CFSA names Canadian Slopestyle Team!!

Pipe_Munky

Pipe_Munky

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OTP backs inaugural program

VANCOUVER, B.C. (August 22, 2011) — The Canadian Freestyle Ski Association proudly announced today the formation of its newest team. The Canadian National Slopestyle Team is the product of the recent decision by the International Olympic Committee to give ski slopestyle a berth in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, and the confidence of Canada’s Own the Podium program which has allocated major funding to the CFSA to kick-start the program.

When the IOC gave the nod to slopestyle, it was capitalizing on a trend to include accessible and exciting action sports into the Games. In ski slopestyle, athletes make their way down a veritable obstacle course of rails, jumps and other features – much like you would find in virtually any snow terrain park at resorts across the country. The competitors are judged on the quality, style, and originality of their tricks.

Canadian athletes have consistently performed very well in slopestyle pro events like the X Games and the Dew Tour. The discipline made its FIS World Championships debut this winter in Park City, UT where Canadian Kaya Turski took home the silver medal.

CFSA High Performance Program Director David Mirota said the OTP funding indicates confidence that Canada has excellent potential to win medals in slopestyle at the Sochi Games. “We could not have built a national team program without OTP, so we are very grateful for their support and we have worked quickly to develop a comprehensive plan based on the winning models we already have for moguls and aerials to meet OTP performance expectations,” said Mirota, noting that the IOC decision came very quickly and was a bit of a surprise. Nevertheless, while FIS and the Sochi Organizing Committee work out the logistics and details of course design and judging models, Canada has wasted no time putting its program together.

Mirota announced that the CFSA has hired veteran coach and former National Team athlete Toben Sutherland as its slopestyle program manager. Sutherland was an athlete with the national team program from 1993 to 1999. He had more than 100 FIS World Cup starts and earned the silver medal at the World Championships in 1997. Sutherland found his calling in the new school disciplines in 1998, and was the first athlete to perform double flips in the halfpipe. Most recently he was head coach of the Ontario Park & Pipe Team. Sutherland said, “The athlete vibe about the National Team has been really exciting, they are pumped about the program and about the prospect of Canada becoming a real Olympic threat.”

Mirota also announced the members of the inaugural Canadian National Slopestyle Team, which is composed of nine athletes who were selected from their Association of Freeskiing Professionals rankings and past major event performances.

He said, “I’m very excited about our prospects for Sochi in slopestyle and especially for our program going forward. Slopestyle is an accessible, stylish and spectacular sport. Anyone can learn to do rails and jumps in the terrain parks at resorts across the country so the upcoming talent pool is promising.”

The inaugural Canadian Ski Slopestyle Team is as follows:

Hometown Career Highlights

A Team

Kaya Turski Montreal, QC Silver 2011 World Championships, Winner 2011 X Games

Kim Lamarre Lac Beauport, QC Bronze medal 2011 Winter X Games Europe

JF Houle Drummondville, QC Winner of 2011 Winter X Games Europe

TJ Schiller Vernon, BC Winner of 2009 X Games

Alexis Godbout Mont-Tremblant, QC Winner 2011 Dew Tour Breckenridge

B Team

Maude Raymond Montreal, QC 9th 2011 Winter X Games

Jessica Warll Collingwood, ON 3rd Dew Tour Breckenridge

Ian Cosco Whistler, BC 11th 2011 Winter X Games

Phil Casabon Vallée du Parc, QC 5th 2011 Winter X Games Europe

Charles Gagnier Victoriaville, QC 7th at WSI, Whistler 2011

source: http://www.freestyleski.com

 
Holy shit b dogs on. Definitely did not expect that, this changes skiing. The fact that he got 4th or 5th at last x games and still got put on the team because of style is awesome
 
Im confused about the drug testing cuz isnt bud like practically legal in vancouver? And what about someone from the netherlands could they get fucked for it?
 
in IOC anti-doping rules it's still considered a "banned substance" so yes, everyone can get disqualified for it.
 
I don't think we have any idea who the judges will be yet or what they'll be looking for. They certainly won't be aerials or moguls judges since it's an entirely different ballgame. They'll probably end up being similar to x-games/dew tour/wsi judges.
 
All these guys are gonna be olddddddddddddddd. Get some young guns who are just starting to throw dubs last year so they'll be dirt money in 2014...
 
The judges will be from the ranks of FIS Freestyle. As it stands now, yes, they will be mogul/arial/halfpipe judges. All judges know exactly what to look for and the criteria is now, more than ever based on overall impression, taking into account style, difficulty, flow, amplitude, etc, etc... FIS has been running pipe and slopestyle comps for years and there hasn't been an issue with scoring

This is a FIS event so the officials will all be sanctioned by FIS.
 
i think that alex bellmare will get a spot on the team in 2014 because hes "young and up n coming" and he that sick style that comes out of quebec also he can throw down
 
I still don't see why we shouldn't start training younger guys now so they will be good later. Look at the Chinese in gymnastics. Those kids are in the Olympic program from like the age of 6, and then they dominate when they are 16-25 because they have some much training. The USA halfpipe still has The Dumont but they're looking for the next star by taking Torin Yater Wallace too.
 
