Stockholm, Sweden – TTR Pro Snowboarding, the non-profit sports organization behind the TTR World Snowboard Tour, made important decisions for the further development of competitive snowboarding at its ninth annual General Assembly meeting held May 27-29 in Stockholm. The session was capped off with the Swatch TTR Art Rules night presenting the 2010/11 TTR World Champions, Peetu Piiroinen and Jamie Anderson, and unveiling the new TTR trophy design for the 2011/12 season.
“This year’s General Assembly was a great success. We had a record attendance and very substantial progress in important areas such as rankings, judging and tour calendar,” said TTR President Reto Lamm. “I am most happy to see TTR grow strongly in both quantity and quality of its events. Also the joint efforts of TTR, WSF and WAS to establish a fair and transparent qualifying systems for Olympic snowboarding mark a milestone in the history of snowboarding.”
Major Changes to TTR Tour Rankings and Titles
As snowboarding is becoming a more and more specialized sport, the TTR decided to establish a new ranking system using modified criteria as of the upcoming 2011/12 season, starting with the 5Star Billabong Ante Up set to take place on July 1, 2011 in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, followed by the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open August 8-14, 2011 in Wanaka, New Zealand. The TTR World Tour Rankings will be split into four different categories: Besides the overall TTR World Snowboard Tour ranking (male/female) there will be individual ranking lists for Halfpipe (male/female), Slopestyle (male/female) and Big Air (male only). World Tour Champion titles will be awarded in these four categories at the end of the season. The new ranking categories will also be integral in how riders qualify for the World Snowboarding Championships taking place in February 2012 in Oslo, Norway and will be used to determine eligibility to start at all major TTR events.
TTR World Snowboard Tour to grow internationally
The TTR has received over 50 applications from events on the 4/5/6Star levels in Europe, Asia and North America for the 2012 season. The TTR calendar committee, whose members will rotate annually, will review the applications. The final TTR season calendar will be published by mid-June
Snowboarding aims for new qualification system to Olympic games
TTR also renewed its claim for establishing a new qualification system to the freestyle snowboarding disciplines, halfpipe and slopestyle (IOC decision pending), at the Olympic games, including top events from the TTR World Snowboard Tour and other independent event series. TTR has presented detailed qualification models to the FIS, which is currently solely responsible for the Olympic qualification through its World Cup series. There have been open and constructive talks between TTR with the FIS and the IOC, tour officials indicate. The TTR Board will continue these conversations for the sake of the riders and the sport of snowboarding as a whole.
Leading snowboarding organizations close ranks
The TTR General Assembly sent a strong signal for a stronger and closer collaboration of the world’s leading snowboarding organizations. The well-established cooperation of TTR with the World Snowboard Federation (WSF) and its national organizations was intensified at the General Assembly through a number of projects such as the joint claim for Olympic qualification and joint judges education programs. Also, the TTR is intensifying its cooperation with the pro rider organization, We Are Snowboarding (WAS), whose founder, top rider Chas Guldemond, was newly elected to the TTR Board.
Fresh Members Appointed to the Board of Directors
Guldemond is one of five new members newly elected to the TTR Board of Directors by the TTR Pro Snowboarding General Assembly. The other four new board members are Tricia Byrnes, Dagfrid Forberg, Dirk Loesch and Marian Kaeding. Guldemond will act as the male rider representative and voice of We Are Snowboarding (WAS), Byrnes will be the women’s rider representative, Forberg in her role as General Secretary of the Norwegian Snowboarding Association will provide a direct connection to the World Snowboard Federation (WSF), PR-expert Loesch will advise on high-level communications, and Kaeding will contribute his marketing expertise as head of marketing for Burton Snowboards Europe. Reelected by the General Assembly were board members Reto Lamm (President), Liam Griffin (Vice-President), Maria McNulty, Greg Johnson, Hannes Schonegger and Andrew Hourmont.
Terje Haakonsen, founding father of TTR Pro Snowboarding and snowboard legend, has been appointed as the chairperson for the newly created TTR advisory board. This group of high-level personalities from the sport will provide support and feedback to the TTR Board of Directors on fundamental issues concerning the development of the sport and the organization.