Category: News

Categories
Events News

LAAX OPEN 2024 IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER

Riders from all around the world are getting ready for one of their favorite events: The LAAX OPEN. From 16-21.01.2024, hundreds of freestyle riders will dominate the sporting and cultural events in Laax. Performances in slopestyle and superpipe are all set to take the centre stage. All around, riders and visitors can expect the best entertainment with music, film screenings, exhibitions and signing sessions because freestyle is a lifestyle in LAAX.

Stars to marvel at, action to go crazy for, music to rock out to!

Europe’s most important freestyle event culminates in the highlight weekend on 20/21.01.2024 when things get galactic around the Galaaxy Mountain Station on Crap Sogn Gion mountain at 2,252 metres above sea level. Exciting final decisions for titles, trophies and CHF 180,000 in prize money are on the agenda. There’s lots going on in the Event Village, live concerts in the rocksresort and a neverending party in the Riders Club – be there or be square!

Did you know? 

LAAX has been voted the World’s Best Freestyle Resort for the eighth time in a row by the public and a jury of experts. Get ready for a freestyle blast to take you out of this world next week!

Event Website: www.laax.com/open

Photo-Credit: (c) Ruggli/Lämmerhirt/Stadler

Categories
News ZERO

ERASMUS+ ZERO UPDATE: REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF SNOWBOARDING ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ON THE ENVIRONMENT

In the context of the ERASMUS+ ZERO (Zero Emission Rides Objectives) project, the project consortium published a report on the impact of snowboarding on climate change and on the environment. Lead by our experienced research partner, the German Sports University, the report analyzes the existing literature on the impact of winter sport on climate change to identify the specificities of snowboarding: how do existing snowboarding practices impact climate change and contribute to the degradation of the environment? Therefore, it builds on existing studies and academic results, providing an analysis targeting the snowboard practices and communities to empower partners with more knowledge and provide informative content.

This report serves as the initial step in evaluating the impact of the snowboarding scene on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) while identifying potential areas for sustainable practices. The approach encompasses a comprehensive analysis across multiple domains to paint a holistic picture of snowboarding’s environmental footprint.

Beginning with an overview of the Alpine landscape, the report delves into current climate conditions and future projections, specifically focusing on temperature trends and snow cover. These factors are pivotal in determining the viability of mountain sports, including snowboarding, in the foreseeable future.

Subsequently, the report narrows its focus to scrutinize the influence of mountain sports on GHG emissions, with an emphasis on delineating specific aspects relevant to snowboarding. It investigates various facets within the mountain sports and snowboarding communities, seeking opportunities for emission reductions. Analysing mobility, energy usage, resource management, and production conditions will uncover potential avenues for sustainability measures at an individual, organisational, and community level.

Read the full report HERE.

Author: Ivana Pranjić

Photo-Credit: World Rookie Tour

Categories
Events News

ZILLERTAL VÄLLEY RÄLLEY KICKS OFF 2023/24 SERIES

With the Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY hosted by Blue Tomato, one of the most popular European junior snowboard event series is returning to the Zillertal again. With its unique combination of internationally recognised snowboard competitions and side events, the VÄLLEY RÄLLEY has been established as an important junior tour for young snowboarders. The event series will be held throughout the season and over a total of four weekends in the best snow parks of the Zillertal. It starts with the first tour stop on 16 and 17 December in the skiregion of Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach. Online registration is already open at https://valleyralley.at/ – spots are limited, hurry up!

Eleven years of Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY under the auspices of the Ästhetiker snowboard club. What began as a small, local snowboard tour is now one of the leading junior snowboard event series in Europe. The Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY combines first-class snowboard competitions, which are linked to the international points system “World Snowboard Point List” and “World Rookie Ranking”, with cool side events for the next generation. In addition, all tour stops count as Austria Cups of the Austrian Snowboard Association. Further information can be found at http://www.powdern.com.

