Most of the confusion we see these days is how NORA Cup winners are chosen, how it’s judged, why so-and-so isn’t nominated, etc etc. I will try to be as open and thorough about the process as possible because I understand it’s a bit clouded and confusing…
Who votes?!
Well, the easy answer is professional and ex-professional riders. The more complicated answer is that there are different lists for different categories. The “Freestyle” list is able to vote on Street, Transition, Video, and Video Part. Then there’s the Trail, Women’s, and Flat lists that can only vote in their respective discipline. And then there’s the Reader’s Choice Rider Of The Year, which is open to the public to vote once per day.
The “Freestyle” list has over 500 riders and we add more people to it every year. Riders only get removed from the list if they go several years without responding or ask to be removed. The Flat and Women’s list is made up of professional and semi-professional flat riders and curated by several people within the respective community. The odd ball is the Trail list, which is meant to represent true trail riders and not be solely about riding, but overall contributions to that tight-knit scene. The list was created and still curated by a few people within the trail community, but it is more open than the other lists. Essentially anyone who requests to vote and can prove they are part of the trail scene is eligible.
What’s The Voting Process?!
The act of voting is simple. I send out an email and ask, “who deserves to be Street Rider Of The Year?” I do not list names of people or make suggestions. In the case of Video and Video Part, I do curate a list of eligible video and video parts to help refresh people’s memories. In the idea of being transparent, you can see the 2024 video list and the video part list yourself. The email also reiterates a thing or two I’ve already stated, but here it is copy/pasted directly from the email: “PLEASE ONLY VOTE IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH FAMILIARITY WITH IT. Otherwise leave it blank. To put it more bluntly, if you don’t actively pay attention to certain genres of riding, do not assume you know that a certain rider deserves to win. In the same vein, NORA Cup is not a popularity contest. It’s a “rider of the year” award, so it should be based on who you think has been killing it starting from NORA Cup 2023’s voting period (August), not who is the best ever, your friend, or teammate.”
So yeah, I count votes as they come in and send a couple more emails hassling people to vote. I then hassle them via text of whatever social media I can find. Since I’m basically word-vomiting at this point, I’ll say that it’s a super tedious/annoying process with 1200+ people on all four lists. I know what you’re thinking and no, it can’t really be automated with the open voting system and a few other quirks…I’ve looked into it.
So yeah, the votes are counted and, as you’d expect, the person who gets the most votes is the winner. The nominees are simply the five people that got the most votes. There is no vote off or decision to make…he/she who has the most votes, wins. That’s it. Has there ever been a tie? Yes and it’s pretty stressful. In that case, I just keep gathering chasing after people until there’s at least two votes that separate the winner from second place. I really do not like to call it off a single vote.
WHY DIDN’T XYZ GET NOMINATED?!
The short answer is I have no idea. Counting the votes is weird and I’ve seen odd things happen. Instances where one or two riders (or video/video parts) get 95% of the votes and allow someone who has an atypical style break into the top five. I jokingly call this the “Rat Kid” effect, as it first noticeably happened in Street years ago when Garrett was undeniably, unarguably, abso-fucking-lutely the best street rider of the year. At the time, there was a small group of people who always voted for Rat Kid because to them, Rat Kid is/was the definition of street. And that’s fucking sick, by the way—Gralla is an amazing rider and the epitome of true street riding. But what I’m getting at, from the outside looking in, people were looking at the top five street rider nominees that year and questioning why Mark was in and not whoever else in the “main stream” they thought should be included. And really, it happens somewhat often…it happened in the Video category this year. Also, to put it out there bluntly, NORA Cup is the consensus of a group of people. As much as I put in the email that this is not a popularity contest and you are not voting for your friend, I see it happen…or I at least I think I see it happen. Because, NORA is subjective and opinion-based. Who I want to win doesn’t always win, either. Hell, I don’t even vote…just count em.
IT’S RIGGED!
I truly put the integrity of the process on a very high pedestal. I want NORA and the voting to be above reproach, which is why I’m generally very open about how it all works. Is it perfect? Probably not. Does it get it wrong sometimes? In all honestly, sometimes, I think it does… But again, that’s just my opinion. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to email me. I do not mind constructive criticism at all. – Ryan Fudger
