The Ski & Snowboard Club Vail Freeskiing Team offers diverse programming that covers all disciplines of freeride skiing: halfpipe, slopestyle, and big mountain. We have a skilled and experienced coaching staff with backgrounds in all areas of skiing which give us the tools to develop each athlete’s individual skills as needed. These are competitive program designed for riders from ages 8-28 years young! From our middle school to our post-graduate athletes, everyone has dreams of USASA Nationals, X-Games glory, movie segments, World Freeski Tour and the Olympics. We can improve the skiing of every aspiring freeski athlete from little to big!
Travel and Payment Form This form and its purpose will be explaining at the first fall meeting… but book mark it now! Vail Team Sign-Up for all travel and payments - Due November 15 of each year!
Vail Cup
Available for ages 12 years & under. Young SSCV athletes will have the opportunity to compete in these events on Sundays - hosted here on Vail’s Golden Peak. Vail Cup events are a series of free events for local kids to try competitions in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. There will be awards after each event in the backyard of SSCV. There are also overall awards for those who participate in ALL of these events throughout the season. Events include: Lil’Big Air, Slopestyle, Halfpipe, Moguls, GS, SL and Lil’Big Mountain.
Big Mountain
There is ONE pathway for a BIG MOUNTAIN athlete license IFSA and these are the event series to register for. Pay directly through these web links.
IFSA License - Need to purchase a competition license to compete in this series. Sometime this series has events for ages as young as 10-12 years old. Mostly, this license is for our Region and National level Big Mountain Competitors.
JETA - (Junior Events Tour of America) Available for ages 10 yrs and up. These are lower level regional competitions for the Jr. Big Mountain and lil’ Big Mountain competitors. These events will have an event fee (usually $30-ish) and a one time competitor license ($75-ish). These events are broken into age groups and therefore it give kids the opportunity to compete against regional athletes who are the same age. JETA* regional competitions in Colorado. at Breckenridge and Sunlight which are age appropriate.
Park & Pipe
THREE pathways for PARK & PIPE athlete licenses and competition success.
1. USSA-United Stated Ski Association - USSA* (United Stated Ski Association) Series. Available for ages 10yrs and up. This is for the extra motivated Rookie Team Freeski competitor. We will be hosting a few home events for this USSA Series. Many of our older SSCV Freeski athletes participate in these events too. These events are part of the US Ski Team Olympic pathway and could get an athlete recognized by the US Ski Team or identified for the coveted and special Gold Camp which take place each spring. (But lets not rush into things… fun first! Ask a coach about this series to make sure it athletically.) These events will have an event fee (usually $40-ish) and a one time youth membership license ($75-ish) that needs to be purchased in advance of the first event.
1.a. USSA License is used for (RMD, REV TOUR & JrNats in ParkCity)
USSA-United Stated Ski Association
USSA-RMD- Rocky Mountain Division
USSA - Junior Nationals information
USSA -Rev Tour Schedule
1.b. USSA + FIS LICENSE is used for GRAND PRIX, NorAMs. This leads to even higher levels, such as; US Freeskiing Team, Project Gold, World Cup, Olympics
USSA - Grand Prix Schedule
FIS - Schedule Here
Event info and Registration CLICK HERE
2. USASA- United States of America Snowboard Association- Available for ages 8 years and up. Locations are Vail, Beaver Creek, Steamboat, WinterPark, Copper and Breckenridge. These events are broken into age groups and therefore it give kids the opportunity to compete against regional athletes who are the same age. Also, every age group of athletes can qualify for the end of the year USASA National Championships. Conveniently, this national level competitions is in Colorado at Copper Mountain during the first week of April each year. Kids come from all over the country to compete. It is a lot of fun! It is also a great opportunity to broaden these young athletes horizons! These events will have an event fee (approximately $30) and a one time competitor license (approximately $75) that should be purchased here in advance of first event.
2a. USASA License is used for all USASA events
USASA- United States of America Snowboard Association
United Stated of America Snowboard Association - Rocky Series Schedule
United Stated of America Snowboard Association - Aspen Reg. Schedule
United Stated of America Snowboard Association - ALL EVENTS Schedule
3. AFP and OPEN (various links see below) - in lieu of licenses, WAIVER are very imports! Also, most of these event have their own organizing committee, websites and registrations See some popular registrations below.