At each of the four tour stops, participants collect valuable points in the Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY overall tour ranking. And while the best participants in each individual event are honoured with medals, prizes and prize money at the award ceremony, the overall tour winners will be crowned the new “Kings and Queens of the Zillertal VÄLLEY” at the last tour stop on Hintertux Glacier. Zillertal Tourismus GmbH in particular, which unites all Zillertal mountain railways and tourism associations under one roof, has contributed significantly to the realisation of the VÄLLEY RÄLLEY as title sponsor from day one.

Ronald Felder, Managing Director of Zillertal Tourismus GmbH, is looking forward to this year’s tour: “Winter sports thrive on young, sport-loving people. We are therefore delighted to be able to welcome committed young talents to Zillertal again this winter season. The Välley Rälley is always an absolute highlight of the winter season and we wish all participants every success and all the best.”

Loyal partners such as Blue Tomato and Red Bull are also on board as active supporters of the snowboard tour. Last but not least, the suppliers Horsefeathers and Dana Beanies will ensure happy faces at all tour stops with many prizes and other benefits. With the support of the international snowboard associations of the World Snowboard Federation and the Austrian Snowboard Association, the Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY has been expanded its international recognition in recent years. The event series offers up-and-coming athletes a springboard into professional sport. And many young participants from the early years already earned their medal at the Olympics or the Youth Olympic Games.

All Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY dates 2023/2024 at a glance:

1st stop 16-17 December 2023 ski region Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach, First Holiday Region Zillertal

2nd stop 20-21 January 2024 Zillertal Arena

3rd stop 09-10 March 2024 Penken Park Mayrhofen, Mayrhofen-Hippach in the Zillertal

4th stop 27-28 April 2024 Hintertux Glacier, Betterpark Hintertux, Tux-Finkenberg

It all starts with the first tour stop in at the ski region of Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach on 16 and 17 December 2023. The resort has already started continuous skiing operations and the Betterpark Hochzillertal is opening its doors for the winter season with the 1st Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY tour stop. Martha Schultz from the ski region of Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach is delighted to once again be able to offer young snowboarders a highlight: “We are already very excited about our young snowboarding talents. For VÄLLEY RÄLLEY, the snowpark will shine in all its freshly shaped splendour. Now it’s just a matter of registering and we at Hochzillertal are really looking forward to the event.”

Online registration is mandatory for all participants at https://valleyralley.at – Anyone can register for the event until Thursday, 14 December 2023.

The partners of the 1st tour stop are:

Zillertal Tourismus GmbH, ski region Hochzillertal-Kaltenbach, First holiday resort of Zillertal, Kristallhuette, Betterparks.at, Blue Tomato, Red Bull, Horsefeathers and Dana Beanies, the World Snowboard Federation (WSF), the Austrian Snowboard Federation (ASA) and World Rookie Tour (WRT).

Haven’t secured your accommodation yet?

Then check and book quickly at www.best-of-zillertal.at  and www.zillertal.at

All information about the age groups and registration can be found at www.valleyralley.at.

 

Photo-Credits: @becknaphoto, @monepic.at 

 

Categories
News

NEW: WSF ShredSecure Lane

NEW: WSF REPORTING SYSTEM – ShredSecure Lane 

WSF is proud to now offer you „ShredSecure Lane”, the official WSF whistleblowing/reporting system to assist riders, their teammates and the sport of snowboarding itself. It is important to understand that in whatever situation someone is, nobody is alone, the WSF is here to help. We firmly believe there is always a solution, but thoughts need to be shared to help find a solution together with the involved parties – to make the world of snowboarding a safe one for all young athletes growing up with this sport.

When should something be reported? When something doesn’t feel right, it most likely isn’t right. Report it even if you are not sure. Tell us and we will help you to decide.

Why is this so important? Sometimes you are directly involved, sometimes you witness something, sometimes you hear a rumor or someone tells you story. Often later on people realize something was not right. If you are not sure how to react and what to do, „ShredSecure Lane” is made for exactly these situations.

