Snowboard halfpipe season preview 2024/25
Dec 04, 2024·Snowboard Park & Pipe)
The last of the FIS Park & Pipe events to start the season is finally hitting the snow this week, as the FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup is set to get underway at the Beijing 2022 Olympic venue in China’s Secret Garden resort for the second straight season.
Going down from 6-8 December, Secret Garden will be the first of five halfpipe World Cup competitions on this season’s calendar, before we wrap up the FIS Park & Pipe season as a whole at the Engadin-St. Moritz 2025 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships in Switzerland in late March.
With the Olympic qualification period now in full swing, every run of every event takes on an added significance for the riders looking to earn one of the 24 women’s and 24 men’s halfpipe quota spots available at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games next February, and with the halfpipe competitions some of the most anticipated and widely-watched in all of the Olympic programme, the battle for those spots promises to be especially hard fought.
The road to Italy is sure to be a wild one, and for competitors of snowboard halfpipe the journey begins this week in China.
Read on for a closer look at the venues and riders set to feature in the 2024/25 season’s action…
THE VENUES
SECRET GARDEN (CHN) - 06-09 DEC 2024
For the second straight season the FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup gets rolling in China at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games venue in Secret Garden. The scene of Shaun White’s last run, a heavyweight tilt between Ayumu Hirano and Scotty James for men’s gold, and Chloe Kim’s dominant second straight Olympic title, the Secret Garden halfpipe will go down in history as the scene of some of the most iconic moments in halfpipe snowboarding. Every year in which we get to return to this legendary pipe is a lucky one, and we expect plenty more Secret Garden fireworks to start the season off in 2024/25.
U.S. GRAND PRIX COPPER MOUNTAIN (USA) - 18-20 DEC 2024
For the final competition of the 2024 calendar year we return to our old stomping grounds at Copper Mountain, U.S. team training ground par excellence and one of the most historic venues in halfpipe history. It’s been over a decade now that the World Cup has been partnered up with the U.S. Grand Prix for halfpipe competition action at Copper, and with the resort’s consistently great pipe, dependable snowfall, and Rocky Mountain charm, we’re happy to keep coming back as long as they’ll have us.
LAAX OPEN (SUI) - 15-18 JAN 2025
Already your favourite snowboarder’s favourite snowboard competition, this season the Laax Open gets even more special, as the event marks it’s tenth anniversary this January. The Laax Open’s formula of the world’s finest halfpipe showcasing night finals in front of an overflowing crowd at the best freestyle resort in Europe is a arguably the greatest spectacle in snowboarding, year in and year out. Throw in a decade anniversary celebration on top of that and you’ve got a recipe for for something legendary this season.
U.S. GRAND PRIX ASPEN (USA) - 30-06 FEB 2025
The last time we were in Aspen for halfpipe competition was during the pandemic season of 2020/21, when the iconic resort stepped up to host World Championships and World Cup action back-to-back at the very last minute. In a lot of ways, Aspen saved the season that winter, and we cannot wait to return to the Buttermilk venue once again this season under some less stressful conditions. Truly one of the great resorts in the USA, by taking on halfpipe, big air, and slopestyle action for both snowboard and freeski, all in the same week, Aspen is primed this winter to host the biggest one-venue World Cup week in Park & Pipe history.
CALGARY (CAN) - 19-23 FEB 2025
Almost thirty years to the day since the first FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup season came to conclusion at the very same venue, Calgary’s Canada WinSport Olympic Park will hold the season finale for the 2024/25 season.
On February 26th, 1995, the USA’s Lael Gregory capped off a dominant season with a victory in Calgary, giving him his fourth win in five events and the first Crystal Globe in halfpipe World Cup history. It’s incredible to think that we are now 30 years on from that season and still returning to one of the most important, dependable and unique venues in snowboard competition history. We can’t wait to see what Calgary has in store this season.
THE RIDERS - WOMEN
MITSUKI ONO (JPN)
Fresh off her second-straight halfpipe Crystal Globe winning season, Japan’s Mistuki Ono has established herself as the most consistently dominant force on the Halfpipe World Cup since midway through the 2021/22 season. Since that time, Ono has nine podiums in nine starts - including six victories. In fact, to find the last time Ono found herself outside the top-5 in a World Cup event you would have to go all the way back to her first season on tour in 2019/20. Amplitude, style, variety - Ono has all of it in spades, and it would surprise no one to see her walk away with her third straight season title in 2024/25.
MADDIE MASTRO (USA)
Rolling into the 2024/25 season fresh off a career-best second-overall finish on last season’s Halfpipe World Cup standings and with a fresh double cork in her trick quiver, 24-year-old Maddie Mastro is looking to step things up once again this winter. With 15 podiums in 26 career starts, Mastro has essentially been a podium sure-thing since she debuted on the World Cup with a third place finish on home soil at Mammoth Mountain in 2015/16. Surprisingly, despite all her success, her first World Cup win still eludes her. Will 2024/25 be the season we finally see Mastro on top of the podium?
