Should Dance/Freestyle competition require a minimum board length?


  • A lot of tension occurs at some dance/freestyle competitions when pure dancers on 47" boards compete against pure freestylists on 36" boards 

    What is the best way to ensure fairness? I've seen in Russia they have dance only and freestyle only categories. In DC, you had to do tricks in all categories to score well. At other ILDFF comps, it's moreover the quality of what you do vs just doing every type of trick. 
    Should competitions break into more sub disciplines? You wouldn't put pure street or pure vert skaters in the same comp. 



  • What is the distinction here? Dancing being more "style" and cross step oriented where freestyle is just doing flip tricks on a big doublekick? I don't know if it's as distinct as street vs. Vert for your example. 

     

    But I'm not really into either of those so maybe the difference is more obvious than I'm seeing. Would you say it's as different as freeride vs downhill?


  • I find it interesting hearing the feedback from each SYCLD and the scoring system. The controversy surrounding judging of freestyle makes me kind of happy though, because it shows how much the sport has evolved.

    I feel as though, and this is my personal opinion, that the general trend of reactions is concerned that dancing isn't as heavily scored, with freestyle judging having more emphasis. And I can see why, dancing is hard to judge, can be subjective compared to freestyle which has somewhat more defined techniques that can be easier to rank in difficulty and consequently, judging.

    But I do feel a dance/freestyle competition should look at the incorporation and balance of both elements, but that balance is being upset by the advances in freestyle. I don't think longboard skating should/needs any impositions or limitations, because that decreases creativity of the line/combo. Instead, I think the problem lies with the inherent subjectivity of dance, and the scoring system.

    What I think would be interesting as an alternative would be having 1V1 dance-offs where riders would pit their best dance/freestyle lines (with music ofc), and have the audience/group judge who's interpretation (of rhythm, of D/FS balance, flow, etc) was better. Sure that potentially brings in bias, but that way community scoring better reflects everyone's interpretation.

    Admittedly my dance style is extremely wonky and chaotic, so I'm kinda worried to see how it'd fare against ILDFF scoring but f it we ball.


  • @Daniel Lindsey the trick's difficulty, the riders flow, creativity, and amount of tricks done I think are what qualifies the competition. You can judge both styles using the same category. Is 10 360's on a longer board harder than in a small board? Than maybe give em points based on that? I think they should exist in the same class because dancing is freestyling and freestyling is dancing. One board is better suited for some tricks than the other, but at the end of the day the end result is the same. Cool lines, difficult tricks and flow. Might also add a category based on the overall impression given by the riders routine and choice of music too.


  • @Justin Chang as an event host whose added a communities choice award to an event, I say that's not the best idea. Popularity of the rider will always outweigh  the skill, difficulty of tricks and routine when you leave it up to the audience.


  • Funny, the opposite topic came up on the Frontside 360 Podcast a few years back - should there be delineation between Rodney Mullen-esque flatland freestyle and longboard freestyle (after a few longboard freestylers got into a flatland freestyle competition and were very confused).


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