Welcome

[Hans Koraeus]

Hello everyone,

I just got this World Ranking forum added. I have worked on a new structure for a world ranking off and on since the start of this slalomskateboarder.com site. Actually it has been in my head since way before that even. In the early 90's we had a world ranking going in the Slalom! magazine. It was the beginning of a success that never reached it full heights because of the halting European/World skateboard slalom scene in 1995. After the Americans gave slalom skateboarding a rebirth in the early 00’s, and with the Europeans that soon followed, it was time to wake up and give the old World Ranking a new fresh start.

With the world slalom scene looking a little bit different than in the beginning of the 1990’s a new approach was needed. FCR have had a ranking for their local FCR series. Stockholm has had a season ranking from their weekly races. Others are planning other rankings. The specification for the ABC ranking was a try to get something going on a more international level.

Rankings are fun and can motivate more people to travel and compete. This is one of the corner stones in the new World Ranking proposal. I will soon add the full document that is describing things in more detail. Some of you have already seen the draft. For others it will be new. Before posting the full specification with rankings, point tables and all (that will be hard to chew in one bite) I will quickly give you an overview of the main ideas behind the new ranking.

Competition statuses
Here is one of the biggest news for the ranking. Having different status on competitions is normal. The new thing here is that there is no specification of a competition that automatically gives a certain status. Instead there are a limited number of competition statuses in the world and it is up to the organizers to fight for those limited statuses for their competitions. The higher status on your competition the more points will be given out and most likely also the better slalom racers will show up.

Moreover the limited statuses are also fixed into geographical regions to give some sort of skateboard world balance. The number of fixed statuses for the specific regions is likely to be discussed and changed over time depending on the development of the slalom skateboard world scene.

Skateboard world regions
West Atlantic: USA west, USA east, Canada, South America
East Atlantic: Europe, Russia, Japan, Australia


Competion statuses
Major: The most important competition of the year. There is only one of the kind in each West and East Atlantic region per year.
Main: There is a limit of 6 of these competitions per year in each West and East Atlantic region.
Prime: There is a limit of 7 of these competitions per year in each West and East Atlantic region. There is one Prime status for each Major and Main status competition.
Basic: Competitions with no limitations. They should still be considered serious competitions though.

Region statuses
West Atlantic 1 Major, 6 Main, 7 Prime
S. America 1 Main, 1 Prime
USA west 3 Main, 3 Prime
USA east 2 Main, 2 Prime
Canada 1 Main, 1 Prime

East Atlantic 1 Major, 6 Main, 7 Prime
Europe 4 Main, 4 Prime
Russia 1 Main, 1 Prime
Japan 1 Main, 1 Prime
Australia 1 Main, 1 Prime

Note! One of the Main’s in West and East Atlantic regions will be a Major.


Rankings
Many different rankings are possible but the most important is likely to be the overall ranking where all standard disciplines are included. Standard disciplines are "Super T", "Tight", "Slalom", "Giant", "Super G" as single or paralell and straight or special courses.
There will be separate rankings for Male and Female. There will also be a separate rankings for juniors.

Overall Ranking rules
- All disciplines are counted.
- Points are counted over four years. 2 last years with full points and 3:rd and 4:th year with points degraded by half for each year.
- The 8 best results from each season is counted. (6 for women and juniors)
- You can only count max 2 disciplines per competition.

Some ranking conclusions
To place high in the world ranking it's not enough to be fast. You also need to...
- compete a minimum of 4 competitions with 2 discipline results,
- compete in Pro class if you have high a enough skill level,
- compete in high status competitions.

- Even if you have done well with the above it is still in your interest to compete in more competitions. You may get better points for yourself and you may stop your opponents from getting points.
- The minimum for a top racer to be able to get maximum points for a year is to enter 1 Major and 3 Main competitions and win 2 of the standard pro disciplines in each of these competitions. (4600 points)


Administration
We are just about to begin the work of an internet application to register and hold competition results in a database on the internet. This program will also calculate the competition results according the rules and show the different world rankings listings.


There's a big enough bite for you for today. I will soon post rankings, rules and everything else as it currently stands.

This is a try to get a World Ranking going for the international skateboard slalom scene again. Let's see if we can all get it together.

[Hans Koraeus]

So, that's it. I have now posted world rankings, rule specifications, point tables, competition statuses tables and a bunch of topics for each World region. Puh! Quite some work, and still it is only a tiny little step towards the whole thing getting accepted and rolling. Hopefully this will get more people motivated about the idea of a World Ranking.

[Joe Iacovelli]

WOW!

Nice job Corky. Thanks for the effort. I look forward to the discussions to follow and finding out which races count for what points.

Joe

[Slappy Maxwell]

WOW!

Nice job Corky. Thanks for the effort. I look forward to the discussions to follow and finding out which races count for what points.

Joe

Yeah! What he said.

[Hans Koraeus]

I look forward to the discussions to follow and finding out which races count for what points.

Joe

Hmm. Maybe you havn't realized yet but if you are looking forward to some really tuff and sensible discussions with a great risk for hightened adrenaline levels, I guess you are right.

At least the fighting is on a more regional level. I think that's better for the world slalom scene.