2023/24 SLOPESTYLE WORLD CUP SEASON PREVIEW
Jan 12, 2024·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The last of the three FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe events to start for the 2023/24 season is finally ready to get underway, with the kick-off to the slopestyle season set for next week at the Laax Open in Switzerland.
With the unfortunate announcement this week that the Calgary Snow Rodeo will no longer feature slopestyle competition this year due to course preparation issues there (the halfpipe event there is still on the programme), we’re down to four competitions on this season’s slope World Cup - Laax, Mammoth Mountain (USA), Spinleruv Mlyn (CZE) and Silvaplana (SUI) for the season ender.
Read on for our 2023/24 FIS Snowboard slopestyle World Cup season preview…
THE VENUES
LAAX OPEN FIS SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP - SUI - 16-20 JAN 2024
The Laax Open…the name alone is enough to inspire awe and reverence in snowboarders around the globe, and mid-January stands as the most important date on many competitive snowboarder’s World Cup calendars. Laax is the spiritual home to freestyle snowboarding in Europe, and every winter it draws a who’s-who from across the snowboard industry to be a part of the action.
With a stacked field set to drop in on what is one of the most innovative and exciting courses year in and year out, the Laax Open will once again highlight the slopestyle World Cup season this January.
MAMMOTH MTN U.S. GRAND PRIX FIS SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP - USA - 31 JAN-02 FEB 2024
Mammoth Mountain is set to host the biggest Park & Pipe happening of the season, with the full freeski and snowboard, slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup tours slated to descend on the Californian resort for a packed week of action to take us into February.
One of the greatest freestyle resorts in the USA, Mammoth has been hosting FIS Snowboard World Cup competition dating back to the 2015/16 season, while the U.S. Grand Prix ran as a non-FIS event long before that. With the U.S. team claiming well over half of the slopestyle podiums up for grabs since the first World Cup was held in Mammoth - including 10 out of 11 winners - expect the host squad to be firing once again at their final home-soil competition of the season.
SPINDLERUV MLYN SNOWJAM FIS SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP - 12-17 MAR 2024
After a hiatus last season, we return again this winter to Czechia for the Snowjam slopestyle World Cup in Spindleruv Mlyn, featuring one of the most unconventional slpestyle courses on the World Cup and one of the best vibes in snowboarding thanks to the always-on Czech hospitality.
“Spindle” has been hosting slopestyle World Cup action as part of the Snowjam off and on since the 2012/13 season, and some of the very biggest names in the business have hit the podium at the venue in that time. It’s always a good time in Czechia, and we’re looking forward to be back this season.
SILVAPLANA FIS SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP - SUI - 22-24 MAR 2024
Ah, Silvaplana. Just the name itself brings to mind memories of sunny skies, end-of-season good vibes, and Corvatsch resort boasting one of the very finest jump lines anywhere on the planet. As the final competition of the World Cup season, Silvaplana is always a highlight, but throw in the fact that this will be the last warm-up event at the venue before it hosts the Engadin-St. Moritz 2025 FIS Freestyle, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships next season and you’ve got a whole other level as to why this one will be special yet again this season.
THE HEAVY HITTERS
We’ve already covered a number of the top riders to watch out for in 2023/24 in the big air season preview, which you can find HERE, so we’ll take the opportunity below to include a couple other names who didn’t make the short list over there…
WOMEN
KOKOMO MURASE - JPN - 19
In case you missed it a few weeks ago, it’s worth taking a look back at 19-year-old Kokomo Murase’s performance from the Copper Mountain Visa Big Air just before the holiday break, where she stomped not one, not two, but three triple corks in one big air final on her way to claiming one of the most resounding victories in FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe history. While Coco’s performance there in Copper hammered home the fact that she’s perhaps the gnarliest big air rider in the world today, five of her 11 career World Cup podiums have come in slopestyle. Expect her to add to those totals over the course of the next few months.
TESS COADY - AUS - 23
One of the most dependable big-moment performers in the game, Tess Coady is a slopestyle machine, with the Beijing 2022 Olympic bronze medal, Aspen 2021 World Champs bronze medal, 2023 X Games silver medal and six World Cup slopestyle podiums all to her credit. Chiller than an arctic popsicle and more stylish than Paris fashion week, a Tess Coady drop-in is mandatory time to sit up and take notice.
MIYABI ONITSUKA - JPN - 25
It’s hard to believe, but 25-year-old Miybai Onitsuka is already a decade into her World Cup career, and in that time she’s racked up one of the most impressive resumes in snowboarding. A three-time crystal globe winner (including two of the big Park & Pipe overall trophies), five-time World Champs medallist (including slopestyle gold at Kreischberg 2015), four-time X Games medallist and the holder of 13 World Cup podiums, Onitsuka has been getting it done in a big way since she first arrived on the scene, and remains one of the most consistent podium threats in snowboarding.
MEN
RED GERARD - USA - 23
While it’s looking like last season’s slopestyle crystal globe winner Dusty Henricksen is taking a bit of a break from competition this winter, Red Gerard has returned to lead the U.S. team in a big way. After only dropping in on two World Cup competitions last season while he focused more on backcountry riding (and missing the finals in both of those competitions), Gerard has been resurgent thus far into 2023/24. Earning back-to-back big air podiums in Edmonton and Copper Mountain to send it into the holiday break firmly reestablished as one of the world’s finest competition riders, the PyeongChang 2018 slopestyle gold medallist and Beijing 2022 fourth-place finisher is looking strong as we hit the slopestyle portion of this season.
And if we’re being honest, slopestyle is where Gerard really shines. Nobody attacks a slopesyle course quite like the 23-year-old, and his unique approach and deep bag of tricks should have him sniffing around the podium at every event he enters from here on out in 2023/24.
SVEN THORGREN - SWE - 29
Sitting three months away from his 30th birthday, Sweden’s Sven Thorgren has reached elder-statesman status in the snowboard competition world. However, despite what might be considered his ‘advanced’ age relative to some of his competitors, Thorgren remains absolutely elite, taking home podiums in his last three slopestyle World Cup competitions, earning his eighth X Games medal at the 2022 slopestyle event there, and putting out some of the crispest edits around while shredding at his home resort of Klappen or in his backyard, rope-tow accessed playground. With two throwaway results from his big air starts so far this season, look for Thorgren to be hungry for redemption as we hit the big air stretch of the calendar.
TAKERU OTSUKA - JPN - 22
With Japanese slopestyle/big air riders currently occupying five of the top-10 spots on the Park & Pipe overall standings it’s hard to pick just one to insert into this short list. We already talked about Taiga Hasegawa and Ryoma Kimata in the big air preview, while big air crystal globe winner Kira Kimura, Hiroaki Kunitake and Hiroto Ogiwara all also sit amongst the World Cup leaders thus far into the season.
However, here we’re going off the board a bit with Takeru Otsuka who, despite his lack of success so far this season, is arguably the most talented slopestyle rider on the Japanese team - when he puts his runs down. Last winters X Games silver medallist, Otsuka has more than what it takes to be amongst the best in the world on a day in, day out basis, but it remains to be seen if he can put it together more consistently as he enters would should be the prime years of his career.
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