Snowboard Competition Rules for Riders

FIS does not count your age on the day of the contest. Every age limit refers to the age you reach by 31 December of the competition year, and the FIS competition year runs from 1 July to 30 June (ICR 2013.1).

For halfpipe, slopestyle and big air the floor is 13. World Cups, World Championships and the Olympics need 15, and junior events stop at 17 (ICR 2013.3.1 to 2013.3.3). The ICR turns this into birth years, which is what start lists actually print in the YB column.

Parents of a young rider, read the U13 row twice. Those age classes earn no FIS points, so a 12-year-old can win a FIS-run kids' class and still have nothing on the points list that seeds the next start list.

The ICR also allows a thin class to be folded into the next one. An age category with fewer than four riders may be joined with the next older or younger category (ICR 3501.3), so an entry list of three U15 girls can end up riding with the U18 group.

Helmets are compulsory at every FIS snowboard, freestyle and freeski event and must be worn as the manufacturer intends (ICR 2012.6). A rider who skips the helmet or the official bib in training, inspection or the contest can be disqualified (ICR 2025.4).

Once the start order is created, the field is closed. No rider can be added and no name can be changed (ICR 3604). Late entries are settled before that moment or not at all.

Qualification is seeded from the WSPL or FIS points list. Riders tied on points are separated by draw, and riders with no points are drawn below everyone who has points (ICR 3501.1.2). Your points therefore decide your heat before your first run.

With two heats the list is split in a snake: heat 1 takes ranks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9; heat 2 takes 2, 3, 6, 7, 10. Three heats run 1, 6, 7, 12 against 2, 5, 8, 11 and 3, 4, 9, 10. The point of the snake is that no heat collects the top seeds.

At Continental Cup level and above, each heat is cut into groups of ten by seeding rank and the order inside each group is drawn (ICR 3604.1.1). The jury announces at the team captains' meeting whether group 1 or group 2 drops first.

Later phases reward a good qualification with a late drop. In semifinals the lower qualification ranks start first (ICR 3604.2). In a big air final the first two runs keep one order, then the third run goes in reverse order of the standings after run 2, so the leader drops last (ICR 3604.3.1).

A phase only produces a result if at least two runs are completed (ICR 3502). Finish one run, lose the second to wind, and that phase still has no result.

The ICR names three counting formats, announced at the team captains' meeting.

• Best of 2: two runs, your better score ranks you (3502.1).
• Best of x: three or more runs, still one counting score (3502.2).
• 2 or more best of x: your two or more highest scores are added (3502.3). This is allowed only for single-hit events, or short slopestyle with one kicker and one rail at FIS level and below.

Big air in the best 2 of 3 format has a variety rule. The two counting tricks must be different. If you land the same type of trick twice, only the higher score counts and the other is ignored (ICR 3502.3.1).

What "different" means depends on the version picked at the team captains' meeting. In Clockwise / Counterclockwise, rotation direction separates tricks. In 2 of 4 Directions, a snowboarder works with frontside, backside, switch backside and switch frontside. In both versions a flip with 180 degrees or more of added rotation counts as a rotational trick, and straight airs count as a separate type.

World Cup halfpipe and slopestyle finals are best of 2 or best of 3; big air semifinals and finals are 2 best of 3 (World Cup Rules 2026/27, art. 2.7).

The letters next to a run are defined in ICR 2022 and 3703. Two of them cause most of the questions from riders and parents.

DNI means Does Not Improve. In a phase where your best run counts, a run that does not beat your earlier best is not scored and is marked DNI (ICR 3703.4). In big air best 2 of 3, DNI may also be used when you attempt the same trick more than once. The judges saw the run and it changed nothing in the standings. DNI does not record a fall or a zero.

DNS depends on when you miss the start. Skip the whole contest after the start list is out and you get no place, listed separately (ICR 3703.1.1). Skip one run and you are ranked on the runs you did start (3703.1.2). Skip a semifinal or final and you are ranked last in that phase (3703.1.3).

