In the end of season SBINZ Committee meeting last October, we did a big “self reflection” process of the riding standards throughout the whole system.
We spent hours discussing the standards at each and every level, the barriers for members at those levels, and the outcomes of those certified at each level. It was an intense session!
All the certification pages and course outlines on the website have now been updated to match these decisions, but here’s a quick summary of the main changes (as of May 2021)…
- Level One now includes the intermediate turn task, showing use of side-cut to increase board performance, but not fully carved.
- Level Two has a switch intermediate turn (not fully carved, like the Level One but switch) and presses on a box (forwards direction).
- Level Three has a more varied range of freestyle tasks with the inclusion of grabs and a switch straight air. Both directions of 360 will still be assessed out of the park but now only one direction needs to be show on a park jump (access to features permitting). Also recently added to the Level Three was a terrain unweighting bumps task and a flexed-edge-change carving task.
- The Terrain Park Cert (previously known as Park and Pipe) no longer has a pipe element to it, but does include all four 180s (switch and forwards), plus both 360s.
Terrain Park Cert
The decision to remove pipe from this was a hard one. SBINZ still feels that halfpipe riding is a core part of snowboarding and shows great versatility in riders, however access to halfpipes around the world has become increasingly harder and harder. It was this factor that led to this decision being made.
The pipe riding element will now move to the coaching pathway, so watch this space.
Note that the Terrain Park Cert is still a pre-requisite for the Trainers’ Certification.
Got Questions?
Any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact our Course Manager via email.