Para-snowboard Event Format

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Event Format

Para-snowboard events include male and female athletes with a physical disability such as spinal injury, cerebral palsy, amputation, and visual impairments. Athletes compete based on their functional ability, allowing athletes with different disabilities to compete against each other. For information on Para-snowboard events at an international level visit http://www.worldsnowboardfederation.org/ and click the CALENDAR tab on the menu bar.

Competition Format

Athletes with a physical disability in snowboarding compete in a single-person, also known as “sling shot”, Snowboardcross events. The sling-shot format consists of a “best-of” 2 or 3 time trial runs. Para-snowboarding athletes compete on the same course as able-body Snowboardcross events with some modifications.

A sling-shot Snowboardcross format provides a combination of both race and freestyle elements, while challenging the athletes regardless of their disability. The event format is also conducive the internationally recognized  a classification process, which has been finalized by the World Snowboard Federation Para Snowboard Sub Committee. 

The ideal para SBX slope will allow for the construction of all or some of the following terrain features:

•  Banks (crescent shaped)
•  Doubled banks
•  Rollers
•  Offset rollers (single, double, triple, etc.)
•  Minor jumps

Other terrain features can be built, but safety considerations and the riding level of the athletes must always be respected. If the competition includes athletes in the Visually Impaired Disability Class, for safety purposes an alternate route must be created by placing a second set of gates going around potentially dangerous features.

For more information regarding event set up, competition format and event implementation contact Candice Drouin at

Integration

The para-snowboard philosophy is to have it fully integrated with the delivery of programs and activities for able-bodied participants of the sport.

Para-snowboarding has been integrated into Vision 2020: The Long Term Athlete Development Plan for Snowboarding, and into the Canadian Snowboard Coaching Program (CSCP) and the Officials Program.

Vision 2020

Vision 2020: The Long Term Athlete Development Plan for Snowboarding identifies appropriate activities for snowboard athletes accordingly to carefully designed stages of development, such as “Learn to Ride” and “Train to Train”. Detailed information on Vision 2020 is available at www.canadasnowboard.ca/en/dev/ltad.

CSCP Workshops

The Canadian Snowboard Coaching Program (CSCP) is Canada~Snowboard's resource for the training and certification of snowboard coaches. The CSCP is a part of the Coaching Association of Canada’s National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP). Detailed information on the CSCP is available at www.canadasnowboard.ca/en/coaching.

The CSCP’s integrated module for coaching athletes with a disability in snowboarding has been integrated into all of the Basic Coach Workshops that were delivered during the 2007/08 and 2008/09 seasons, and will continue to provide the integrated module for future Basic Coach Workshops.

Officials Training Program

Canada~Snowboard Officials Training Program is Canada Snowboard’s resource for training and certification of snowboard officials.

The purpose of the Officials Training Program is to provide snowboard officials with a greater understanding of the role they will assume during a competition and to introduce them to the rules of snowboard competition, the International Rules of Competition (IRC) of the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS). For more information visit http://www.canadasnowboard.ca/en/dev/officials-judges/officials/

The Officials Training Program integrated module for officiating para-snowboard events has been integrated into all of the Official Workshops as of 2008. Any future official workshop will include the integrated module for officiating athletes with a disability.