Slackline Industries is backing a series of professional slackline competitions at the nation’s highest profile action and outdoor-sport events that kick off this weekend in Virginia.
The events are expected to draw competitive slackliners from the around the world to compete for cash prizes and top spots in the official ISI World Ranking. The series of events kicks off during Dominion Riverrock Festival in Richmond, Virginia from May 20-22, 2016.
In June the series moves to Austin, Texas for an elite-level competition held at the premier action sports event in the world, the X Games, from June 3‐5, 2016. The athletes then head west to Vail, Colo. where the stakes and elevation rise for the final rounds. The GoPro Mountain Games will host the world’s best professional slackliners for the fifth year in 2016 from June 9‐12 as a signature event of the long-standing mountain sports competition.
Codifying rules of the sport
The sport of competitive slacklining has truly come of age. Fueled by viral videos, online competitions and a community dedicated to moving the sport forward, the organic growth of the sport spawned a movement towards formalizing competition standards. With the support of Slackline Industries, a new codification of judging criteria has standardized competitions resulting in a new widely adopted format, collectively known as the International Slackline Invitational (ISI) Rules and Regulations.
“We’re looking forward to seeing how the new format will shape the future of the sport,” explains Ricardo Bottome, CEO of Slackline Industries, which is based in Louisville, Colo. “Slackline Industries’ competitive events are a great opportunity to engage people in the professional sport and activity of slacklining for fitness or backyard fun.”
The new standardized scoring system enables athletes and audiences to easily understand competitions. Judges evaluate athletes on difficulty, variety, amplitude and style of their tricks as well as ability to link multiple tricks together. The new system provides consistency in scoring, an unbiased platform and transparency to competitors and audiences while providing significant improvements from the often ambiguous and hard to quantify criteria established under previous judging formats.
Dominion Riverrock, organized by Venture Richmond and the Sports Backers, began in 2009 and is now the nation’s premier outdoor sports and lifestyle festival, bringing athletes, spectators, musicians, and even dogs to Brown’s Island for a three-day festival against the backdrop of downtown Richmond’s urban riverfront. The festival features a variety of out door sports including trail running, kayaking, biking, bouldering, slacklining, stand up paddleboarding, and dog jumping. The event was designed to promote Richmond’s unique riverfront, downtown trails and whitewater rapids to outdoor enthusiasts.
