Halfpipe World Cup season preview 2023/24
Dec 06, 2023·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The start of the 2023/24 FIS Snowboard halfpipe World Cup season is upon us, as we’re set to kick off a new campaign in a big way on Wednesday when we qualifications get underway at our return to the Beijing 2022 Olympic venue in Secret Garden - inarguably one of the finest halfpipe venues ever constructed.
Taking place from 06-08 December, Secret Garden will be the first of five halfpipe World Cup competitions going down this season in what is a packed Park & Pipe World Cup calendar. Visiting some of the world’s very best halfpipes in Asia, Europe and North America, and featuring the very best halfpipe riders doing it in the world today, the upcoming season is set to once again be monumental.
SECRET GARDEN - CHN - 07-09 DEC
The first stop on this season’s halfpipe World Cup takes us back to the site of some incredible memories from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, as we return to what is perhaps the world’s very best halfpipe in Secret Garden. The only former Olympic halfpipe venue currently hosting tier 1 international competition, the Secret Garden pipe is deep, long and damn near perfect, and we’re looking forward to an explosive start to the season there in China.
With the full slate of Beijing 2022 medallist set to drop in on the men’s side of things - gold winner Ayumu Hirano (JPN), silver medallist Scotty James (AUS) and bronze medallist Jan Scherrer (SUI) - along with women’s Beijing 2022 silver medallist Queralt Castellet (ESP) and bronze medallist Sena Tomita (JPN) and a whole host of other top pipe rippers, this is shaping up to be a doozy to kick off the season.
COPPER MOUNTAIN U.S. GRAND PRIX - USA - 13-15 DEC
Copper Mountain keeps bringing the goods, year in and year out, and last season was no exception as the resort welcomed it’s long-running Grand Prix halfpipe competition back again, while also adding big air World Cup action to its slopes for the first time since 2017/18. “The Athletes’ Mountain” has played host to halfpipe World Cup competition dating back to the 2012/13 season, and remains a highlight every year.
With Chloe Kim expected to make her return to action in Copper this year after stepping back from competition following her Beijing 2022 Olympic gold medal win, this season’s first U.S. Grand Prix is shaping up to be a must-watch event.
LAAX OPEN - SUI - 17-20 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 stands as the spiritual home to freestyle snowboarding in Europe, and with the only pipe on earth that can rival the Olympic venue in Secret Garden, the level of competition year-in and year-out is quite simply mind-blowing.
Heck, even when competition doesn’t happen Laax remains mind-blowing, as with last season where finals were cancelled due to fog and a handful of riders dropped in on an impromptu jam session that resulted in some of the most inspiring halfpipe images in history - including Kaishu Hirano (JPN) and Valentino Guseli (AUS) going back-to-back with the two biggest airs ever seen in a halfpipe.
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN U.S. GRAND PRIX - USA - 31 JAN - 4 FEB 2024
Once again Mammoth Mountain is set to host the biggest Park & Pipe week 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.
With World Cup competition history dating back to the 2015/16 season, Mammoth has seen an essential who’s-who of the last decade of halfpipe riding hit the podium there, with Shaun White (USA), Kelly Clark (USA), Ayumu Hirano and Cai Xuetong (CHN) a few of the past winners. One interesting note, however, is the fact that California’s own Chloe Kim has never graced the top of the Mammoth podium. Expect the W in Mammoth to be high on her list of priorities this season.
CALGARY SNOW RODEO - CAN - 08-11 FEB 2024
The 2023/24 FIS Snowboard halfpipe season will wrap up at Calgary’s WinSport Canada Olympic Park with the Snow Rodeo once again bringing the yee-haw to the World Cup finale. With a pipe that Shaun White used as his training ground ahead of his gold medal win at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games and a hosting history dating all the way back to the very beginning of the FIS Snowboard World Cup in 1996, Calgary’s pedigree knows few peers. Throw in the fact that the venue is just a 30 minute drive from one of Canada’s most major metropolitan centres and you’ve got a pretty special spot for some snowboarding, indeed.