Yes I am still alive...been trolling Gear Talk mainly.

For those that are talking about bringing up the young guns, you're now asking for what everyone has been against since the inception of the "newschool" movement. The original guys (ie. Vinnie, JP, JF, etc...) wanted to get away from the regimented idea of the national program where you need to come up through the ranks over the years in order to be selected for the national team.

Now you're asking for this kind of program?

The up-and-coming young guns will be more than given their chance to prove themselves before the 2014 games. This is by no means the Olympic team. This is the team that will be representing Canada in FIS World Cup events throughout the next year.
 
I am Relish_man from the future (approx. 3½ years from now) and I am here to tell you that a complete revolution in the way slopestyle is judged will cause Chug to win Olympic Gold, Silver AND Bronze with a run consisting of only switch running man 180s and heavy-head off rails!
 
Why would you want this? It goes completely against FREEskiing. If you force a kid to ski eventually he will hate it. Let the kids get better on their own while having fun.
 
you guys really need to get off the FIS judges thing. it's really getting pathetic.

FIS scoring is exactly the same thing you'll find in any comp. it's all based on "overall impression" so when athletes get creative and make unique use of the course, the judges will award them properly.
 
Three. Years. To. Go.

It'll be just like a normal slopestyle competition, just with higher stakes.
 
Plus debates like these have been hee-haw at least since Hall vs. Gagnier in X-Games finals... Both did pretty much the same tricks except for one, Hall with a nollie and Gagnier with a backslide. NS exploded with rage over who shoulda woulda.

We've come a long time since that, and one can get Top 8 in X-Games slope with style over tech as seen by Casabon this year. Take the Sander out of your vaginer.
 
Yes they normally judge moguls and arials. What people don't get is that slopestyle was added to the FIS Freestyle World Championships in 2010 and has been sanctioned by FIS for a couple years now. The judges know what they're looking for. The scoring systems were put into place under consultation with athletes. Under the old scoring system there was no counting for creativity or style in a run so it lead to a lot of "cookie cutter" scores and a "spin-it-to-win-it" attitude (US Open switch 10 big air comp?).

It's not like they're taking someone that hasn't seen a slopestyle comp before and saying "pick a winner". The amount of video review and score justification judges have to do before a season starts is crazy.

Saying that biased judging COULD happen here is even less likely than it happening at the X-Games. There's a litle bit more on the line for Olympic judges than X-games/Dew-tour judges.

But also remember this, judges get one shot at looking at a run. There's no video replay and no "can I see the dub cork 12 again?". So while they're figuring out their scores and you're watching every trick 3-4 times on replay, they're going with what they saw the first time. Also, on a proper 7 judge panel, FIS throws out the top and bottom scores to keep any bias a non-factor.

Plus, the manager of the Canadian program wouldn't have chosen Cassabon if he didn't think he'd fare well with the judges.
 
The problem here is that this is past tense - the scoring systems were put in place. Last year. The only constant in this sport, slope in particular and pipe not far behind, is change. That includes not only the tricks that are being done but whether X style is better than Y style, what grab is sicker than what other grab, etc etc etc. We can't agree on that shit on here on any given day, and we CERTAINLY can't agree from year to year to year. I have no freakin' clue what a winning slope run will look like in 3 years.

On the Casabon topic specifically, what I will be interested to see is how much credibility FIS comps give to rails. I would love to see that shit judged on a level with the jumps. It's become pretty much a given that you win X gold based on your jumps, not your rail trickery. If rails do anything, they are a tie-breaker between more or less even runs at the bottom of the course, or in Phil's case bump a run without any doubles up a couple of places but not onto the podium. If rails are given as much weight as jumps under the FIS system I can see Casabon being a legitimate podium threat. He does have the tricks off the jumps, just not doubles every which way like some of the perennial xgames faves. Of course, again, who knows what a B-dog slope run looks like in 2014.
 
But oh, then again here comes the gripe - what counts as a better rail as I mentioned before. Was Hall's nollie on more tech and style than Chuck's backslide? Could, for example, Casabon's tailslide 270 out on a flag rail beat out a 450 on 450 off like in Carlson's case this year?

It will be tough, but one would hope that the judges do not accoutn for wow-factor, yet how can you put those two tricks into perspective of which "deserves more points" with the modern system?
 


The judges have to score well a trick like carlson 450 on 630 off but B-dog bluntslide back 2 out should be score even higher because he's the only one to do that trick, he'S brigning innovation & style. When you are the first to do a trick, it's way harder than being the second, third or else. The judge should reward more the creativity of the riders.
 
*TRUE* When you are the first to do a trick, it's way harder than being the second, third or else. The judge should reward more the creativity of the riders.

 
CFSA is trying to make it happen props to them, they need to get a program sorted as the grassroots program is there but the next level up there is no solidified coaching program, although it was TBC last time I looked so hopefully they got something to go off next year.

The team is solid, Chug is a bit wayward but he has the talent to be up on the podium if he does what he can do.
 
it would be really sick that all the judge are older freeskier like JP Auclar, Phil Belanger, etc..
 
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