WSF surpasses 22 countries where we are working to unite and organize skateboarders; with many groups in various stages of legalization of the national federations including Skateboard Scotland, Skateboard England, South African Skateboarding Federation, Canadian Skateboarding Federation and the Madagascar Skateboarding Federation. We are committed to mentoring these organizations and providing organizational support to ensure they are formed correctly under the guidelines set forth by the IOC.  WSF President Tim McFerran has stressed the importance of vetting these groups to make sure they are active and relevant "and it's not just two individuals operating a website." 

WSF goes through an application process to make sure that new organizations include all relevant parties in the National Federation and insure that they are actually from their country, living in their country and working or competing in skateboarding. "We don’t want to have a situation like we almost had in Mexico where a person who was not in skateboarding saw an opportunity and tried to get WSF to recognize her instead of an established and qualified skateboarding leader like Paco Manzares and his group who are the legitimate and relevant organization in Mexico."
 
We are actively flying around the world looking and meeting with relevant groups to mentor them and help them organize and set them up correctly. Skateboarding around the world is growing so fast there need to be safeguards in place to make sure that these organizations are set up correctly and properly mentored.
 

WSF has sanctioned the Skateboarding World Championships at the Kimberley Diamond Cup. This year, we held our first summit in the "Skate 2020" series to coincide with the contest.  For details, read the full recap here.  

For the 2015 championships, we funded transportation (airfaire, hotel, bus, etc) for more than 50 skaters from around the world to get them to the event in Kimberley, South Africa. We recognize that not all skaters have sponsors to pay for their travel expenses, especially outside the US and UK, so part of our mission is to help these skateboarders who have the talent, but lack the financial resources to get to the major contests that allow them to compete on the global stage, attract sponsors and build a future in the sport. 

Many are calling this year's SWC "the best contest in history."  For the first time, we saw the best two skateboarders in the world, Nyjah Huston and Luan Oliveira, go head to head in an all out battle that left both skaters exhausted on the course. In the end, Huston just edged out Oliveira for the title and the $100,000 cash prize.  Other highlights included:

Global Summit Series Stops in Montreal, Canada
WSF hosted its second summit in Canada on November 3. The summit was held at the Intercontinental Montreal and topics covered included the WSF Skate 2020 Agenda, Olympic Implications 2020, Formalization of the Canadian Skateboarding Federation and the 2016 Skateboarding Championships to be sanctioned by WSF. For more information on the Canadian Skateboarding Federation contact info@canadianskateboardingfederation.org.

WSF President Tim McFerran attended the gala reception and was honored to meet Olympic legend Sergey Bubka (photo bottom left).

World Skateboarding Federation's 2015 Street Rankings are in and the Top 10 skaters are:  

 

To view the complete rankings, click here. 

WSF hosted its first Skate 2020 summit, part of the Global Summit Series, to coincide with the Skateboarding World Championships in Kimberley, South Africa October 7-10.  The summit featured a series of workshops led by industry leaders addressing TV production, judging, coaching, financial management, and small business development.  

Emmy-winning sports television producer Peter Shakkour discussed how to produce skate events for a TV audience; Brandon Burton, CEO of online financial education company Securing Life Today, discussed financial strategies for skateboarders covering topics including investing, financial management and preparing for retirement. Burton has created a website that allows individuals to manage all their investments and personal finances on their phones.

The South African Skateboarding Federation led the judging conference, teaching best practices and also introducing the instant scoring app developed by The Boardr's Rob Meronek that has transformed the way skateboarding contests are scored today. One of World Skateboarding Federation’s key goals is to develop a unified scoring system and to then teach other federations and organizations around the world how to use it. This judging conference was just the first step towards that goal. WSF also offered a coaching certification program led by Skateboard Scotland for those seeking to start coaching programs in their own communities. 
 

World Skateboarding Federation Announces Global Series of “Skate 2020” Summits:
Summits to take place in Canada, Vietnam, Mexico, Scotland and United States

World Skateboarding Federation, a governing body for skateboarding, today announced it will host a series of “Skate 2020” summits, touching five continents over the next year to organize, unify and support skateboarding and prepare for the possibility of its inclusion in future Olympic games.

The summit schedule is:
Oct. 7:             Kimberley, South Africa. Hosted by the South African Skateboarding Federation
Nov. 3:             Montreal, Canada. Hosted by Canadian Skateboarding Federation
Feb. 20:           Mexico City, Mexico.  Hosted by Federación de Skateboarding Mexicano
May 7:             Vietnam. Hosted by Vietnam Skateboarding Federation
June 11:           Glasgow, Scotland. Hosted by Skateboard Scotland
July 16:            New York, United States. Hosted by World Skateboarding Federation
 
The first summit took place in South Africa during the upcoming Skateboarding World Championships in Kimberley, on October 7.  The “Skate 2020 Agenda” was introduced by WSF at the inaugural Global Skateboarding Summit in Istanbul in May and will inform the agenda for each summit.  The Skate 2020 Agenda:

The summits will also seek to unify skateboarding, discuss ways to help grow and form local, national and international skateboarding federations and associations, to help the industry prepare for Olympic requirements such as Wada testing and gender equity, as well as discuss the framework for an internationally agreed upon format, unified scoring system, and qualifications for skateboarders to earn entry.
 
