Judging rules: First basic principle in the freestyle is that every competitor is judged according to the same principles, irrespective of who they are: juniors, pros or amateurs. Freestyle judge judges just the passage and he concentrates on it- it is unacceptable if the judge increases the notes of this competitor who is well dressed or just because he likes him. During the passage of the competitor judge has to be really concentrated in order not to make any mistake and properly judge every single element. Very necessary tool of every judge is a Memory Board- it lets them to take notes of particular tricks without delay. Each judge (and there are 5 of them) has at his disposal 10-rank points scale with one decimal place.


STANDARD AIRS (SA)

The main task of SA judge is judging all jumps without turnings, so all grabs, handplants below 360 and liptricks below 360. This judge pays attention to: difficulty, tricks variety and making of particular trick. Falls aren’t taken into consideration but supports and stops are treated as bad trick making.

Criteria:
Standard Airs group contains all jumps (AIR) and tricks below 360. They can be divided into some subgroups:

• Simple jumps
• Air to fakie (back landing)
• Fakie to forward (fakie jumping, normal landing)
• Alley loop (180 turning up the pipe)
• Handplants (below 360)
• Liptricks

If the competitor wants to get high notes from this judge he should make tricks from the most of these subgroups, tricks should be well made- it means that grabs should be well catched and held as long as possible. Figure is also very important and proper body deflection which should be smooth. Landing should be smooth and certain.

ROTATION (R)

R judge judges all tricks with turnings. In this group of tricks there are horizontal turnings (spins) and vertical turnings like somersaults and “hybrids”- a combination of vertical and horizontal turnings. R judge pays attention to difficulty and variety of tricks from this group. All falls and instabilities are taken to the final note.

Criteria:
All tricks with turnings above 360 are judged. It is very important to make various and difficult tricks because it increases the note considerably. Turnings should be made smoothly and they should be full-controlled.

AMPLITUDE (A)

A judge judges the energy and a dynamism of whole passage which are connected with the hight of made tricks. One of the duties of this judge is judging of the high of made trick- for every 30 cm of the height, above the edge of the pipe, this judge gives 1 point. After the passage points are summed up and the sum of them is divided by the amount of jumps made. Minimal amount of jumps is 4.

Criteria:
Jumps judging in this category is very easy, but it requires observation ability. Judge must judge very rightly on which height the competitor is. The jump height is judged according to the situation of the competitor centre of gravity. This judge doesn’t judge liptricks and handplants- he concentrates on the height and he makes proper calculations on the calculator.

OVERALL IMPRESSION (OI)

OI judges (because it is two of them) judge the passage as a whole. These judges judge a general impression of the passage and the experience. They don’t judge the style but they pay attention to whole passage- connection of the quality with difficulty and tricks variety. They judge the risk taken, tricks sequence, innovations introduced by the competitor, clothes and equipment. Falls and instabilities are taken into consideration.

Criteria:
Judges pay attention to the height, difficulty, variety (combination of simple jumps and turnings on the both walls of the pipe), riding in the pipe ability and performing of every trick. Tricks sequences are especially important e.g. making of 720 two times one after another is much higher assessed than making these tricks separately.

Points deducting because of falls:
2,0-2,5 – serious fall or absolute stop
1,0-2,0 – smaller fall, body contact with the snow
0,5-1,0 - hands moves in order to keep balance or supporting with hands
0,1-0,5 – body instabilities, flat landing, jump loosing, braking before the jump.