What is IFSA? Freeride ski and snowboard competitions, explained

IFSA is the International Freeskiers & Snowboarders Association, a nonprofit that sanctions, judges and ranks big mountain freeride contests for juniors and adults in North and South America. In freeride, each skier or snowboarder picks her own route down a steep, ungroomed face, and a panel of judges scores the run.

For a family, IFSA is the path for a kid who loves steeps, trees and natural terrain more than the terrain park. Its Junior Series starts with relaxed events for kids 11 and under, moves up through 2-star and 3-star events from January to March, and ends with the invite-only Junior Freeride Championships in April.

Anyone with an IFSA membership can enter. There are no tryouts. The contests are on steep, ungroomed terrain, so she should already be a confident all-mountain rider. Her coach is the right person to say when she is ready.

Girls’ and women’s divisions

Boys’ and men’s divisions mirror these. At 18 she can stay in juniors or move to the adult series. Once she competes as an adult, or turns 19, she cannot go back.

Every junior needs a certified coach

To register for a junior event, a rider has to be coached on safety and decision making by an IFSA-certified coach. The usual route is to join a registered freeride team at a mountain. If there is no team nearby, she can enter as an independent athlete if a parent or guardian earns the coach certification.

A note for snowboarders

Snowboard fields are small. At the 2026 Junior Freeride Championships there were 14 riders in U15 Snowboard Women and 44 in U15 Ski Women. IFSA runs a division no matter how few riders sign up, but some junior stops are ski only. Check the division list before you plan a trip.

• It suits kids who love the whole mountain. There are no built jumps and no set course. She chooses her own way down.
• The youngest division is low pressure. U12 events have a podium but no points. The handbook calls the U12 categories “ranking-less, seeding-less, and amazing.”
• Judging rewards good decisions. Staying in control is one of the five things judges score, and flips are banned in every junior event.
• Girls have their own community. IFSA’s Rippin’ Ladies program connects girls and women from U12 to the pros, and Sunlight in Colorado hosts a girls-only Rippin’ Ladies event on March 7, 2027.
• It leads somewhere. The same ladder runs to the Freeride World Tour, and freeride joins the Winter Olympics in 2030.

IFSA splits the Americas into 10 regions. California and Nevada are Far West, Utah and Idaho are Intermountain, and Colorado and New Mexico are Rocky Mountain. A junior joins her home region but can enter events in any of them. The North American schedule comes out each October.

What do the stars mean?

More stars means a harder venue, a deeper field and more ranking points. On the calendar the rating is written with an asterisk, so a 2-star junior event appears as Junior 2* in the event name.

A junior can enter four events for points in a season, and no more than three can be 3-star events. Her ranking is her best three results from those four, plus her Junior Freeride Championships result if she is invited. Seeding is separate: her best three results from the past 52 weeks decide who gets into events that fill up.

The 2027 schedule at Kirkwood, Snowbird, Winter Park and Aspen

The venue is a marked-off face inside the ski resort. One rider at a time leaves the start gate, rides the line she planned, and finishes in a corral at the bottom. Some events are one run. Others are two, with both scores added together.

• The athlete meeting is mandatory. Officials cover snow conditions, boundaries, closed areas and required gear.
• So is inspection. Riders go through the venue slowly to study their line, takeoffs and landings. Practicing a line or hitting a feature during inspection is a disqualification.
• Judges score five things: line (how hard the route is), control, technique, fluidity (no stopping or hesitating) and style.
• No flips for juniors. A front flip or backflip is a disqualification. Spins are fine as long as her feet stay below her head.
• A lost board or ski ends the run. It is scored as did not finish, and she rides calmly to the finish corral.
• Scores are final. There are no protests against a judge’s score.

Our guide to competing in snowboarding shows where freeride sits next to slopestyle, halfpipe and the other park contests.

1. 1.Find a team or a certified coach.
2. 2.Buy two memberships. Juniors need an IFSA membership and regional dues for their home region. Both are sold on LiveHeats.
3. 3.Sign up during the registration window. Junior registration opens 4 to 8 weeks before an event and stays open for 72 hours. Everyone goes onto a waitlist first, and your card is charged only when she is confirmed.
4. 4.Sign the waiver and bring proof of health insurance to check-in.
5. 5.Cancel early if plans change. More than 21 days out is a full refund, less processing fees. From 15 to 21 days is half. Inside 14 days there is no refund.

Registration for every North American Junior 3-star in 2027 runs from November 2 to November 16, 2026. The Snowbird Junior 2-star events open on December 10, 2026, Kirkwood opens on December 15, and Aspen opens on January 25, 2027.

What IFSA costs

Required safety gear

• Helmet. Required any time she is in the venue, including inspection.
• Back protector. Required for every competition run. It has to be a stand-alone protector, not a backpack. The starter checks at the gate, and a rider without one does not start.
• Recommended: hip pads and a mouth guard.
• Sometimes required: the organizer can add avalanche gear such as a transceiver, probe and shovel.

Shopping for a board? Start with our snowboard buying guide.

IFSA runs the Americas half of a worldwide freeride ladder. The Freeride World Tour runs the other half, in Europe, Asia and Oceania, and the two share one top tour.

• Junior Freeride Championships. The top-ranked U15 and U19 riders are invited each April. Fewer than 10% of IFSA athletes get an invitation. The 2026 event was at Kicking Horse in British Columbia.
• FIS Freeride Junior World Championships. A one-day event in Europe for U19 riders. Spots for the Americas are based on the final IFSA junior rankings from the season before.
• Adult Qualifiers and the Challenger Series. At 18 her junior results convert into adult seeding points. The best adult riders are invited to the three-event Challenger Series.
• Freeride World Tour. The Challenger Series sends nine riders a year to the pro tour: four ski men, two ski women, two snowboard men and one snowboard woman.
• The Olympics. On July 7, 2026 the IOC confirmed freeride skiing and snowboarding for the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.

IFSA was founded in 1996 by the skier Shane McConkey and Lhotse Merriam Hawk, to give athletes a voice in how their sport was run. Back then, freeskiing meant everything outside of alpine racing, including slopestyle and halfpipe. Those grew into separate sports, and freeride became its own community.

IFSA became a registered nonprofit in 2012 and started its plan for U12 riders in 2014. By its own count it now sanctions more than 185 events a year in four countries and has more than 7,000 members.

Yes, from outside the venue. The competition face is closed to everyone except riders, staff and credentialed coaches, so families watch from below, near the finish. Ask the organizer where spectators can stand and whether you need a lift ticket to get there.

You can also watch from home. IFSA livestreams junior and adult events through the season and posts replays. Upcoming events in California, Utah and Colorado are on our events page.