Category: News

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

Categories
Events News World Rookie Tour

FRESH NEWS FROM WORLD ROOKIE TOUR: DATES FOR 2024 FINALS CONFIRMED

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

Categories
Events News

ZILLERTAL VÄLLEY RÄLLEY 2023/24 DATES ANNOUNCED

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

Categories
News

2023 WSF TECHNICAL MEETINGS IN ZURICH COMING UP

The WSF Technical Meetings in preparation for next winter season are taking place in Zurich from September 24th – 26th, 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 

Categories
News

IN THE HEART OF THE ALPS: WSF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2023

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

 

Denis Giger & Dominic Kuhn

Photo-Credit: (c) Andreas Amplatz

Categories
News

WELCOME TO THE CLUB!

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!

Categories
News WSF Team

Meet Norbert Rubicsek, the WSF Integrity Commissioner

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.

Categories
Features News SafeShred

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

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.