“There is much to be discussed in order to prepare for the Olympics. These summits will help organize federations and bring key parties together to discuss the framework for the Skateboarding World Championships and possible Olympics,” said Tim McFerran, President of World Skateboarding Federation.  “This is a huge opportunity for skateboarding and we are encouraged by the Olympic conversations taking place and think it will bring so much benefit to the skateboarders, the fans and the youth around the world who will be inspired by these incredible athletes.  We want to make sure the format is progressive and exciting, that the content production is first class and there is a transparent qualification structure and contest circuit along with unified judging and scoring systems. These summits, hosted on five continents, will bring all interested parties together to share ideas and come to agreement on these key topics. We look forward to working with all of the skateboarding organizations around the world.”

 

In the women's category, the world title is already settled and no one will be able to prevent Emily Pross from Canada from earning her first IDF world title. In the junior category there is no suspense either as Alex Charleson from Canada dominated the entire season with 5 first place finishes out of 6 races.

Finally, Mikel Echegaray from Spain will finally achieve his life dream: he will be World Champion in both Streetluge and Classic, as he has only been beaten once in the 7 races he participated in this year !

 *WC : World Cup
**WQS : World Qualifying Series

For more information, visit www.internationaldownillfederation.org.

International Slalom Skateboarding Association Wraps Up 2015 Events

World Champions for 2015 are Joe McLaren (USA) and Janis Kuzmins (Latvia). 
 
Top of the "Pro World Ranking for 2015"
1. Joe McLaren, USA
2. Janis Kuzmins, Latvia
3. Viking Hadestrand, Sweden
 
Women's World Champion for 2015 is Judi Oyama (USA). 

We also have a New Women's Master World Record for 100 cones this season made by Lynn Kramer (USA)
 
Top of the Women's World Ranking for 2015
1. Lynn Kramer, USA
2. Lienite Skaraine, Latvia
3. Kathrin Sehl, Germany

Pick up this month's Concrete Wave magazine to read an  about the Slalom World Championships.
 
We now have event candidates and dates for all the high status events in Europe. Including the World Championships 2016. Candidates for other high status events around the world will follow in the near future. 

For 2016 in EUROPE we have following candidates:

MAJOR

05.+06.+07. August /LAT – Riga - World Championships

MAIN

11.+12. June /CH – Grüningen
16.+17. July/ RUS – Moscow
26.+27.+28. August /CZE – Policka (European Championships)
24.+25. September /GER – Stuttgart

Kumba Skate Plaza Making a Difference

The 2015 Kimberley Diamond Cup Skateboarding World Championships went down on 7-10 October, 2015 and welcomed hundreds of skaters from 41 countries to compete for their share of the R 1million+ prize purse. In partnership with Vans, Kumba Iron Ore, and the Northern Cape Provincial Government, Kimberley Diamond Cup has been promoting skateboarding in South Africa and abroad in 2015 through their Skateboarding For Hope initiative that builds up to the main event each year.
 
Along with providing several business opportunities for the local community and giving local residents something to look forward to all year long, he Kimberley Diamond Cup main event serves as a huge tourism attraction for South African skateboarders and skateboarding enthusiasts as they make the annual trip to the diamond city to witness some of the world’s greatest skateboarders on their own turf.
 
KDC Regional Qualifier events held as early as February this year have led into various South African Championship events, particularly the KDC South African Street Skateboarding Championships and TopGrom South African Championships. Additional South African specific events included South African Vert Championships and South African Women’s Street Championships, in which the top 2 ladies qualified to advance to the Women’s Street World Championships the following night.
 
For 2015, KDC also welcomed the inaugural African Skateboarding Championships in which close to 30 skaters from all over the continent traveled to Kimberley to compete for the title of KDC African Street Skateboarding Champion. Other categories in the Skateboarding World Championships included Vert World Championships, Rider Cup Team Skateboarding Championships, and Street Skateboarding World Championships.
 
Some big names in skateboarding to skate on Kimberley soil included Nyjah Huston, Luan Oliveira, TJ Rogers, PLG, Andy MacDonald, Yoshi Tanenbaum, Jimmy Wilkins, Moses Adams, Leticia Bufoni, Alexis Sablone, and more. In the end, Jimmy Wilkins would win his 2^nd straight KDC Vert Skateboarding World Championships title and Nyjah Huston went on to win the title of KDC Street Skateboarding World Champion after an insane head-to-head match in the finals with Luan Oliveira. This was Nyjah’s 2^nd KDC win after having won in 2013 as well as his 2^nd $100,000 check to be put in the bank. Following the contest, the KDC stage welcomed major SA hip hop acts K.O, HHP, DJ Ready D, and Riky Rick, only to be followed by surprise international act and hip hop legend Yasin Bey aka Mos Def.
 
Check out some photos and results from the event here and head to kimberleydiamondcup.com for additional coverage from the 2015 Kimberley Diamond Cup Skateboarding World Championships.