How to Judge a Freeride Competition? (Part 2)
2020 French Freeride Competition at La Clusaz. pc mokaddict
In Part 1, we talked about a scoring system that fosters accommodation rather than restriction. Let’s follow up today with a more detailed look at each of the five categories then a discussion about the mysterious “overall impression.”
The Scoring Process
A typical freeride competition has a panel of six judges. Each discipline (skiing or snowboarding) consists of a team with a head judge and two certified judges. The same judge panel must judge the full category, an important point and one we come back to later.
All judges are required to view the runs live (via binoculars) and are prohibited from using the Heli-, drone, or live-camera feeds. Judges are only permitted to review a run with special approval by the head judge. All scoring must be done within about a minute of the competitor's finishing.
Fun Fact
Although competitors are not allowed on the course prior to the event, all head judges must ride the venue prior to the start.
Judges panel in action at the Xtreme Verbier 2021. pc primesnowboarding
5 Scoring Categories
Judges must consider the following questions when scoring each category:
1. Line
Is the line difficult, technical, or easy?
Did the rider make the best use of the terrain with his line choice?
Did he skip obvious features?
Is the line original?
2. Control
Did the rider lose control while riding?
3. Fluidity
Relative speed (how fast compare to how narrow, steep, exposed, snow conditions)?
Did the rider stop?
Hesitations, loss of pace, hiking
Super-Fast section: when a rider only accelerates in a narrow/technical section, judges must reward it, and not only with 1 or 2 points bonuses. It could be worth as much as a good cliff if really super-fast and technical.
4. Technique
Bad turns vs power turns
Backseat riding, side slipping, bad or good sluff management
5. Air & Style
Number of jumps
Size of the jumps
How the rider approaches the cliff/jump
Control/tricks/style in the air
Landings
Linked jumps (double/triple cliffs)
Interestingly to note, for every venue the judges ‘mountain-scale’ each category. This process involves the judges assigning values to the course features. Judges then share these descriptions with the competitors ahead of the event. This kind of information is useful for athletes as they scope for lines.
Mountain-scale example used for scoring. pc FWT 2023 judges handbook
Mountain-scale example for how judges might value different course lines. pc FWT 2023 judges handbook
“Overall Impression”
Originally, the final score was calculated by simply adding up each category for a simple total. Years ago, the FWT did away with this formula in favor of an overall impression.
Per the judge’s handbook, when they tried to score each individual category,
“A problem occurred: one criterion would take too much value because it is easier to use the full scale on jumps than it is for control, fluidity, or line. It made it difficult for someone riding steep and fast but with hardly any jumps to score well.”
… (and therefore) a judge should ask himself at all times how fast, how big, and how in control a rider is compared to how steep, how exposed, and in what snow conditions the action is. A split-criteria structured mind is key to good overall impression judging.”
Example of judges' note system with annotations. pc FWT 2023 judges handbook
The overall impression is calculated by taking into account each of the individual categories and not just a sum total. The important point to remember is simply… the ranking is more important than the individual score. (Does it really matter if Tavo outscored me 100 to 99 or 100 to 29? No, he still won.)
Tavo’s Finish at La Clusaz
Speaking of Tavo, let’s follow up on his run at La Clusaz from yesterday.
Feeling good about his line he expertly made his way down to the cliff band just ahead of the middle section. Slowing up a bit to find his way between the exposed rocks Tavo set up and cleared a gnarly entrance over the cliffs. Stomping the landing and feeling strong and he proceeded to rip huge wide-open turns down the middle section of the course.
La Clusaz Resort, Haute-Savoie, France. pc skischoollaclusaz
Coming to his final segment, Tavo got lost and mistakenly took a turn too early. Instead of a double drop onto a mellow runout, Tavo ripped over a “larger than expected” cliff onto a hard landing. He bounced hard and accelerated across the slope into some trees before regaining his balance. It wasn’t an out-an-out fall, but the balance assist would be a deduction.
In Europe, however, Tavo’s ‘fall’ would only be marked down by a minimal amount thanks to European judges who rank control (#5), lower than their American (#2) counterparts. It’s an interesting distinction between the two scoring systems and not one you hear of often. Regardless of the differences, Tavo stood tall on his outstanding run and landing on the podium in 2nd place! Way to go Tavo!
Tavo Sadeg’s competition run from 2022 Freeride event La Clusaz, France.
Stay tuned tomorrow as we come back with our continuing discussion, Let’s Talk Turning… Tavo Style. You won’t want to miss his thoughts on carving big mountain lines!
We’d like to extend a special thanks to Tavo’s sponsors for their amazing support on this journey!