Dear Park and Pipe Community,

With Spring beginning overnight, the domestic Park and Pipe season has begun to wind down, however, there are a handful of exciting events coming up in September. 

Park and Pipe FUTURES has been announced with the camp running over the 15th and 16th September. The first day will be at the NSTC’s new Airbag and the second day being on-snow in preparation for the AJFC events at Perisher. More information on the FUTURES camp can be found through the link below.

Futures - Snow Australia

The Park & Pipe Junior World Championships have been going on over the last week with our junior Aussie athletes making big waves in New Zealand. Snowboarder Ally Hickman took out 3rd place on Wednesday in the Women’s Slopestyle Final with a huge second run, entering the competition as the youngest competitor on the day. This is our first podium at the Park & Pipe Junior World’s since Tess Coady won in 2017. Freeskier Daisy Thomas also made it through the Freeski Slopestyle qualifiers into the final finishing in 7th place. These are both huge achievements for Ally and Daisy, and we’re beyond excited to see them continue to grow and develop in the coming years.

Ally Hickman – 2nd Run:

The Big Air events in Freeski and Snowboard will be underway in the coming days in Cardrona, and we wish our athletes all the best and hope they can continue to make their mark on the Junior World Championships and continue to make all of us back home proud.

To watch the Finals live from NZ click here: https://www.wintergamesnz.kiwi/watch-jwc-live 

To track the Qualifying and Final scores, see below:

Snowboard: FIS Snowboard - Cardrona (NZL) - Event Details (fis-ski.com)

Freeski: FIS Freestyle - Cardrona (NZL) - Event Details (fis-ski.com)

It’s been great to see the Park and Pipe community flourishing through events throughout the season with the Buller Slopestyle event being held earlier this month, along with State Northern and VIC Interschools which held Slopestyle events from Division 1-3 for Boys and Girls. It’s great to see so many students getting involved with Slopestyle at Interschools, following the trend that many Olympians have, beginning their competition days at the Interschools level. On top of that, the NSTC hosted multiple Park and Pipe International Team Camps, with the US, Canada, and Great Britain, all getting down and training on the airbag this month.

We hope you have all had a great season to date and enjoy what snow you still can before the season wraps up.

Park and Pipe National Discipline Committee

Snow Australia are excited to announce that the Park and Pipe FUTURES program will be held on the 15th and 16th of September!

The 2-day camp will take place at the NSTC on the 15th, with participants getting an opportunity to practice their skills on the airbag with guidance from coaches. The airbag session will be followed with an on-snow day at Perisher focusing on skill developement at Leichardt Park. The program is designed to help prepare participants for the Australian Junior Freeride Championships (AJFC) Slopestyle and Big Air events that will be held at Perisher on the 18th and 19th of September.

Ally Hickman has claimed Australia’s first medal of the Park & Pipe Junior World Championships in New Zealand, finishing third in Wednesday's Snowboard Slopestyle final.

The 13-year-old took to the Cardrona course as the youngest competitor in the field on Monday and laid down a strong first run to lodge a score high enough to finish third in her heat.

It was quite the opposite outcome in today’s final with a low-scoring first run only enough for the teenager to sit in tenth place.

With nothing to lose, Hickman produced an outstanding second run, the judges rewarding her with a score of 66.50 which was enough to earn third place behind New Zealand’s Lucia Georgalli (91.00) and Italy’s Fanny Piantanida Chiesa (77.25).

A strong Australian contingent is currently in New Zealand for the FIS Park & Pipe Junior World Championships which kick off this weekend in Cardrona. The event forms part of the 10th annual Winter Games NZ between 25 August and 10 September, which also includes some Australia and New Zealand Cup (ANC) Alpine events at Coronet Peak.

Catch up on what's happening at Cardrona and read about the athletes representing Australia at the FIS Park & Pipe Junior World Championships!

It has recently been identified that there is a possible gap in travel and medical cover that may see our members being responsible for Ambulance and Emergency Transport costs occurring during Competition or Training in New Zealand.

Article and Images courtesy www.fisski.com

Maybe it's time to just start referring to it as The Season, because at some point along the way we ran out of superlatives to describe what 18-year-old Australian Valentino Guseli achieved in 2022/23. But before we get into our recent interview with the young man who climbed to the top of the pyramid to become the world's best all-around competition snowboarder, we'd like to present a partial list of Val's accomplishments through six months of competition this past season:

• Big air and Snowboard Park & Pipe overall crystal globes winner
• Bakuriani 2023 World Championships halfpipe silver
• First rider ever to podium in big air, slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup in one season
• First rider to finish top three overall in big air, slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup in one season
• Most Park & Pipe World Cup points in a single season
• Most Park & Pipe World Cup starts in one season