World Cup season-opening Cardrona slopestyle ready to roll at the Winter Games NZ

The first competition of the 2024/25 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup season is coming up this weekend, as we have returned to Cardrona Alpine Resort in New Zealand for slopestyle action as part of the 2024 Winter Games NZ.

While a variable weather forecast means that programme changes may be necessary in the coming days, as it stands right now we are looking forward to qualifications leading off the action in Cardrona on Friday 30 August, with men’s heat one at 9:00 local time, heat two at 11:30, and the women’s qualifications at 2:00.

Originally planned for Sunday, women’s and men’s finals have been bumped up to Saturday 31 August to take advantage of the best weather window of the weekend, with the start time still to-be-determined.

Qualifications and finals will be livestreamed on FIS.tv and the FIS Snowboard YouTube channel, as well as on the Winter Games NZ website and YouTube channel. 

This week marks five years since the FIS Snowboard World Cup was last on the scene here in Cardrona for big air action, while it has been seven years since the last slopestyle World Cup competition at the venue - though there have been plenty of Australia New Zealand Cup competitions and last year’s Junior World Championships for big air and slopestyle here in Cardrona in recent seasons.

So, while the weather is looking tough for the weekend, the experienced crew here in Cardrona will do everything possible to make this weekend’s competitions a success.

And, of course, so too will the riders, as there’s a heavy roster of rippers on hand here in Cardrona looking to get the season - and the Milano-Cortino 2026 Olympic qualification period - started on the right foot. 

For the women that means the likes of New Zealand’s own Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, reigning World Champion and X Games winner Mia Brookes of Great Britain, Austria’s inimitable Anna Gasser, Kokomo Murase, Reira Iwabuchi and Mari Fukada of the strong Japanese team, and Hailey Langland should be front and centre over the next couple days of action. 

Over on the men’s side things, with Marcus Kleveland and Mons Roisland of Norway, the USA’s Red Gerard and Dusty Henricksen, China’s Su Yiming, Taiga Hasegawa, Ryoma Kimata and Hiroaki Kunitake of Japan, Canada’s Cameron Spalding, Korean triple threat Chaeung Lee, and whole slew of others on hand and ready to throw down, things should be very heavy indeed here at the 2024/25 season opener. 

It’s all set to begin tomorrow at 9:00am local time, so grab a snack, cue up your livestream platform of choice, stay tuned to our social channels for updates, and get ready to get the snowball rolling on a another season of FIS Park & Pipe World Cup snowboard action.

QUICK LINKS

• Cardrona slopestyle World Cup data page (start lists, live scoring, results)

• Photos

• FIS.tv livestreaming