Worlds Apart: ISF and FIS Hold Annual Conferences
by Greg Johnson
(October 16, 1996)

Like a movie that never ends the ISF and FIS have taken their cues from George Lucas in the strange but true saga of the ongoing contest for snowboard supremacy. Now we have life imitating art as the ISF in its new conceptual plan for 97 has shot forward its latest project, "Planet Snowboard." This all encompassing plan is global in scale with the triple attack of marketing, events coordination, and snowboard rights as the strategy to do battle with the evil empire and dark side; you guessed it, the FIS.

Like the rebel forces in "Star Wars" who found themselves outgunned, the ISF has put together the clever idea of "Planet Snowboard," which indoctrinates the loyal following of snowboarders from all over the planet to battle the FIS at every turn. Meanwhile, back at the Deathstar (FIS headquarters) Darth Vader/Hanno Treindl FIS snowboard coordinator plans his masterwork, the battle for total domination of the Olympics.

Is this crazy or what?

Both the ISF and FIS held their annual fall meetings during the same time (October 9-12), and nearly the same place. The ISF in the mountains of Switzerland near the French border at the Swiss resort Saas-Fee, and the FIS in the mountains of France near the Swiss border in the town of Annecy. Needless to say, they were only close in physical distance and light years apart in philosophy. For a brief look at the differences and similarities follow the easy to use chart below.

ISF	FIS
A Swiss bureaucracy	A Swiss bureaucracy
Has some money	Has lots of money
Mostly snowboarders	Mostly skiers
Has a history in snowboarding	Is trying to make history in snowboarding
Operates in chaos	Operates with control
Does not have Ted Martin	Has Ted Martin
Runs A-team World Tour	Runs B-team World Tour
Has lots of fanatics	Has lots of semi-retired folks
Has a snowboard philosophy	Starting to snowboard
Has most of the tours in           the World	Has the Olympics
Has a snowboard vision	Has the Olympics
Has most of the industry	Has the Olympics

You get the picture. To compete with the FIS in this power struggle the ISF hopes to become the worldwide market leader as the one and true snowboard federation. ISF will focus on the global development of snowboard sport by controlling the TV/Events/ Merchandising/ logos of the ISF. You got it, "Planet Snowboard". To make "Planet Snowboard" work the ISF needs at least 60 national associations by the year 2000 and become an accepted partner of the FIS and IOC for the Olympics.

The FIS is kicking back and seeing what countries fall in its sphere of influence by aligning themselves with their nations ski associations. The FIS meeting centered around plans for the FIS World Cup Tour and talk of the Olympics. The FIS has offered the branches of peace to the ISF, but the ISF feels that the price is too high in dealing with the dark side.

A compromise for the Olympics may be in the works as high level talks are scheduled between key ISF and FIS players. These meetings will center around the judging system for the halfpipe contest at the Olympics as well as whose judges will judge the halfpipe. Other points to be discussed are the Olympic selection requirements of different countries and how independent riders can qualify in their respective countries.

The upcoming year will be crucial in establishing the program for the Olympics and could decide the destiny of both the ISF and FIS. Somewhere in this mess a consensus needs to be reached for the good of all snowboarding. "Planet Snowboard" has been launched and the Deathstar is racing towards it; may the farce be with you!