3a. Open Events
Aspen Open - Open Registration
NorthFace Open(s)- Open Registration (and now FIS ranked)
WinterPark Open- Open Registration
WSI, Whistler SKI Invitational- Invite Only (selective open registration)
Dew Tour- Invite Only (highly selective open registration)
X-Games- Invite Only! Euro X-Games - Invite Only!
Note: These are also licensed events with an “Open Registration” component. Revolution Tour- 30 Invited Riders and 30 open registration spots Grand Prix Tour- 40 Invited Riders and 20 open registration spots
Park & Pipe Competition Help Sheet
Minimum requirements for a busy freeski athlete living in Colorado.
USSA RMD(rocky) 2 HP and/or 2 SS
Div. Champ* 1HP 1SS
*if can’t attend must petition to miss, or you will not qualify for a gold pass
*need a USSA license, registered as ‘Rocky’ to qualify (and for 3 years).
*Registration close on Tuesdays before the event weekend at 5:00pm
USSA RevTour 2 HP* and/or 2 SS*
*need 2 to be pre-qualified for the following year
*Registration is usually time sensitive and available near Nov 1st
USSA /FIS GrandPrix/WC 2HP* and/or 2SS*
*need 2 to be pre-qualified for the following year & FIS Points list & Olympics
*Registration is usually time sensitive and available near Nov 1st
USASA Rocky Series 3 HP and/or 3 SS
* Or have your third out of series (see below)
Vail or Aspen Series* 1 HP and/or 1 SS
*Registration close on Wednesdays before the event weekend at 5:00pm
AFP* “Open events” 5 HP, 5 SS, 5 BA
*Many events are ranked on this list. Including: Rev Tours, USASA Nationals, ASpen Open, Finals, Northface Opens, Grand Prix, Dew Tour, XGames, etc
**Hot button registrations(events that will have a specific registration time and date and fill up quickly!.)
Rev Tours: Nov 1 -ish
Grand Prix : Nov 1 -ish (invite)
Northface: Nov 8 -ish
Aspen Open Nov 1 -ish
USSA Junior Nats(Olympics): March and only open for 48hours only!
WSI: end of March (invite)
Big Mountain Help Sheet
Common needed links for Big Mountain Competitors.
IFSA - International Free Skiers Association. These are considered NATIONAL events… these are for athletes who have qualified through regional events, have been competition prior, or have started out with stronger than average ski skills. (Currently only one license is needed for all level competitors. Approximately $60.00 )
IFSA REGISTER HERE
IFSA FACEBOOK PAGE
JETA- Junior Free Skiers Tour of America - These are considered REGIONAL events… these are for first year competitiors. Designed to get you started and keep you closer to home. (Currently only one license is needed for all level competitors. Approximately $60.00)
EVENTS - ALL event registration for Big Mountain take place in November. The events have limited space and it is very competitive to ‘get in’. Please review the website and information above to familiarize yourself. Our team (s) have meeting (s) in the Fall of each year. We go over the detail of competing, how to register, and other subjects. The date of your meeting is listed in your program description (See left column). It is important to not miss those meeting, especially if you are interested in competing on the national level. *Please look to the left for calendars and the ” 3. Big Mountain Calendar ” to see deadlines and update for competition registrations (The current 2012 deadline is Nov 26th, you need a ‘code’ from your coach.)
Ski Pass needs for Team Members
SKIING PASSES - These are what athletes need for their chosen program;
VSSA Full Time Big Mountain - Athletes must have a ski pass that allows them to ski unrestricted starting November 1st at all Vail Resorts. Also a Copper Pass is a must for much of the early season training and several other ski visits during the year.
Part Time Big Mountain- Athletes need to have a ski pass that allows them to ski unrestricted starting November 17th at Vail Resort. Also it would behoove you to have a pass that can be used at A-Basin & Beaver Creek. (Copper Pass is optional).
Weekend All Mountain- Athletes need to have a ski pass that allows them to ski unrestricted starting December 1st at Vail Resort. ( A ski pass that can be used at A-Basin & Copper Pass is optional).
PROGRAMS - See program description (right column) for more information about your specific program.