THE HEAVY HITTERS
WOMEN
CHLOE KIM - USA - 23
The expected return to competition this season of two-time reigning Olympic halfpipe champion Chloe Kim is one of the most hotly-anticipated happenings in all of snowboarding. Kim needs no real introduction here - she’s quite simply the most dominant woman to ever drop in on a halfpipe. Two-for-two in Olympic Winter Games starts, two-for-two in World Championships starts, 10 victories in 14 World Cup starts, six X Games golds, and all of that coming despite essentially taking two full seasons off in the last three years.
QUERALT CASTELLET - ESP - 34
Queralt Castellet is a machine that never breaks. Now entering her nineteenth season of World Cup competition, Castellet as good, if not better, than she ever has been. After finally winning her first Olympic medal in her fifth go-around at Beijing 2022, Castellet now has her sights set on Milano-Cortina 2026 and a sixth Olympic appearance, which is beyond unheard of in the youth-dominated world of park and pipe. We know she’ll get there, and you can count on her racking up a few World Cup podiums in the meantime.
MITSUKI ONO - JPN - 19
Last season’s halfpipe crystal globe winner on the women’s side and Bakuriani 2023 World Championships bronze medallist, Mitsuki Ono last season emerged as the young leader of the always-strong Japanese team when she become the first woman in 22 years to win three straight World Cups. With silky smooth style and undeniable technique all in one super positive package, expect Ono to be landing herself amongst the top-3 conversation at every World Cup this season.
CAI XUETONG - CHN - 30
Cai Xuetong is, quite simply, one of the most under-appreciated legends of competitive snowboarding. The record holder for Park & Pipe World Cup podiums with 30 and second overall across all FIS snowboard events with 10 crystal globes to her name, Cai is also just two victories back of Tricia Byrnes (USA) in her quest to become the winningest FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe rider of all-time. Despite missing basically two years of competition time due to Chinese covid-19 travel restrictions, Cai showed up back on the scene last winter at Bakuriani 2023 World Champs and promptly won her third World Championships gold medal. Simply incredible.
THE HEAVY HITTERS
MEN
AYUMU HIRANO - JPN - 25
We have to be honest with you - we have no idea what reigning Olympic gold medallist Ayumu Hirano’s plans are for this season. All we know is that he’s the most explosive rider in halfpipe snowboarding, he’s at Secret Garden for the season opener, and we cannot wait to watch what he puts down every single time he drops in on a halfpipe. Like his fellow Beijing 2022 Olympic gold medallist Chloe Kim, Hirano basically took last season off (except to drop in on the X Games in Aspen). We thought he would be training to once again compete in skateboarding at the Paris 2023 Olympics and that we wouldn’t see him on snow until next winter, but he’s here in Secret Garden, and we hope he’ll be at every other World Cup this season, too. Ayumu Hirano rules.
SCOTTY JAMES - AUS - 29
We’re also stoked to see what Scotty James brings to the table this season, after he finished off his winter in 2023/24 with a disappointing fifth place result at the Bakuriani 2023 World Champs. Make no mistake - while his social media presence is affable and devil-may-care, James is one of the fiercest competitors in the history of the sport. If we had to predict anything for this halfpipe World Cup season, it would be that Scotty James comes back with an absolute vengeance - new tricks, bigger amplitude, harder-charging, and podium-worthy in every event out.
CHAEUN LEE - KOR - 17
It might seem a bit presumptuous to put a 17-year-old with just nine World Cup starts and no World Cup podiums to his name amongst a short list of the world’s finest halfpipe riders right now, but Chaeun Lee isn’t just any 17-year-old - he’s the reigning World Champion after a star-making turn at Bakuriani 2023. Last time we saw him ride pipe, Lee was dropping back-to-back 1440s on his way to World Champs gold. The question now is, where will he take it this season?
RUKA HIRANO - JPN - 21
We got a little hung-up on the last entry here…should it be Bakuriani 2023 silver medallist and 2022/23 halfpipe World Cup rankings runner-up Valentino Guseli (AUS)? What about Beijing 2022 Olympics and Bakuriani 2023 bronze medallist Jan Scherrer (SUI)? Did someone say Kaishu Hirano and/or Yuto Totsuka?
In the end, it’s gotta be Ruka Hirano, last season’s halfpipe crystal globe winner. With three straight World Cup victories to finish last season, podiums in 12 of 15 career halfpipe World Cups entered, and a trick repertoire that’s second to none, Ruka is one of the most quietly devastating halfpipe riders in the world, and a good bet for the crystal globe once again this season.
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