Category: Features

HAVE YOU REGISTERED YOUR EVENTS FOR THE WSPL/WWR RANKING? YOUR CHECK-LIST!

Post author By Birgit
Post date January 17, 2024

The contest season has started and is in full swing as we speak.

Have you entered all your events for the WSPL/WRR calendar 2023/24?

IMPORTANT: As it’s a completely new process in place we ask all WSF members to register all events for the WSPL/WRR 2023/24 calendar (and ranking) as soon as possible. Please keep in mind this is the only ranking which allows young riders to climb the contest ladder year by year.

NEXT STEPS: If you haven’t done it yet, please go ahead and register your events to be listed on the calendar. Please remember, it’s not enough to send an excel list anymore, the whole process is now completely online thanks to our partnerships with LiveHeats and Wyldata.

Step 1: Use your WSF Log-In for the members section on the WSF website.

Step 2: make sure your WSF membership fee is paid and that you are marked as active member.

Step 3: Choose the payment plan you want. Please note: zero costs for the basic package, the regular WSF calendar fee will be charged as usual: € 100 per division/category).
Create your LiveHeats account on LiveHeats.
To link your LiveHeats account with your WSF Log-In it’s necessary to name the field “organization profile URL” with your LiveHeats name, eg.: liveheats.com/yourliveheatsaccountname. You will receive a Welcome E-Mail from LiveHeats to confirm that your LiveHeats account is linked with WSF.

Step 4: Once you have received your Welcome Mail, you are all set, it’s time to register your events for the WSPL/WRR calendar. Please note that events will be registered for both calendars/rankings with one event fee only.
Create your individual events on LiveHeats. LiveHeats will then share with Wyldata to update the calendar.

More about the new process.

CHECK LIST:

And – most important – here comes your check-list in case you are struggling to navigate through the LiveHeats universe: Check-List

Features News SafeShred

WSF’s Erasmus+ SafeShred project comes to an end with successful closing conference

Post author By Birgit
Post date June 28, 2023

The World Snowboard Federation and its partners are proud to announce the successful closing conference of the Erasmus+ SafeShred project, which took place in Innsbruck, Austria on June 16th, during the 2023 WSF General Assembly.

SAFESHRED is an educational program to equip young riders with a comprehensive understanding of key sport integrity issues, enabling them to navigate challenges they may encounter in their snowboarding journey. This groundbreaking program covers a wide range of crucial topics, explained in the most simple manner to the young riders of different age groups, ensuring that these aspiring athletes possess the knowledge and tools to thrive while maintaining integrity.

SafeShred in numbers:

1 E-learning course: free and accessible to all on the WSF Academy
6 Languages available: English, Finnish, French, German, Italian and Swedish
1 Riders’ guide: to support snowboard associations in addressing integrity issues with young riders
195 Young Riders (of 13 to 19 years of age) trained during SafeShred workshops in 6 different countries (2022)
6 Topics: manipulation of sports competition, doping, harassment and bullying, corruption, whistleblowing system, and basic human rights
9 Partners
2,5 Years duration

One of the remarkable achievements of this project is the development of essential resources, including the Rider’s Guide and the multilingual E-learning course. These deliverables, along with the research-based comprehensive pedagogical training materials and the trained trainers in each of the countries, provide the snowboard community a powerful and unparalleled toolset for years to come. All the results are available on the SafeShred page of the WSF website.

SafeShred Closing Conference (c) Andreas Amplatz

CLOSING CONFERENCE – Is snowboarding really safe? Participants from all over the world were invited to discuss during the SafeShred closing conference in Austria. This interactive event included a quiz to test participants’ knowledge on past and current cases of integrity issues in their sport, exchanges between partners on their experience and challenges throughout the project, group discussions on how to make the best use of the available educational tools, and presentations of the main project results.

SafeShred Closing Conference (c) Andreas Amplatz

SafeShred partners (c) CSFC

MEET THE PARTNERS– The World Snowboard Federation would like to thank the managers and sport integrity experts of CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity, the researchers from the University Ramon Lull in Spain, and the snowboard associations who contributed to SafeShred: Austrian Snowboard Association, Finnish Snowboard Association, Snowboard Germany, Snowboard Italia, Snowboard Team Sweden, and Swiss Snowboard.

