WSF end of the season meeting

Representatives from 15 nations met in Prague this month to discuss last season activities and future projects of the World Snowboard Federation.

The meeting resulted in new ideas and the involvement of many nations. Austria, Canada, Czech, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, USA and Turkey were present, including the whole WSF committee were present -- a total estimate of 45,000 members.

"The organization is growing fast and healthy, in the respect of a program made years ago and in the long-term strategy," said Board of Directors President Gunnar Tveit (NOR) in his WSF 2006/2007 report.

New members Latvia, Ukraine, Turkey, Netherlands presented, and also Canada provided a short update about its new activities for Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Results showed that over 2000 riders from WSF events (81 events in 12 nations) were included in the TTR World Tour and ranks last season, while hundreds of competitions were organized at regional or national level assigning point only for the national tours.

A WSF Girls Tour 2008 was discussed, plus an idea for a WSF Adaptive World Cup 2008 -- the first of ever world event dedicated to disable riders.

In addition was heavy discussion about the World Rookie Tour 2008 -- an event on four different rider levels happening on three different continents.

In the end, many nations were motivated to organize rookie, regional, national, international and world final level events that carry specific guidelines for each one.

EuroSIMA was presented its role in the snowboard business, the relation with WSF and the concept of the Snowboard D Day 2007  -- inviting every nation to join this celebration of the snowboard.

Of course, as established in the snowboard tradition, a couple of parties were in the mix, but this is another story...