Youth Snowboard Contest Software
Birth-year groups, girls and boys, three judges and one slopestyle course
A youth snowboard contest groups riders by year of birth, splits each group into girls and boys, and lets every rider take three runs on one slopestyle course with the best run counting. JudgeMate creates all the age groups in one go, imports the start list from the club's spreadsheet with birth year and stance, averages three judges and truncates the result to two decimals as ICR 3403 requires, lets judges mark DNI from run 2, and publishes results parents open in a browser.
A club slopestyle on one Saturday
Picture a club contest in the 2026/27 season. Forty-eight riders aged 6 to 14 sign up through their coaches. The park crew sets a short line: two small kickers, a box and a flat rail. Three judges sit at the bottom, a head judge stands behind them, and a speaker with a microphone calls the next rider.
The kids ride in eight groups: four birth-year groups, each split into girls and boys. Everyone gets three runs and only the best one counts. With 48 riders that is 144 runs to judge before the podiums, so the day depends on two things: the next rider is always ready at the top, and no group waits for someone to finish adding up.
Building the birth-year groups
FIS counts age by year of birth, so juniors are grouped by birth year, never by birthday. The FIS age table for 2026/27 (ICR 2013.3.4) lists U13 as riders born 2014–2015 and U15 as 2012–2013. FIS park and pipe starts at age 13 (ICR 2013.3.1), which means a FIS licence for 2026/27 begins with riders born in 2013. Anything for younger kids is a club or national event, and the club picks its own groups.
A practical split for this contest:
- 2018 and younger (first season on a kicker, often on a shortened line)
- 2016–2017
- 2014–2015, the same years as FIS U13
- 2012–2013, the same years as FIS U15
Small groups are normal in youth snowboarding. ICR 3501.3 treats each age category as a separate heat and allows a category with fewer than four riders to join the next older or younger one. Decide this when sign-ups close. Three girls born 2012–2013 then ride with the 2014–2015 girls, and the start list says so before the first run.
Three judges, the best run and DNI
Under ICR 3403 each judge scores a run from 0 to 100 in whole points, judging overall impression. With up to five judges all scores count (ICR 3403.2), so a three-judge panel never drops a score. The average is truncated to two decimals, never rounded: judges at 65, 60 and 60 give 185 / 3 = 61.666…, which stands as 61.66, not 61.67.
With three runs and the best one counting, a rider who lands run 1 at 61.66 and crashes on the first kicker in run 2 keeps 61.66. ICR 3703.4 has a mark for that run: DNI, Does Not Improve. In a best-run format, a run that does not beat the earlier ones is not scored.
ICR 3502 needs at least two completed runs for a phase to count. If wind stops the contest after run 1, the FIS rules give no result, so plan the schedule with run 2 in the morning.
Start lists for minors without oversharing
A start list for children should show what judges and parents need and nothing else. ICR 3701.1 lists the rider fields: bib, family name, first name, nation, year of birth, FIS code and, for snowboard, stance. A club list adds the club.
In JudgeMate a participant field is public only when you make it public. Public answers are capped at 40 characters and the server sends only those to the start list and results. Everything else (a parent's phone number, a consent note) is seen by the organisers and the person who entered, nobody else.
If the club's spreadsheet has a full date of birth, the import keeps only the year. Riders added by import need no account, which suits a list of eight-year-olds.
Setting the contest up in JudgeMate
Start from snowboard slopestyle in the create menu.
- Groups. Add categories with Create several: type the four birth-year groups (or paste them as a column) and tick both genders in the matrix. Each ticked gender becomes its own category, so you get eight, all with the same rules.
- Rules. Keep one overall criterion from 0 to 100, set 3 rounds and Best round. The truncation to two decimals and the DNI status come with the snowboard slopestyle type. Leave Drop extreme scores off with three judges.
- Fields. Add a field named YoB and a Stance field (regular or goofy) and make both public. YoB becomes a birth-year column on start lists and results, and judges see the bib and stance next to each name.
- Start list. Import each group from the coach's sheet: first and last name in separate columns, Bib, club, YoB. Headers the import does not recognise are shown before you confirm.
- People. Send one Invite judges link for every category and approve the judges. Then use Add to categories to put the head judge and the speaker into all eight at once.
- On the day. Switch on Head judge releases scores if you want each run checked before it reaches the board. The speaker console calls riders in bib order and has Skip athlete for a kid who is still on the lift.
- After. Print start lists and results as PDF with the columns you choose (Bib, YoB, club) and up to six sponsor logos.
The snowboard tutorial with Mate shows these steps on screen, from the YoB field to the head judge's release.
What JudgeMate does not do here
- DNI is the judge's call. Nothing marks it automatically.
- Ties follow product rules. JudgeMate separates equal best runs by the second-best run, then the third-best. ICR 3503 gives tied riders the same place. If your rules say shared podium, say so at the riders' meeting and adjust the prizes.
- Scores take one decimal. The judge screen accepts steps of 0.1, while ICR 3403 expects whole points. Agree with the panel to type whole numbers.
- Small groups are merged by you. The rule from ICR 3501.3 is not applied automatically; create the merged category before importing.
- Halfpipe and big air have no snowboard category type. A halfpipe contest runs as a slopestyle category with the halfpipe criteria template, and snowboard big air is not available.
For scoring background, read how snowboarding is scored; the sport overview is on the snowboarding page.
Set up your event
Free for organizers. No athlete cap. No commission on registrations. See snowboarding features · Organizer guide