Legal Board Specs For Racing

[Thor VonRippington]

There was a brief discussion on another thread about skwals and narrow boards being banned long ago from competitions. Not many hard facts were offered and it left me with some questions.

What are the current acceptable board specs for racing?

Why are the restricted specs in place... is there an advantage to specs outside of the restrictions?

Are there other restrictions involved in snowboard racing in general (gear or otherwise)?

Any information would be interesting to me... I'm not going to the races... just curious. Thanks!

[Sinecure]

FIS Rulebook in pdf format (http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/icr2004.pdf).


2090 Competitors Equipment

2090.1 Snowboards
Only Snowboards can be used in competitions.
The boards minimal width is restricted as follows:
Gliding surface length................Minimal width
up to 135 cm...........................14 cm
more than 135 cm................16 cm

2090.2 Bindings
The bindings must be fixed diagonally on the long axis of the board. The
boots cannot overlap each other.

2090.3 Retention devices, leashes
Safety leashes are optional unless required by the organiser or the ski area.

2090.4 Balance and Speed control
The competitors are not allowed to wear anything on the hands besides
gloves or to use any kind of devices to additionally support their balance,
reduce or accelerate their speed, like poles or sticks etc.
It is the nature of Snowboard sport that the quality of preparation of the
main racing or event track deteriorates toward the inside and outside of
the ideal line as an event continues.

[Thor VonRippington]

Thanks Sinecure... any insight as to why >135 is 16 or more? :confused:

[philfell]

Under 135 would generally be a kids board, kids have smaller feet than adults so their boards could be narrower with the same angles and still be considered a snowboard. No one racing at a high level is anywhere close to the limit of being too narrow.

[Thor VonRippington]

Two good points... but I still don't understand why > 135 must be over 16 wide as a rule.

[yyzcanuck]

I imagine that anything less than 16cm wide would not allow the bindings to be at an angle that would be considered 'substantially diagonal' to the long axis. In the eyes of FIS, if your bindings aren't diagonal, you're not snowboarding.
And... maybe it's just an arbitrary number pulled out of thin air?

[Thor VonRippington]

I imagine that anything less than 16cm wide would not allow the bindings to be at an angle that would be considered 'substantially diagonal' to the long axis. In the eyes of FIS, if your bindings aren't diagonal, you're not snowboarding.
And... maybe it's just an arbitrary number pulled out of thin air?

Alright... I'll buy that... Thanks

[Tramp]

FIS has limits only the sizes of equipment or some manufacturers is supposes and some one is not supposes?

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

FIS has limits only the sizes of equipment or some manufacturers is supposes and some one is not supposes?

????????????

And he calls for an interpretation from the judges. :freak3:

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

In other words, NO SKWALS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skwal) !!!

[Tramp]

O, no....About is not present, I had in view of another.
Skwal concerns to concept of measurement of the equipment than a brand more likely.
Look on what brands ride at competitions FIS, and what brands have stood aside and never participate...

[zarkod]

There was a brief discussion on another thread about skwals and narrow boards being banned long ago from competitions. Not many hard facts were offered and it left me with some questions.

Can someone tell me where this thread is? I would like to update our skwalzone.org website with this history but I can't find if this is a hoax or not. I the skwal community it is said that they were banned from snowboard races because skwals where just faster, but where is the truth?

[BadBrad]

I can remember years ago when racing boards started getting narrower and narrower. It was common to see them 17cm wide back then, and some even narrower. It was about that time that I remember the rule being made regarding minimum width. I don't know, but I suspect that the FIS saw the trend toward skinnier and skinnier boards and wanted to make sure that we didn't end up with 2 bindings mounted on a ski or something like that, so the set the limit to about the same as the current skinny boards.

Now the trend has gone back to wider boards with less steep binding angles.

[Thor VonRippington]

Can someone tell me where this thread is? I would like to update our skwalzone.org website with this history but I can't find if this is a hoax or not. I the skwal community it is said that they were banned from snowboard races because skwals where just faster, but where is the truth?
http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=17086&page=1&highlight=virus+skwal