The World Gravity Sports Federation was created in 2021 and 2022 by Chris McBride and William Stephenson as the sanctioning body beyond the World Downhill Skateboarding Championship. WGSF’s charter is to promote the sport of gravity powered street sports. WGSF is currently focusing on the skateboarding disciplines of downhill Stand Up, and Street Luge. The federation will sanction races based on their rulebook and create point series. WGSF is a non profit association based in England. Technically, it is a company limited by guarantee, but this means there are no shareholders. McBride and Stephenson, currently, the only two voting members.
WDSC is WGSF’s pro series. As the series is brand new, it is open to almost everyone. But, over the next few years, the requirements to enter the pro series will become stricter. Ultimately the events will only be open to, probably the top 20 or 40 people in each discipline. Having smaller pro fields will allow the media machine to concentrate on fewer people, and build narratives that will help grow the fan base.
WGSF is still working on the exact rules to limit the entries. One potential rule is to allow the top N riders from one season to race in the following season, along with the top few riders from the amateur season. This means each year the bottom few rows will be dropped! The exact specifics are still being worked on. In addition there will probably be sponsor exemptions and event wildcards to let in some of the local legends. 2023 season will continue to be open, but expect 2024 to be restricted. More details will follow later in the year.
WDSC is a for profit partnership between Race Marketing and Management and WGSF. Like any for profit venture, it will take several years before it starts to actually generate a profit. Once the fan base is built up enough to bring in some major sponsors, the events themselves will be the first to grow. The events will become larger, with prize money increasing. Eventually some of that money will make its way to WGSF.
WGSF will attempt to use that money to benefit the sport as a whole. One thing WGSF would like to do is put some money into research and development. The top projects on the list are improving safety walls at events. Hay is becoming scarce and expensive, in addition they are expensive and time consuming to set up and remove. A cheaper, better alternative needs to be discovered. Another project is to develop our own downhill helmet certification. Additional money can go into purchasing event items that organizers can use, such as pov cams, radios, timing systems, etc. Money can also go into producing more and better media. Live streaming events, purchasing equipment that makes it easier and cheaper to host events, and to grow WGSF and the sport.
But to support everything there needs to be a healthy amateur scene. WGSF is committed to trying to bring some structure to the sport, and unite events around the globe. WGSF is working on creating a three tiered amateur series, with regional, national, and international events. These events will be under a single world wide point system, with point systems for continentals and even nationals. Without going into too much detail, a Regional event is typically a small event, worth traveling around the region, with the fewest points. A National is worth traveling across the nation (or continent) and an International would be worth traveling around the world, and garners the most points. We would like to see the regionals be small, cheap events, lasting perhaps one or even half a day. A regional would have less structure, no timing, with either a pea picked single elimination bracket or some sort of points racing. A national event is a larger, multi day event, with more structure. More likely to have timing, with a single elimination bracket. And finally the international would have the most structure, 3+ day events, and the closest to how the WDSC events would be run.
The number of international events per continent will be limited, mostly based on the number of nationals and regionals. It will take several years to attain the goal, but the idea is to have more regionals and fewer internationals. As the sport grows, attendance at events will grow and begin to sell out. We would probably have a tiered priority registration system based on points.
For 2023, WGSF is concentrating mostly on sanctioning national races. We need to develop local race officials, at least on each continent, before international sanctioning can begin.
The amateur series would be completely separate from the WDSC series. With Regionals having the fewest points, and Internationals the most points. The world amateur point series would probably be based on the best 4 or 5 races, with the continental series based on the best 2 or 3, with only racers from that continent getting points. And finally, if requested we can supply points for nationals. At this time the amateur series would be open to anyone, even those racing in the WDSC Once the WDSC has matured, the pros may be barred from racing in the amateur series, but we are a few years from that happening
WGSF is also looking to grow an under 18 only, Grom Series. This would be a separate series, separate events. The idea is to find a road, bike path, parking lot, that is short, and fairly slow. A few hundred meters where the kids can walk back to the top. The course speeds will be lower thus leathers and full face helmets will not be required. Just a regular skateboard helmet with gloves and knee pads. No street luges, but rather classic luges, for the lay down class. This should make these events much more accessible. These events should be put on in a few hours, without a huge cost. With such a setup there is no reason there can’t be a half dozen or more races a year, in every city around the world!
In 2023 WGSF needs to prove itself. It is looking to sanction races around the world. In an attempt to once again have a world wide point series, with a solid calendar. WGSF has rewritten the rule book, will run a point series, and will promote the sports and events on social media. WGSF will also work with the races to make sure they are safe and fun. WGSF will be able to provide some races with some POV cameras.
In 2024 WGSF is hoping to grow the calendar and include Internationals and regionals. At this time WGSF hopes to have some local officials that can officiate the Internationals, and some of the Nationals. WGSF will try to secure a timing system by then. And focus a bit on juniors. Through both the Grom series, as well as having junior classes.
By 2025 WGSF is hoping to have the Grom series started, and to provide more help to the growing scene. Larger calendar, more regional races, and with money coming in from WDSC the ability to live stream some of the events. There are various qualities of a live stream, we will try to bring live streaming sooner than later.
WGSF originally planned on asking for a members fee to race in WGSF events, with a separate pro license fee for WDSC events. For the amateurs, the original idea was to have the typical annual membership. The annual membership would perhaps get you a unique gift, access to off season events, and maybe priority registration. But to help reduce costs, we would also offer a monthly membership as a way to solve the problem of people having to pay a large annual membership to only go to one event. An individual would have to micromanage their membership.
We will most likely charge for WDSC membership, but we’ve decided to waive the amateur membership fee for 2023. We want to grow the sport and the federation first.
WGSF won’t be sustainable, with the current fee structure, but WGSF doesn’t want to rely on WDSC. Both event sanctioning fees and amateur memberships will be re-evaluated at the end of the year, and adjusted to keep WGSF sustainable. Without travel expenses and timing system expenses, WGSF can run on a small budget, with a little room to grow each year. WDSC money will be used more on the growth side.
We are also looking at working with existing national orgs, as well as creating new national orgs. One solution to global fee equity, is to pay your membership fee to the national org, with the national org turning around and paying WGSF. Some of these issues will be ironed out over the coming year.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done. Stuff we are still trying to figure out. We want to move at a pace that we think we can make it work, without overreaching ourselves. And while we are hoping to receive income from WDSC to help the sport, we also want to try to regrow the sport to be sustainable on its own.
We do hope that WDSC will help grow a fan base that will benefit the entire sport. New riders will come out of a fan base. New sponsorship opportunities will come out of having a larger fan base. In the meantime we need to build up the amateur series.
We have put together a Discord server, the general chat room will be available to everyone. We have an organizers chat room, open to anyone organizing an event, whether it is a freeride or race, whether it is WGSF sanctioned or not. https://discord.gg/uh7MQpEzcg
If you are interested in hosting an event, or volunteering for WGSF, please contact us.
You can also contact us at chris@wgsfracing.com or will@wgsfracing.com.
You can find us at https://www.wgsfracing.com, https://www.facebook.com/wgsfracing, and https://www.instagram.com/wgsf_racing/