ISF Press Release

The 2001-2002 snowboard season is finished in the Northern Hemisphere and the ISF (International Snowboard Federation) is very much alive! The goals for the future are to stay away from the promotion of a professional snowboard tour with focus on being an International Governing Body for Snowboarding creating the rules, officials, education, world, national and special rankings, an informative web-portal for the global snowboard community, and develop grassroots programs including the Junior World Championships. During an Extraordinary General Assembly in Zurich in November of 2001 the decision was taken in an unanimous vote that there was high demand for the International Snowboard Federation and therefore the ISF should not be dissolved dispite its financial difficulties. At the same time the decision was taken by the members to give the rights to market the ISF Championship Tour on request to the PSA (Pro Snowboard Association) Asia, PSA Europe and PSA North America for the next 4 seasons making it clear that the ISF is solely responsible for federative matters and the PSAs for everything concerning the Championship Tour. (Votes at the ISF Assemblies consist of 50% Nations votes and 50% pro riders votes). This 0$ budget season confirms that the reorientation of the ISF proofs to be right. As a true International Governing Body for Snowboarding the ISF through its National Snwoboard Associations continues to run thousands of snowboard events all over the world, focuses on creating the rules, on educating the officials, on servicing the most comprehensive snowboard world ranking, and on supporting grassroots programs including the Junior World Championships. The Championship Tour Events are completely independend and free to find their own sponsors and to do their own marketing. This means that the ISF World Tour will exist only through the unique ranking system, not because of a common sponsor provided by the ISF, however, the events will be run according to the ISF rulebook, with ISF certified officials, and receive ISF points. The ISF will no longer be the promoter of the Championship Tour, but the events will be ranked on the ISF world ranking and there will be a system to name the ISF World Champions in each discipline every year. In short, the ISF lives! The ISF is the authority for competition snowboarding worldwide and the international snowboarding scene From its formation in 1989 the ISF has accompanied the growth of the international snowboarding movement from the original idea of ,surfing the mountain to a worldwide cultural movement. With its 34 member nations the ISF competition schedule currently unites some 50.000 active competition snowboarders – 12.000 listed in the ISF World rankings – and provides access to a community of 14 million snowboarders worldwide. The annual ISF General Assembly is scheduled as usual in June. The ISF continues to have many events all over the world. The ISF will hold the 9th ISF Junior World Championships in New Zealand in September 2002 and has the next 2 years of JWCs planned. The ISF Junior Worlds are the biggest youth & junior venue in snowboarding worldwide and attract hundreds of competitors from all over the world each season.