DSQ removes you from the ranking of every phase (ICR 3703.2). The grounds are listed in ICR 2025, including a late arrival at the start and accepting outside help during a run.

Each judge gives you a whole number from 0 to 100. Your run score is the panel average, cut off after two decimals (ICR 3403). Three judges giving 65, 60 and 60 make 185 / 3 = 61.666…, which goes on the list as 61.66, not 61.67.

Panel size changes the maths. With three to five judges every mark counts. With six or seven, the highest and lowest marks are dropped and the rest are averaged (ICR 3403.2; Judges Handbook 9.1).

A fall is not a fixed penalty. The judge first decides what the run would have earned with a clean landing and then takes the deduction off that score. The handbook's own example is a 45 that becomes 25 after a 20-point deduction for a major landing fault (Judges Handbook 11). These deduction ranges apply to snowboard only.

What the judges reward (execution, difficulty, amplitude, variety, progression) is covered in how snowboarding is scored.

Under ICR 3503 tied riders share the same rank. Nobody rides again to split them. On the printed list the rider with the higher bib number is listed first, which is an ordering rule only.

A tie on the last qualifying place sends every tied rider through. The next phase takes as many extra riders as are tied above the quota (ICR 3503.1, 3503.2.1). When the tie is for a direct place in the final, more riders go straight to the final, the semifinal quota in that heat shrinks by the same number, and the semifinal then sends that many fewer riders to the final (ICR 3503.2.2).

If weather stops a final after qualification has been completed, the last completed phase becomes the final result for the riders who qualified, and the announced prize money can be cut by 50% (ICR 3704).

Stay away from the judges' stand while the contest is running. No rider, coach or spectator may approach the judges' area or contact a judge in person, by phone or by text during the competition (Judges Handbook 7). Between heats and after the contest, judges are available in the finish corral for questions.

Scores become official only after the head judge has checked and approved them. If there is an inquiry, the head judge and judges review their written records, and any video has to come from TV or the event's own footage. A clip filmed by your coach will not be considered.

A formal protest goes to the jury under ICR 2026. It must be written and substantiated, with a deposit of CHF 100 (or the amount the jury announces) that comes back if the protest is upheld or withdrawn before the jury decides. Otherwise it goes to FIS (ICR 2026.4.4, 2026.4.5). Protests against a disqualification, the timekeeping or a jury decision may be made verbally.

Deadlines are short. A protest against a disqualification is due within 15 minutes of its posting or announcement. A protest about a calculation error after the event goes to FIS through your national association within 48 hours of the FIS points being validated (ICR 2026.3.7).

Who may protest: national associations, coaches, team captains and riders, the last within the limits of each event's rules (ICR 2026.5). Course and trick questions belong at the team captains' meeting, where every nation hears the same answer.

If your contest runs on JudgeMate, what you see as a rider depends on how the organiser set up the category.

• Live results are on the event page under live scores. If the organiser has turned on head-judge approval, the board waits until the head judge releases each run, the same idea as Judges Handbook 7.
• DNI is marked by the judge, never by the system, and only from your second run. That judge's mark drops out, and the other judges' marks count as normal.
• Run scores are truncated to two decimals the ICR way, so 61.66 on JudgeMate matches the official FIS result list.
• If you entered with a JudgeMate account, the category shows you your own place, total and run-by-run scores. Individual judges' marks are not shown there.
• Your stance or FIS code can appear next to your name if the organiser made that entry field public.
• If the organiser switched on cup points, the FIS park and pipe table (100 for 1st down to 1 for 30th) appears next to the result.

JudgeMate breaks ties on runs: best run, then second run, then best trick if used, then third run. ICR 3503 has no such tie-break, so a contest run on JudgeMate can separate two riders the ICR would leave level. Ask the organiser which rule applies before the final.

What the panel looks for on each feature is on the snowboarding page.