Find out more here.

And don’t forget: Stand up for yourself and others!

For questions don’t hesitate to reach out to integrity@worldsnowboardfederation.org any time.

Categories
Banked Slalom News

BE A PART: REGISTER YOUR EVENT FOR THE WSF BANKED SLALOM TOUR 2023/24

WSF invites all national associations as well as any Banked Slalom event organizer that have existing banked slalom contests to be part of the tour and fill out the application form (find link below) to participate. Banked Slalom goes back to the roots of snowboarding and unites all ages and all levels on the same courses all around the world.

WSF invites all of you to organize a banked slalom contest and get support from the WSF on how to do it with technical support to those who have never organized a banked slalom event as well as PR & communication support for all WSF Banked Slalom Tour events planned for the season 2023/24.

In order to be part of the WSF Banked Slalom Tour, each event organizer will be asked for a 25 euros event fee for WSF members and 50 euros event fee for non-WSF members. The fee will be used to run and promote the WSF Banked Slalom Tour and will allow WSF to promote, communicate and support WSF member events. Please note it’s not mandatory to be a WSF member to register a Banked Slalom event, as the goal is to unite as many events as possible on the tour.

 

STEP BY STEP

Step 1: Check out the general information, event benefits and recommendations.

Step 2: Please fill in the online event application form for Banked Slalom.

And, if you want:

Step 3: Are you a WSF member? If not, you can apply for WSF Membership here or here.

 

Any Questions?

Do not hesitate to get in touch with Meinhard Trojer, WSF Vice-President for Grassroots, at meinhardtrojer@powdern.com.

 

More about the WSF Banked Slalom Tour.

 

 

Categories
News ZERO

SNOWBOARD GERMANY HOSTS ZERO PROJECT MEETING IN PLANEGG

From 25th to 27th October, Planegg was center stage for the ZERO Project partners. The second in person project meeting took place in the premises of Snowboard Germany.

Hosted by Snowboard Germany in Planegg, all 11 partner organisations gathered for the 2nd in-person Partner’s meeting of the ERASMUS+ funded ZERO consortium.

The meeting defined an important milestone for the development of the challenges and rides for the ZERO Platform on the WSF Academy website. The work sessions were intense and productive, thus resulting in the development of rides and challenges for the ZERO Platform (stay tuned ).

The defined rides and challenges will be developed in collaboration with “battle now”, the platform for video based online contests. The project team has been very productive and with their expertise and experience, we developed the first bunch of challenges and rides for the upcoming winter.

Our research expert urged for action towards climate change, otherwise winter resorts will have to close on a rolling basis. Also, according to the EU Flash Eurobarometer, 39% would like to see combating climate change prioritized more. To follow the voice of the people, ZERO is putting climate change at the core of its actions & works to educate as much young people as possible about sustainability and climate action. Having an outstanding educational expert – POW Europe – material for the educational workshops in all partner countries were presented.

The mission here is clear: as many snowboarders as possible should be knowledgeable about climate change and become actors in creating a more sustainable mountain community.

Finland already kicked off the workshop circle, followed by Germany. More is yet to come. Follow WSF and our project partners on social media to stay tuned about updates – maybe you are lucky and can join some of the workshops.

Stay tuned.

Categories
Events News WSPL

Changes to the WSPL for the upcoming season

This fall the Park and Pipe committee in cooperation with the WSF have made some changes to the World Snowboard Points List to allow for a more fair and equitable ranking for the upcoming season. This also improves and provides the community with a  better understanding for the performance pathway in competitive snowboarding.

The 2 changes are:

  • The use of 5 different levels to categorize events, instead of 4
  • A points range on each of the different categories

 

Event Categories:

The new categories are as follows

  • Elite
  • Pro
  • Challenger
  • Amateur
  • Grassroots

The reason for the additional category and rebranding is to create a more equitable spread of points across events, have the ability to include more grassroots events and be more inclusive of all events that exist.

