Judging

What Even Is A Judge

Judges come in all forms, shapes, and sizes. They could be a group of people yelling "yew" when you get 1 foot of air under the chair lift, a YouTube channel like Gifted Hater providing spades and diamonds on skateboarding topics, a FIS Judge who doesn't have the ability to replay but can decide gold medals, film judges, and even this guy

Why Do We Even Need (Or Don't Need) Judges

In a world of 24/7 news, criticism, praises like "hell yeah fam", and diet coke consumption, why do we even need these judges, when (in the context of skiing and snowboarding), we send it for ourselves and our own personal benefit?Do these judges appear to look like the people to the left while we put our bodies on the line sliding a rail, getting some air, and doing a trick/stunt/move, or are judges just trying to recognize the stoke like some legends on the right.

What I'm getting at here is in terms of our app that takes up zero headspace in 99.9% of the people reading this and using idX, does judging and recognizing the unknown (one of our values), conflict with another one of our values in having fun?I think not as evident by some of the clips uploaded to idX in the last two weeks, but I also think there is a little bit of a tight rope to walk. Let's see if we can do this and award our Pushin' P and S.K.O.T.Y of the 2022-2023 season.

Pushin' P

Progression might be the hardest thing that the idX illuminati has had to judge and award since our Kit Check Email.

‍Detailed in the criminally underused event tab on idX, we said that the grand total of $1200, split two ways among skiers and snowboarders, was going to be distributed based on riders progression on idX. Conflict this with our inability to run a business, 91% skiers uploading to idX versus 9% snowboarders, and no community poll was sent out (well, other than the fact that anyone can like and comment on every idX trick), there might have been some confusion, but it was important to us to reward what we feel is vital to idX: Pushin' P.

How do you even judge progression? It's something that's measured on a long term timeline across the world with infinite ways to achieve your goals while also everyone being at different levels when starting on idX. It makes judging a competition look....easy?

Anyways, we devised what we thought was a good formula: Number of Clips Uploaded to idX x Progression Throughout the Season x Quality of Tricks. We wanted to recognize those that went from 360 to 720, slide a box or a rail for the first time, have a dad or mom cam filming them, but also recognize those that can send it while breaking down the doors of Valhalla. Finally, we wanted to recognize those that support idX the most by uploading to idX within the timeframe of the event (detailed in this email that it ended 8/31) *grunts in Red Bull Playstreet noises*.
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Is this the fairest way to recognize progression? Probably not.

Is this a valid way to recognize progression on idX: Facts.

Does the criteria need to be more defined for the upcoming year with specific dates: Yes (and our bad)

Do we need to do a better job of distributing the funds/recognizing progression: For sure

In the future, should we have different divisions: Potentially.

Should the community have some input too: 100% and were working on that within idX. It should be live in the next 2ish weeks as long as we have our adderall.

Enough already, lets just get to who was balling out on idX in Year 0.
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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
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Congrats ogit, curiousapricots8, ski, ak_shedder, str222, dave_can_do_it, full_mast, misfit_skier, willjames, tyler-nowak, jusluca, steezepolice, bake_groot, ndvski, yvng._brady, n8, conordavis, zac.sureman, novybbg, thelifty, drew.flores, blendbuster2, jamison.tidwell, gaffer, and official_no_poles.

Lets hope this doesn't take away from what everyone else on idX has been doing, inspires more fun on the app, and continues recognize the unknown and push yours and others progression.

By the way, since we've suddenly felt the need to give out awards, lets not forget who was the Skier of the Year on idX in Year 0 (2022-2023).

S.K.O.T.Y

Congrats to the one and only jamison.tidwell. I can confidently say that no one on idX has the all around bag of tricks that you have, and all of us on this email can't wait to see the King of Three Kings (at least on idX) this year.

Check out Mess Around if you haven't

Why No S.N.O.T.Y?

Well, we're not going to award a Snowboarder of the Year because Jamison set the bar for that award. Here's to hoping some day bake_groot, thelifty, or anyone else can take this group to the promise land.

Send Us Your Comments

Email us here or mia at idx dot style. Would love some good ol' feedback on how we can do this better for next year (or Jesus Christ - this year) as it will be happening again. Stay tuned.

Final Thoughts

I posted this to our instagram, but I feel like it's worth repeating:

idX was created from the joy and profound influence that park skiing and snowboarding continue to have on us today ever since strapping in that first snowboard or skis and catching a little bit of air as groms.

Until idX, it was clear that a modern platform was missing where you could have fun, push your progression, recognize the unknown, and grow freeskiing and snowboarding.

Platforms and companies today are designed around the media, CPG, and equipment companies that run the industry; idX is built around the people that power the industry: the skiers and snowboarders pushing their progression on one or two planks.

To those people that uploaded or interacted with idX, hike a rail 2 hours after the resort closes, send it with no regard for safety, travel around and sleep in cars for 10 hours to hit a spot, are at the resort from 10 am to 1 am while its blowing man-made snow at a 200 ft vertical hill, build backyard setups in the summer, and treat the world as your playground: you inspire us to work on idX every day and channel our inner kid weekend warrior mentality whenever we drop in.

Thank you, congrats, and let’s get this Bisk in Year 1.

Past Emails

For those that have missed out on other ramblings
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‍Preseason Smoke - 11/10‍
‍An Honest Take: Watching Ski and Snowboard Competitions  - 11/3
‍Back From The Dead: Halloween 2023 - 10/31
‍Too Hood To Be True: A Summer Recap - 10/27
‍idX Financial Biscuits Outlook - 10/20
‍The idx Roadmap of Ski And Snowboard Dreams - 10/13
‍From Dawgs to Ditches, We Back! - 10/6

idX Headquarters

Thanks for playing. Emails Coming On Fridays

- Mia

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