SafeShred is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Features News WSPL

NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH LIVE SCORING PLATFORM LIVEHEATS

Post author By Birgit
Post date June 14, 2023

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

Events Features News WSPL

WYLDATA IS THE NEW DATA PROVIDER FOR WORLD SNOWBOARD POINTS LIST (WSPL)

Post author By Birgit
Post date June 12, 2023

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.

Features News WSF Team

WSF Team Update: New WSF Communication Team

Post author By Birgit
Post date June 12, 2023

New on board is Digital Marketing & Social Media expert Huguette Fakhry from Lebanon, multiple Lebanese Champion in Snowboarding and Cross Country Skiing (true fact!). She grew up in the northern part of the country with slopes just minutes away. Next to her love and passion for Snowboarding, she volunteers since years for the Lebanese Red Cross as Emergency Medical Technician.

Heading up the communication team is PR & Marketing specialist Birgit Gruber (Austria) who joins the WSF with over 25 years of experience within the snowboarding industry. From falling in love with Snowboarding as teenager in the early 90ies she turned her passion into her job. Couple of years at the ISF (International Snowboard Federation) were followed by 14 years as PR Manager for Burton Europe in Innsbruck. Since 2017 she is running her own agency focusing on Event PR and is happy to return to her federation roots as WSF Communications Manager to support the sport we all love in the best possible way.

Please remember:

We are looking for your content! If you have any news to share through our website, newsletter and social media channels, please reach out to us directly: communication@worldsnowboardfederation.org

Features News

2023 WSF General Assembly takes place in Innsbruck (AUT) from June 15 – 18, 2023

Post author By Birgit
Post date June 12, 2023

The WSF General Assembly is just around the corner taking place in Innsbruck, Austria from June 15th – 18th, 2023. We can’t wait to welcome you in Tyrol for a weekend packed with meetings, workshops, and of course also fun times together. Be part of shaping Snowboarding’s future!

Important for members:

please remember to sign up for your WSF Login before the GA in order to administer your WSF membership and services.
If you can’t join us in Innsbruck personally, you can give a proxy to somebody who will be present. To make this happen, please fill in the following form to officially give a proxy.

The agenda is as follows:

2023 WSF General Assembly

Thursday, June 15^th, 2023

14:00 – 14:45 Welcome, introduction & round of interviews

15:00 – 17:00 Sightseeing tour Innsbruck

19:00 Dinner in Burenwirt

Friday, June 16^th, 2023

09:15 – 09:30 WSF Event Pathway

09:30 – 10:15 new WSPL & World Rookie Rank

10:30 – 11:30 WSF’s new scoring and event management

11:30 – 12:30 WSF’s new Judging Program

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch at the hotel

14:00 – 14:45 WSF Erasmus+ Projects

14:00 – 15:00 SafeShred Project Partners Meeting (closed meeting)

15:00 – 18:00 WSF Safe Shred Closing Conference

19:00 Office Opening & Drinks and Dinner by WSF at Wundervoll

Saturday, June 17^th, 2023 (MEMBERS ONLY)

09:00 – 10:00 WSF LiveHeats System – Tutorials & Training

10:15 – 10:30 Registration of Representatives

10:30 – 12:00 WSF Reports

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch at the Hotel

14:00 – 14:45 Strategic Pillars & Action Plan 2023/24

14:45 – 15:30 Future Plans: Youth Competitive

15:30 – 16:15 Future Plans: Sport Development

16:30 – 17:15 Future Plans: Grassroots

17:15 – 18:00 Future Plans: ProWomen

Sunday, June 18^th, 2023 (MEMBERS ONLY)

09:00 – 11:30 Elections

11:30 – 11:45 Closing

12:00 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 15:00 Board Meeting

15:00 – 17:00 WSF Office

For any questions reg. the upcoming GA please contact Anna Negri (WSF General Secretary): anna@worldsnowboardfederation.org

