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 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