 

Points Ranges:

For each of the categories there will now be a minimum and maximum points for each of the categories outlined below

  • Elite – 600 – 1000
  • Pro – 300 – 800
  • Challenger – 200 – 600
  • Amateur – 100 – 400
  • Grassroots – 100 – 300

The need for points range has been identified as there were some anomaly events who were in the National or Regional categories that would be awarded points up to 800 – 900 points. This meant that some events and nations were indirectly manipulating the points systems. These ranges, as researched by the Classification Group, only effects 1-2 events all other events already live within the ranges provided.

Both of these changes will again make the list more fair, equitable and provide a better pathway for competitive snowboarding for the community!

Categories
CHANGE News

WSF held CHANGE Workshop in Zurich

Successful In-Person Workshop in Zurich during WSF Technical Meetings

In the context of the WSF Technical Meetings in Zurich,  the annual meeting kicked off on September 24th with the CHANGE Workshop, as part of WSF’s contribution to the ERASMUS+ funded project.

The workshop is part of a bigger project, the ERASMUS+ funded ENGSO led project “Change”.

Main aims of the project are promoting good governance in sport by equipping the organized grassroot sports movement with knowledge and expertise on innovation and change management while focusing on building resilience and environmental, economic and social sustainability.

The held workshop is one of two workshops in the context of the project with the main question “How do we build competitive and relevant sports organizations to enable long term development?”. Main aim of the held workshop was to gain information on the state of the European grassroot sports movement. Special focus was put on challenges and opportunities faced by the grassroot sports movement, in particular the WSF.

 

 

All together 18 members of the WSF participated in the workshop. A world café format for the workshops helped the participants to engage in the discussions and dive into the questions. Climate change and lack of financial support were detected as main challenges.

Also, the group had a chance to look into a desirable future. The stakes are high, motivation is top, time is running – the wish is clear “a clear, understandable, and viewing accessible world snowboard tour, an understanding of youth for the sport pathway & see their participation or competition participation can lead to a bright future, e.g.: scholarships, jobs, #01 winter sport in the world.

Dream big and go high!

 

More about CHANGE.

Categories
News SafeShred

SAFESHRED speaks French, Finnish, German, Italian and Swedish!

The WSF online course for safe snowboarding is now accessible in 6 languages

SafeShred is an educational program that aims at raising awareness on ethics and integrity issues in snowboarding among the grassroots riders, especially young ones between 13-15 years of age – the future of snowboarding.

On the WSF Academy, the SafeShred E-learning course is now available in 6 languages: English, French, Finnish, German, Italian and Swedish. It is short, fun, easy to understand and divided into five modules:

(1) Basic Human Rights,
(2) Reporting and Speaking up,
(3) Harassment/Bullying,
(4) Anti-Doping and
(5) Manipulation of Sports Competitions.

 

This course:

  • is completely free and has no time limit to complete
  • contains short videos for a total of 50 mins to watch
  • has short quiz after each module
  • provides a certificate of completion
  • is entirely downloadable in PDF format

 

The E-Learning course can be taken either:

  • By the rider themselves: Where the rider creates an account using an email id and basic information
  • By the rider assisted by a parent/coach: Where the parent or coach creates an account using their email id
  • By the riders together in a group setting: Where the coach or club/federation staff member creates the account and runs through the course in a group setting

 

 

Under the coordination of the WSF, the SafeShred material was developed by the experts of the Foundation for Sport Integrity (Stitching CSCF) with the support of the six national associations: Austrian Snowboard Association, Finnish Snowboard Association, Snowboard Germany, Snowboard Italy, Swedish Ski Association, Swiss Ski. The SafeShred project is co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

 

 

 

Categories
Judging News

WSF Judging Program: Free online training is now available!

(c) Word Rookie Tour

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 (scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 7th).

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