Tags general assembly, members, WSF

Features News WSF Team

WSF TEAM UPDATE: May we introduce? Michael Leyendecker, the WSF Anti-Doping Officer

Post author By Birgit
Post date June 9, 2023

WSF TEAM UPDATE: May we introduce? Michael Leyendecker, the WSF Anti-Doping Officer

In 2022 Michael Leyendecker from Germany took over the role as WSF Anti-Doping Officer. What does this mean exactly? Together with the WSF Board Michael is informing riders in the best possible way about doping rules as well as sensitizing them about the importance of Anti-Doping. Michael accompanies and supports young athletes on their road to clean top performances. His mission is to make sure they keep their love for Snowboarding despite some hurdles when it comes to Anti-Doping.

Michael brings a lot to the table for this position with a background in many sports associations and also experience as Doping Control Officer. And of course a love for snowboarding, especially being fond of the joy and ease our sport conveys.

Say hello to him when you meet him somewhere on the mountain!

Contact Michael: michael@worldsnowboardfederation.org

Features News ZERO

ZERO PROJECT KICKS OFF

Post author By Birgit
Post date May 30, 2023

In early April 2023 the new ERASMUS+ ZERO project kicked off. The World Snowboard Federation (WSF) and the partner organizations gathered in Innsbruck, Austria, to officially kick off the new Erasmus+ Sport funded project Zero Emission Rides.

ZERO – Zero Emission Rides Objectives is a 36-month project involving research, advocacy and sport professionals from 11 partner organizations and from 9 different countries.

World Snowboard Federation
Protect our Winters Europe (POW)
Magyar Snowboard Szövetség / Hungarian Snowboard Federation
Federação de Desportos de Inverno de Portugal
Snowboard Verband Deutschland e.V.
Sneeuwsport Vlaanderen
Nederlandse Ski Vereniging
SUOMEN LUMILAUTALIITTO
SWISS-SKI SCHWEIZERISCHER SKIVERBAND
Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln, Institut für Outdoor Sport und Umweltforschung / Institute of Outdoor Sports and Environmental Science
SandSi

The project will develop innovative practices of grassroot snowboarding to increase accessibility and participation of young people in sport activities while empowering them in the fight against climate change toward ‘zero emission rides’. Through the 15 outputs developed, Sport Federations and umbrella sport organizations will be equipped with resources and knowledge on how to develop and expand the practices of snowboarding to make them accessible in a larger diversity of environments, allowing more young people to engage in physical activity at their local level. The project consortium will also propose an innovative and sustainable form of snowboarding event that will contribute to drastical reduction of travel and transportation of riders across Europe while increasing their participation in leisure / grassroot competitive snowboarding. Moreover, the project aims to foster a strong and digitally active snowboarding community to encourage changes in the sport practices coming from the grassroot level, voicing their concerns and answering the environmental problems of new and future generations of riders.

The project should also open and encourage the dialogue between the snowboarding community and external stakeholders and raise awareness among grassroot young riders and their families on the concrete actions they can undertake to reduce the negative impact on their environment.

Photo-Credits: (c) WSF

Tags erasmus, ZERO

Banked Slalom Features News

The Hochkeil “Bioschnee” Banked in Muhlbach

Post author By Tricia
Post date April 29, 2023

The Hochkeil Banked celebrated its comeback in Mühlbach on Easter weekend. On April 9th, snowboarders big and small met on a leisurely course with steep curves and waves.
The schedule was coordinated with public transport to match the Hochkeil natural snow area. Everyone who arrived by bus or a car pool with at least 3 people in the vehicle received a 5 euro discount on the entry fee.

Whether you traveled a long way or were from the neighborhood – all riders had fun at the Hochkeil and showed great runs in the snow! The main prizes again went to the average time, with the fastest also receiving a small acknowledgment. Especially the many young participants showed impressive performances and amazed the many established riders.

There were test boards and prizes from Amplid Snowboards , Goodboards and SP Bindings , as well as Naked Optics and Blue Tomato . Everyone enjoyed the steep curve run, the cozy atmosphere and food in the Arthurhaus lift umbrella with a view of the banked course.