we’ changin’ it up.
words: Colin Colin Carroll
So we created the tech, launched the competition, and quickly realised that one thing is waaaay out of date in our sport: judging criteria.
KOTA’s current criteria is: 70% height, 30% extremity.
this worked perfectly pre-2021, where height was lacking.
But. The game has changed.
Now, every idiot can loop at 20m+. Which means, under the current criteria, everyone should be scoring really high, despite the huge gaps in ability between the likes of unsponsored-41yo-bald-Dlab-man and Lorenzo Casati.
The judges believe that we are at the ceiling of height, and that it is the right time to focus elsewhere: POWER and TECHNICALITY.
Here’s what our new criteria now looks like:
Power: Yank
Height: duuuuh.
Then technicality part can be broken down into:
Technicality lv1: rotations
Technicality lv2: board offs
Technicality lv3: board offs + board spin/ticktack/flip
Technicality lv4: rotations + board offs
Technicality lv5: rotations + board offs + board spin/ticktack/flip
So, crystal clear? It’s not meant to be. Judging sport is impossible to do perfectly, but we believe that this is the best solution to date – and one that most represents the current state and future vision of Big Air.
Got it? Good. Now go check the leaderboards and submit your clips, too. Thanks to us as always.