How do you organize a snowboard slopestyle contest?

Snowboard age groups follow birth years, not birthdays. The ICR counts age on 31 December of the season, and its table for 2026/27 gives three children's groups: U13 for riders born 2015–2014 (no FIS points), U15 for 2013–2012 and U18 for 2011–2009. A FIS licence starts with the 2013 birth year this season.

At a club event you can draw the lines lower. A contest for six-year-olds is not a FIS event, so name your groups as you like, but keep them by birth year so parents can check the list themselves.

ICR 3501.3 gives two rules worth copying. Each age category rides as a separate heat. A category with fewer than four riders may be joined with the next older or younger one. Decide the merges when entries close, not on the morning of the contest.

ICR 3701.1 lists the rider columns: bib number, family name, first name, nation, year of birth (YB), FIS code and, in snowboard only, stance. Start lists also carry the heat or phase and the start order, plus the criterion used for seeding: FIS points, World Cup points or WSPL points.

National cups usually add their own columns, such as a national code (NSA code) or the club. These are not ICR columns, so ask your federation which ones it wants before you print.

Freeze the list once it is published. ICR 3604 allows no added riders or name changes after the start list exists, and a frozen list is also what stops a queue of late entries at the bottom of the lift.

A slopestyle qualification heat holds 12 to 30 riders, ideally 20 to 25 (ICR 3501.1.1). With more than 24 to 30 riders, the ICR suggests a semifinal between qualification and final.

Run formats come from ICR 3502:

• Best of 2: two runs, the better one counts.
• Best of x: three or more runs, the best one counts.
• 2 best of 3: the sum of two runs, allowed only for single-hit events or a short slopestyle with one kicker and one rail at FIS level and below.

A phase counts as a result only after a minimum of two runs. If weather stops you after one run, that phase has no result, so schedule the second run early.

When the best run counts, a run that does not beat the earlier one is marked DNI, Does Not Improve (ICR 3703.4). Riders and parents read DNI on the list as "no new score", not as a fall.

The ICR panel is 3 to 9 judges plus a head judge (3311.1). Each judge gives one overall score from 0 to 100 in whole numbers. With 3 to 5 judges every score counts; with 6 or more, the highest and lowest are dropped before averaging (3403.2). The result is truncated to two decimals, never rounded up.

At national events, a judge with a C licence may serve as head judge (3311.4). The head judge checks the panel, sees the ranking after every run and approves the scores. The Judges Handbook says no score is official until the head judge has verified and approved it.

For data, the ICR minimum is a spreadsheet (3405). Tablets for direct input become mandatory only from Continental Cup level upwards.

1. Open Create with Snowboarding Slopestyle selected and create the event.
2. Add one category per birth-year group and sex. Each category is its own heat, as ICR 3501.3 asks.
3. Set the number of runs and keep Best round for best of 2 or best of 3. For two runs added together, use Sum of best rounds.
4. Turn on Head judge releases scores. Judges' scores wait until the head judge publishes the run, and Release with gaps covers a judge who drops out.
5. Add a public field Stance and a field named YoB. YoB becomes the birth-year column on start lists and results; public fields hold up to 40 characters.
6. Import the start list from a spreadsheet. First and last name can sit in separate columns, as on FIS lists. A column named like one of your fields fills that field, so a FIS code or NSA code column lands where you expect it.
7. Send one Invite judges link for every category, or use Add to categories to place a judge, head judge or speaker in many categories at once. The same window adds a co-organizer with your rights in the whole event.
8. With the speaker console on, the speaker calls riders in bib order.

Judges see the bib and stance next to each name. From run 2 a judge can mark DNI; JudgeMate never sets it on its own. The snowboard tutorial with Mate shows these steps on screen.

JudgeMate averages the panel and truncates run scores and results to two decimals, as ICR 3403 does. Its drop-the-extremes switch works from five judges, while the ICR starts at six. With five judges, leave it off and the result matches the ICR.

Cup points are a column next to the rank. Pick the FIS park and pipe table (100, 80, 60 down to 1 point for 30th place, World Cup rules 1.7.1) or upload a sheet with your national tables and choose one by the points for first place. Tied riders get the same points. Points for a national cup must come from that cup's current rules, not from a previous season's list.

The start list and the result list export to PDF. You choose the columns, such as bib, year of birth, club and cup points, and the header carries up to six sponsor logos. For the scoring rules behind each run, see how snowboarding is scored.

Say these limits out loud before you commit a FIS-level event to it.

• No FIS XML export. ICR 3405 requires FIS results in XML, so a FIS-codex contest needs a FIS data provider.
• No import from the FIS database. The FIS code is an ordinary field from your spreadsheet.
• Ties are split differently. JudgeMate breaks a tie by the best run, then the second run. ICR 3503 gives tied riders the same rank and lists the higher start number first.
• The final is a separate category. Add next round copies the riders above the cut line, and riders tied at the cut line all go through, but the qualification score does not carry over.
• Scores move in steps of 0.1. The ICR asks for whole numbers, so tell judges to enter whole numbers.
• One snowboard category type. Halfpipe exists as a criteria template inside Snowboarding Slopestyle, and there is no snowboard big air type.