What is USASA? The grassroots snowboard and freeski series, explained

USASA is the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association, a nonprofit that runs grassroots snowboard and freeski contests across the country. It says it has more than 10,000 members and puts on more than 500 competitions a season at over 120 resorts, through a network of regional series that each cover a few local mountains.

For a family, USASA is the usual first step into contests. She buys one membership, picks the series closest to where she rides, and enters as many or as few events as she likes. Riders who do well in their region can earn a spot at the USASA National Championships at Copper Mountain, Colorado, each spring.

Anyone with a current USASA membership can enter. There are no tryouts, and USASA says a rider does not need a coach to show up and compete. Every age group is split into girls and boys, and into snowboard and freeski, so she rides against girls her own age on the same equipment.

Girls’ and women’s age groups

There are also Para divisions for riders with physical disabilities and Kekoa divisions for riders with intellectual disabilities, each split into juniors (5–17) and seniors (18 and over).

• It is built for first-timers. No tryouts, no qualifying, and membership is free for ages 5 to 8. USASA describes its two youngest groups as “focused on fun and inclusion.”
• She can try everything. One membership covers slopestyle, halfpipe, rail jam, boardercross, slalom and giant slalom. She can enter one event or all of them.
• It is close to home. The Southern California Series runs at Bear Mountain in Big Bear, with a 2026 rail jam at Mountain High in Wrightwood.
• It leads somewhere. Regional results qualify riders for Nationals, and USASA says nearly every member of the U.S. Olympic snowboard and freeski teams started in its contests.
• Women are paid the same. In the Open Class at the 2026 Nationals, prize money for women and men was equal, even when the women’s field was smaller.

USASA names a season by the year it ends, so winter 2026–27 is the “2027 season.” When she joins, she picks a home series. USASA’s advice is to choose by where she rides, not where you live. She can enter contests in any series, but she can only win the title in her home series, and it has to be declared by January 31.

The events

• Slopestyle: a run through a course of at least three features, with at least one jump and one rail. Judged.
• Halfpipe: tricks on both walls of the pipe. Judged.
• Rail jam: a session on rails and boxes, often a set amount of time instead of a set number of runs. Judged.
• Boardercross and ski cross: up to four riders race side by side down a course of banks, rollers and jumps.
• Slalom and giant slalom: timed races through gates. Snowboard only.

Points and rankings

• Every contest pays points by finishing place: 1,000 for first, 900 for second, 800 for third, and so on down.
• Her regional ranking decides the series champion in each event, age group and gender. Each series sets how many results count.
• Her national ranking in each event is the total of her three best results, from any series, with one bonus point for each rider she beat.
• Rankings start from zero every season. Rascals are not ranked.

The Southern California Series, 2025–26

The 2026–27 Southern California schedule had not been posted when we checked on October 3, 2026. USASA says regional registration opens November 1. This is how last season ran, including the contests that were cancelled.

Mammoth has its own USASA series, the Unbound Series, which ran from December 7, 2025 to March 8, 2026 and held all of its halfpipe, slalom and giant slalom contests. Families who travel will also meet the North Tahoe Series (Palisades Tahoe, Northstar, Sugar Bowl), the South Tahoe Series (Sierra-at-Tahoe), Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Series (Copper Mountain, Steamboat) and Aspen Series, and Big Mountain West, which covers Park City in Utah.

• Each series posts start lists, schedules and changes on its Team App page. That is the official notice board.
• The day starts with a competitors’ meeting, then course inspection and practice. She wears her bib for all of it.
• In slopestyle and halfpipe, at least three judges score each run out of 100, and her best run counts.
• Judges look at five things, weighted equally: progression, amplitude, variety, execution and difficulty.
• In boardercross, riders are seeded first, by a timed run, their national ranking or a round robin, then race in heats of up to four.
• A helmet is mandatory in inspection, practice and competition. Helmet cameras are not allowed, and fluorinated wax is banned.

Our guide to competing in snowboarding covers judging and what to pack in more detail.

1. 1.Buy a membership from usasa.org. It sends you to LiveHeats, where a parent creates the account and can add each child to it.
2. 2.Pick her home series. For most Southern California families that is the Southern California Series or the Unbound Series.
3. 3.Enter each contest separately on the series’ LiveHeats page, and pay the entry fee. She can enter more than one event on the same day.
4. 4.Sign the waiver. A parent signs for anyone under 18, and USASA requires every competitor to have medical insurance.
5. 5.Register before it closes. Nobody is added once online registration ends, and entries are not refunded after that.

What it costs

A rider who snowboards and skis needs two memberships, one for each. If she needs a board first, start with our snowboard buying guide.

The USASA National Championships

Nationals has been at Copper Mountain, Colorado since 2008. The 2027 dates are March 26 to April 1 for snowboard week and April 2 to 7 for freeski week. There are two ways in:

• Win her series. The series champion in each event, age group and gender gets one automatic spot.
• Rank high nationally. The remaining spots are filled from the national rankings.
• Either way she has to join the Nationals waitlist for each event during a short window in March. In 2026 it was open March 11 to 16, and there was no late or on-site entry.
• Last year’s results do not carry over, and Nationals entries are not refundable.

After Nationals

• The Futures Tour was created by USASA and U.S. Ski & Snowboard as the step between regional contests and national events. Riders must be 13 and hold a USASA membership, a U.S. Ski & Snowboard membership and an FIS license. In 2024–25 the women’s slopestyle and halfpipe fields were open entry, and stops included Mammoth, Northstar and Woodward Park City.
• The Rev Tour is U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s series for riders 13 to 19 in slopestyle, halfpipe and big air. In its 2024–25 guide, USASA listed three ways in: the FIS ranking list, the Open Class at USASA Nationals, and the Futures Tour.

The whole ladder is in our guide, So you want to compete in snowboarding, and the next rung has its own explainer: What is U.S. Ski & Snowboard?

USASA was founded in 1988 by Chuck Allen, an amateur surf coach, as the United States Amateur Snowboarding Association. By its own account it started with $500 from Transworld SNOWboarding magazine. It describes itself as the first governing body for grassroots snowboarding: it standardized contest rules and held its first National Championships in 1990.

Nationals moved around the country until 2008, when Copper Mountain became its permanent home. Freeskiers were added in 2011, and in 2014 the organization took its current name, keeping the same initials. In 2019 it took on a new role running the Futures Tour with U.S. Ski & Snowboard.

Yes. USASA welcomes parents at all of its events, in designated areas beside the course. Some venues are up the hill, so ask the series whether you need a lift ticket to reach them. At Nationals in 2026, Copper sold foot-passenger lift tickets for $25 a day, and the halfpipe and boardercross venues could be reached on foot.

Watching a rail jam or a slopestyle at Bear Mountain is an easy way to show her what a contest looks like before she enters one. Upcoming contests are on our events page.