There is an insurance gap at IFSA venues for the coaches of independent Freeride and Freestyle clubs in both Canada and the United States. The following holds true:
So, what are the impacts?
Next Steps
The purchase of supplementary insurance is a decision that is up to each club and its Board. While the IFSA has indicated that it is working on a venue insurance package for coaches, the IFSA confirmed that this will not happen for the season 2018 and that this project is quite difficult given the scale of the IFSA organization/community.
Independent clubs play an important role in the Freeride and Freestyle communities. Increased operating costs are tough on any independent club, especially the small ones like the Golden Alpine Rippers (we have 18 athletes registered). We are investigating ways to bring the insurance premium down for 2019. In an ideal world, we would like to see:
To do this, we need to know:
Please contact GNAR President Heather Heasman or GNAR Head Coach Wendy Patterson if you would like to get involved or if you would like your club to benefit from supplementary insurance at IFSA events in Canada.
The Golden Alpine Rippers Board sent the letters attached below to the IFSA and the CFSA. We received a detailed response from the IFSA and have engaged in constructive discussions with the IFSA regarding this matter. The CFSA has also responded and feels that it is up to the Canadian Freeride community to unite and come forward with a way to legitimize the sport in Canada (i.e. a national organized approach to sanctioning/insurance/ coach training/athlete development for Freeride).
Please note that in the letter to the IFSA, the event revenue calculation is incorrect. The IFSA historically has not received any revenue from the event registration fee. At the time of writing the letter, we were unaware of this detail. This year, the IFSA will collect a "drip" revenue from the resorts per athlete ($2 per athlete per regional event, $6 per athlete per national event, $8 per athlete per FWQ event). If you are interested in more detail regarding the discussions with the IFSA and the CFSA, please reach out to Heather Heasman.