By Bach Siedair
EXPN.com
Feb. 04, 2002
Picture this for a moment........You and your buddies are blasting down a
banked gullie riddled with booters......You are in front blasting away spins
like its nobodies business............You slide to a stop and look back up
that powder poofy gullie to watch your buddy destroy a similar
line..........You can't hold your self back from yelling something. "YA
BRO, YOUR KILLIN IT, HELL YA, AOOOWWWWWYEEEEAOWW!!!"
Ever ask yourself why? Why do you cheer for somethings and not others? I
introduce you to the subjective world of judging.
No matter what contest you enter, observe, or involve yourself in, the
judging always seems to suck (unless of course you win). Even the 2002
Winter X Games judging was sorta wacko. You'd think we would try to give our
premier event perfect judging. NOPE. We always seem to get it wrong. It
never turns out right. Somebody always gets shafted. Why? Why can't we
ever get snowboard judging right?
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| In practice Danny Kass was as sylish as ever. Some of his practice runs consisted entirely of straight airs. Not just any old straight air, only the ones that exuded ultimate snowboard style. |
It would take a long time to answer that question, so I am going to spare
you the novel. What I am going to do, is give you some guidelines. With
the Olympic Halfpipe right around the corner, and the power that the Olympic
results will give the winners, every person should understand the judging
formula of the Olympics.
At first, I viewed the Olympics as a political mess where the winners would
be picked by a bunch of German skiers named Franz. So to make sure, I broke
into the CIA mainframe and found the Olympic Judging format. Then, in all
of my X Games pride, I tucked my board between my legs and bowed my head to
the Olympic Judging formula. Those FIS guys really put some time into it and I stand impressed.
There are five international judges and one "head" judge who only oversees
the operation. The judges are trained to recognize all the subtlties of
dude tube riding - which is an enourmous task within itself, serious
schooling. All of the judges are kept seperate from outside forces and
only the head judge can be addressed with concerns. This keeps the judges
from being bribed or influenced by contraband items. Good idea! We all
know the power of snowboardings' subcultures. In other words, the judges
are kept from making friends. In fact, the FIS judging rules (2614.1 -
2614.8.18) basically turn the judges into unics.
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| Check this out. The practice session vibe was so good, that riders were dropping in non stop. The drop rate was so frequent, because of the supplied rope tow, that you could get syncronized airs. Note: three euros in the air at the same time. |
The judges use a ten point system. 1=sucky 10=ruler. Each judge is
trained to judge a specific catagory. Amplitude, Standard Tricks, Rotation
Tricks, and Overall Impression are the catagories. There are two Overall
Impression Judges. This is the catagory where the FIS people impressed me
the most. They describe the Overall Impression catagory very well.
"The Overall Impression (OI) judges evaluate the precise nature of the run
in relation to maneuvers attempted, both individually and as a sequence.
(Danny Kass-erole 720 into a Cab 1080 - Sick). The overall composition of
the run is most important as the OI judge evaluates the sequences of tricks,
the amount of risk in the routine and how the rider uses the pipe. (Danny
Kass-erole 720 off the first hit?! = Risky)" - FIS rules 2618.5
The OI criteria continues to later drop these words of wisdom. "The OI also
considers the riders intensity, smoothness and pipe use. thus high
amplitude and higher risk taking will increase a riders score, as will
atttempting a difficult manevuver at the beginning of a run. Also sequences
of tricks are important, for example, bgack to back 720's may be more
difficult than splitting them up in their run" -FIS rules 2618.5
The Amplitue judge scores "bigness" on a 1-10 point scale by giving one
point for every 30cm a rider busts out of the lip. How does a human eyeball
30cm from a judging tower? Beats me? But it looks good on paper.
 |
| Ross Powers had some runs. He was the most consistent rider in practice, he didn't fall even once. Daniel Frank was giving him a run for his money, but Powers was the rider with the highest "stomp" rating. |
The Rotation judge only watches big spin tricks. This basically means
everything over a 360 degree rotaion. All tricks under 360 are included in
the standard trick judging. This includes handplants and alley-oops.
The most impressive thing about the whole FIS judging scheme is how they
take into consideration the entire run. They make a powerfull effort to
recognize the way a rider links his run together. They pay close attention
to how they tie tricks together and how the rider plays with the concept
of variety. The FIS crew asks their judges to keep three pieces of criteria
on the back burner all the time:
1. Variety - judges want to see all sorts of different tricks.
2. Difficulty - each trick needs to be taken to its most difficult level.
3. Execution - each trick needs to be thrown with flow and style (don't
forget to grab).
The guidelines finish up with a very interesting disclaimer. On the subject
of trick execution (another word for dope style), which is the most
ambiguous part of halfpipe riding, the FIS crew states, "Obviously,
experience and observation are the keys when it comes to judging execution,
as well as difficulty. Therefore it becomes important that we stress the
importance of judge training. The best snowboarder in the world may also be
the best or the worst judge. If a judge isn't properly trained, his scores
will reflect it in their inaccuracy."
On that note, lets hope the IOC and the FIS don't hire any ice skating
judges. I would hate to see Danny Kass lose the Olympic gold to a straight
legged ballarina 720 without a grab. The Olympic halfpipe gets rolling in
about a week, so get your trick knowledge dialed by watching the X Games pipe
first, and then dial in NBC to find out weather or not the impressive rule
book looks as good in real life as it does on paper.
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