BEA KIM (USA)
Bea Kim’s rise to the elite of the women’s halfpipe field has been meteoric, as in her first full season of World Cup action last winter the 17-year-old earned a spot on the end-of-season podium with a third overall finish. How’d she do that? With four fourth-place finishes in five starts, which probably would have been a pretty frustrating tally come end of season had she not also earned her first World Cup podium on the biggest stage of 2024/25 at the Laax Open.
CAI XUETONG (CHN)
The most decorated rider in the history of the FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup, Cai Xuetong is still running strong at 31 years of age. With a Park & Pipe record 10 Crystal Globes to her credit, Cai also holds the all-time benchmark in World Cup podiums with 31, and sits just one win back of Tricia Byrnes for the most victories in Park & Pipe World Cup history with 14. While Cai only dropped in on one World Cup in 2024/25, she made that start count, claiming victory at the season-opener in Secret Garden and proving that there’s plenty of gas left in the tank.
CHLOE KIM (USA)
When her career is all said and done, Chloe Kim might go into the history books as the most dominant halfpipe snowboarder of all-time. Her career win rate across all FIS competitions dating back to her start in 2015/16 - Olympics, World Championships, World Cup - is 70%, and if you throw in X Games, U.S. Opens and Dew Tours it’s likely even higher than that. There is simply nobody on earth who can touch her when she’s on her game.
Having said all that, Kim dropped in on two World Cups last season and missed the podium in both of them (though she did stomp the first-ever women’s halfpipe 1260 on her way to winning the 2024 X Games). While those two World Cup misses were probably just anomalies, it’ll be interesting to see how she approaches competition this season when she does show up for some World Cup action.
THE RIDERS - MEN
SCOTTY JAMES (AUS)
Thirty years old, married and father to a newborn baby boy - not the way the typical halfpipe snowboarder profile starts off, but here we are.
To say it was a life-changing off-season for Scotty James might be an understatement, but if anyone asks he’ll tell you he’s just as determined and focused on halfpipe domination as he’s ever been. Last season saw James take wins in two out of three World Cup starts while also earning his third-straight X Games victory, proving that he’s still very much in the ‘world’s best’ conversation as he moves into what will be his fifth (!!) Olympic cycle. Will Milano-Cortina 2026 be the Games he finally finds gold? That road to that possibility starts now.
AYUMU HIRANO (JPN)
Speaking of gold, the reigning Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano will have something to say about Scotty’s success every step of the way leading up to Milano-Cortina. The 2021/22 halfpipe Crystal Globe winner, Ayumu is coming off of a bit of a weird one last season, where failed to put down a clean run in three out of four major events entered - including the X Games. The one start where he did lace a run however, at the Copper Mountain U.S. Grand Prix World Cup, he won by an outrageous 11 points. When Ayumu is on, there is quite simply no one else in the world who can match his combination of explosive amplitude and nonchalant technicality. Whether he can deliver that week-in and week-out through this season season remains to be seen.
RUKA HIRANO (JPN)
Still not related to Ayumu or Kasha Hirano, Ruka Hirano is the back-to-back reigning Crystal Globe winner on the men’s side and one of the most consistent pipe riders in the world since he burst on the scene in the 2018/19 season. In that time, Ruka has finished outside of the top-3 on the final season rankings once, while amassing 16 podiums in 22 starts. Low-key and understated, Ruka doesn’t command the awe that some of his halfpipe peers do. However, with his unparalleled track record over the past several seasons (including silver at the 2024 X Games), his name probably deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Scotty and Ayumu’s.
LUCAS FOSTER (USA)
With Shaun White’s retirement at the conclusion of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, so ended the USA’s golden era as a halfpipe superpower, with the Japanese team emphatically claiming that crown and with no end to their dominance in sight.
While no one from the U.S. or any other nation will ever really fill the void left by White, with his podium at last year’s Dew Tour and his signature alley-oop double McTwist, Lucas Foster has shown that the squad still has some riders who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s best. While we may be talking about young Alessandro Barbieri in this space next season, for 2024/25 the U.S. squad will be looking to Foster to carry the torch.
CHAEUN LEE (KOR)
Despite the mind-boggling technical specificity of each of the three Park & Events (halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air), we’ve seen something of a resurgence over the past few seasons of the snowboard freestyle triple threat. Currently-injured Australian Valentino Guseli has made the biggest splash of the triple threat riders currently on the circuit, but Korea’s Chaeun Lee is quickly catching up to his Aussie counterpart.
Last winter Lee became the first rider in history to stomp back-to-back triple cork rotations in the halfpipe while training for the Laax Open, and he also claimed the first two podiums of his World Cup career in Secret Garden and Copper Mountain. If he can dial in his consistency and bring the triple-triple combo to the competition stage, there could be many, many more top-3s to come for the 18-year-old.
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