About Slalom and Freestyle

The original competition style for freestyle slalom skating, starting in the 1990s. Each skater has two minutes to present a prepared performance, with music, to a panel of judges. The skaters are awarded points for technical difficulty and artistic merit.
In the newest sports to be joining the World Slalom Skaters Association (WSSA), skaters jump over a high jump bar from flat ground, without the use of a ramp. The current world champion jumps over 5 feet. This will be the first time that this competition will be featured at the USA Slalom Nationals.

In this knockout style competition, skaters race against each other in head-to-head rounds to see how fast each skater can skate on one foot through a line of 20 cones. Skaters are matched up based on their qualifying times and light gates measure to with an accuracy of 0.01s.
In this street-style knockout competition, skaters take turns presenting their tricks in battle heats of 4 skaters while a DJ plays music. Trick 'runs' are either prepared or improvised, and 2 skaters from each group advance to the next round.
After a fast run up, skaters turn their wheels sideways and slide to an eventual stop, with the wheels and body leaning away from the direction of travel. In this battle-heats competition, skaters knock each other out by using more difficult tricks and sliding farther.

 This 8 level slalom testing program is being designed & operated for us by the Skate Instructors Association (SkateIA). 
It enables skaters to track their progress in developing their slalom skills as they climb the ladder of grades.
WHAT TO EXPECT AT A GRADING SESSION:
There are two parts to a grading session, and you’ll proceed to part 2 if pass part 1.
Part 1: You’ll show that you can do each of the tricks that are required for your grade.
Part 2: You’ll slalom for approximately 105-120 seconds while including at least 6 of the tricks from the grade being tested. You can bring your own music.
This second part tests your ability to switch between tricks with a level of continuity and speed that matches the grade that you’re testing for. Ie, for grade I the criteria are very forgiving, and for grade V you’d need to show a fairly high level of continuity and speed when switching from trick to trick.
COST:
The grades cost $30, with discounts when doing more than one at a grading session.
IF YOU FAIL:
Often people doing gradings in sports, skills and music etc may not pass first time.  If that happens, you can re-test on another occasion for a nominal fee of $5 and you'll only need to re-test the parts which you didn't pass the first time so a finished grade can be something that you work towards over time. 
UPCOMING GRADINGS: (As of 0411/2017)
These are the currently scheduled gradings, and further gradings will be announced as they’re arranged:

• Mid-July in Lincoln, NE at the US Slalom Nationals
• 18/19 or 20th August in LA at Camp Skate IA

Grade I	Grade II
Fish Snake Backward Snake Crisscross Backward Crisscross Basket weave Nelson Back Nelson Sun	Crazy Mabrouk Stroll (‘Double Crazy’) Back Stroll (‘Back Double Crazy’) Mega Crab 1 Foot Italian Mexican Crazy Sun
Grade III	Grade IV
8 Back 8 X Jumping X 1 Foot Backward Toe Toe Snake Volte Grande Volte Eagle OR Eagle Cross Small Car (‘The Midget’)	J-Turn Reverse J-Turn Brush Backward Brush Special Heel Toe Back Snake 1 Cone Crazy 1 Cone Double Crazy 1 Cone Back Double Crazy Drift
Grade V	Grade VI
Wiper Fan Volte OR Total Cross Swan OR Screw Toe Wheeling (4 cones) Heel Wheeling (4 cones) Crazy Legs 1 of: Rekil / Reverse Rekil / Total Foot / Foot Shift Footgun OR Touch Down	Other of: Swan OR Screw  2 more of: Rekil / Reverse Rekil / Total Foot Foot Shift 1 of: Wheeling Eagle / Inverted Side Surf Jumping Special 1 of: Back Footgun / Bw Touchdown / Kasakchok / Christie / Deck Chair Back Heel wheeling OR Back Toe Wheeling (4 cones)
Grade VII	Grade VIII
Other of: Back Heel wheeling OR Back Toe Wheeling Sewing Machine (2 cones) Seven (2 cones) Wheeling Fw-Bw (4 fw - 4 bw) Cobra Chicken Leg (2 rotations) 1 other: Back Footgun / Bw Touchdown / Kasakchok / Christie / Deck Chair	Seven (4 cones) Wheeling Shift (4 cones) Wheeling Rekil  Chicken Toe (2 rotations) Backward Cobra Toe Inverted Eagle OR Butterfly 1 of: Bw Deckchair / Toe Christie / Bw Christie / Back Kazakchok / Footgun Foot Spin

 

Updated 04/11/2017