge, he is supported by his experienced team of Vice Presidents consisting of Meinhard Trojer (Austrian Snowboard Association), Denis Giger (Swiss Snowboard), Balazs Becsy (Hungarian Snowboard Federation) and Anna Negri (General Secretary).

36-year-old Dominic Kuhn is a passionate snowboarder and former boardercross rider. His further path in the sport led him to Snowboard Germany, where he worked in various roles before he became actively involved in the WSF and has since acted on the global associations stage: “After 8 years in charge of the WSF finances I am thankful for the great vote of confidence and election as WSF President. We’ve been able to move things in the past, but we’re not there yet. I look forward to being able to shape the next four years with my team in the interests of our sport. My aim is to make snowboarding accessible – for all people around the globe – regardless of gender, origin, or social background. I want to encourage young people to do more snowboarding activities and support our members to achieve this goal. Let us begin!”

 

Photo-Credit: (c) Andreas Amplatz

We proudly present you the newest WSF member, the Shanghai Jing’an Snow Sport Association from China. They say, “the development of youth is the power of future” and therefore are a great fit to the WSF and its members.  Wanglei, China’s freestyle snowboarding legend, is coaching their Youth team. The Association is also organizing its own events.

We are excited to see what they bring on the table especially when it comes to our grassroots efforts and youth development goals. Stay tuned for more news from Shanghai.

Welcome on board!

Norbert Rubicsek joined us in 2022 as WSF Integrity Commissioner. He and his team at CSCF also played an essential part in the Erasmus+SafeShred project the WSF just finished. In his role as WSF Integrity Commissioner he covers a wide field of integrity-related issues. He wants you to know that „the implemented measure are there for the riders, not against them“. 

Find out more about this motivation and background in the interview below.

And be assured that Norbert will always have an open ear for your concerns: norbert@worldsnowboardfederation.org 

 

What is your job as Integrity Commissioner , what do you do exactly?

• Support the EXCOM in strategic and policy decisions regarding integrity-related issues.
• Draft integrity-related legal documents.
• Handle whistle-blowing reports (coming soon).
• Handle integrity cases.
• Liaise with disciplinary and law enforcement agencies.

What do you find appealing about this role?

To help WSF protect the riders and itself, and to equip WSF against integrity issues while ensuring that riders and officials understand the potential dangers they may face and how to protect themselves.

What kind of background do you need for a role like this? 

I have 22 years of law enforcement experience, with 20 of those years dedicated to fighting organized crime. Additionally, I am a qualified lawyer.

Anything you would like to share with WSF members and riders and interested parties? 

Guys, the integrity measures are here for you, to protect you, not against you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or WSF if you have any issues that need to be resolved.

What fascinates you about snowboarding?

I love the way everyone in snowboarding approaches life and the sport: with a lot of humor, coolness, and less seriousness than we usually have. There is a lot to learn.

As part of its recent push to standardize competition data, judging, and scoring and the implementation of the new World Snowboards Points List (WSPL), the World Snowboard Federation (WSF) is excited to announce a new partnership with live scoring platform LiveHeats. The partnership will bring LiveHeats’ web-based event management and live scoring technology to WSF’s members, with the goal to enhance live scoring and competition data across WSF sanctioned events.

“The partnership with LiveHeats is a milestone on WSF’s path towards providing National Federations and local event organizers with a solid tool for managing snowboard event, expedited results inclusion in the FIS & WSF World Snowboards Points List Ranking and will deliver an overall improved experience for our athletes, organizers, and fans“ says Anna Negri, General Secretary at World Snowboard Federation.

“We’re stoked to extend our partnership with the snowboard community around the globe. Over the last year, we’ve invested heavily in our tools for results and data management for federations like WSF, which is a natural extension of our scoring and competition management platform, so we cannot wait to see this project go live.” say Chris Friend, CEO of LiveHeats

The benefits of the partnership include:

• All WSF members to have access to LiveHeats’ platform for event management and live scoring at sanctioned WSF competitions
• Adoption of a single athlete database, with member federations to have individual LiveHeats accounts within WSF’s banner
• Data to feed directly into the World Snowboard Points Lists & World Rookie Rank rankings, powered by wyldata.com

About LiveHeats:

LiveHeats is a competition management and live scoring software company with offices in Australia and the United States. LiveHeats was founded in 2016 and today works with hundreds of action sports organizations, from grassroots clubs, to national bodies and professional tours. LiveHeats technology exists to empower organizers to run sophisticated competition and tours with minimal effort, while enhancing the live competition experience for athletes and fans.

www.liveheats.com

 

In reaching an historic agreement regarding the global unification of competitive snowboarding, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and the World Snowboard Federation (WSF) settle the future custodianship of the World Snowboard Points List (WSPL).

The World Snowboard Points List (WSPL) recognised as the most comprehensive and authentic ranking of international snowboard athletes in the events of Halfpipe, Big Air and Slopestyle was developed by the Ticket-to-Ride Pro Snowboarding (TTR) and the World Snowboard Federation (WSF) in the early 2000s. As result of the merger between TTR & WSF in 2017, the WSF took over the management of the WSPL.

After a three year period the WSF now hands over the future custodianship of the World Snowboard Points List (WSPL) to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS). We believe the transfer to FIS will continue the viability of the WSPL and provide certainty to athletes and National Associations for its future.

Regardless of the transfer, all WSF sanctioned events stay on the WSPL under the WSF umbrella. For the up-coming season all WSF sanctioned events will be handled with WSF’s new event management system provided by LiveHeats.

Also WSF’s global youth ranking – the World Rookie Rank (WRR) will benefit from the partnership with Wyldata to support our athletes, organizers, and fans with a new facelift and more user friendly ranking integration.

A vital element of this event is the update of the WSPL’s look and feel and an upgrade of the underlying technology and automated data management with new action sports data provider Wyldata:

• Automated data handling for faster results handling and ranking updates
• New stats and insights on each athlete and event with constant upgrades to be expected
• Updated interface for more user friendly interaction and easy “share to social” options
• Future proof using state of the art technology

“The long process of handing over the WSPL is finally at its final phase. Our team and Wyldata have been working hard on providing a smooth transfer of the current WSPL and of its historical data. We are very pleased to get the new version of the WSPL out. For WSF, it is important that all WSF sanctioned events stay on the WSPL under the WSF umbrella and the WSPL remains the most accurate points list worldwide, with enhanced features allowing faster result management and ranking handling. Lastly the new WSPL is allowing athletes and events to have more features and stats, which will be very beneficial.” Satu Järvelä, World Snowboard President

“We are very excited to see this new version of the WSPL come to life. We have been working tirelessly with WSF and FIS over the past months and merged over 20 years of historical data to provide the most accurate and fair global ranking with a fully automated data pathway. A big thank you to both federations for their trust in working with us and to an exciting future for the sport of snowboarding.” says Yannic Sieben, Managing Director of Wyldata.

The benefits of the partnership include:

• All competition data from LH to feed directly into the World Snowboard Points Lists & World Rookie Rank rankings
• World Snowboard Points List (WSPL) as the most comprehensive and authentic ranking of international snowboard athletes in the events of Halfpipe, Big Air and Slopestyle including FIS & WSF Events.
• Global Event Calendar including all FIS and WSF sanctioned events
• WSF’s global youth competitive ranking called World Rookie Rank to support a clear athletes pathway

About Wyldata:

Wyldata is an action sports centric data analytics company. It is our goal to support clients such as FIS & WSF to manage their data effectively and turn it into valuable assets such as rankings, in depth (predictive) statistics or games to access new revenue streams in the future.