Dear Park and Pipe Community,

August marks a big month in the Park and Pipe world with the Buller Slopestyle and Big Air events kicking off on the 12th and 13th respectively. These events will be a great chance to see all the talent our discipline has to offer and what new skills and tricks they have worked on to showcase. 

The 21st - 25th of August will see the State Interschool events held at both Perisher, for NSW/ACT/QLD, and Mt Buller, for VIC. State Interschools are often athletes first taste of competition within Park and Pipe which makes it the perfect opportunity for those beginning to hone their skills within Slopestyle to propel themselves into further development within the sport. This does wonders for the advancement of our discipline and the identification of talent in the younger generation.

Also coming up this month is the Junior World Champs at Cardrona, NZ. The best Junior talent Park and Pipe has to offer will be off to represent Australia from the 25th of August – 8th of September. We can’t wait to see how they perform and know it will be a wonderful experience for all involved.

Just recently we saw the Perisher Park Showdown and Cattleman’s Cup events held at Perisher and Mt Buller, events like this are what Park and Pipe is all about and they bring a great deal of interest to the discipline as well as show off what all the hard work from Snowboarders and Freeskiers can achieve.

Snow Australia are also putting out a call to all competitors (past and present), coaches and anyone in the P&P community with event experience to get upskilled and become a qualified Judge. Registrations for the Park and Pipe Snowboard and Freeski Judging Clinics are still open and we need more judges in the community to continue to host quality events in Australia. The clinics will be held later this month at the NSTC (and online) on the 19th – 20th for Snowboard and the 21st – 23rd for Freeski. Registration links for these clinics can be found below.

Click here to register for the Park and Pipe Judges Clinic - Snowboard

Click here to register for the Park and Pipe Judges Clinic - Freeski

Finally, don’t forget to keep your Snow Australia membership up to date in order to register quickly for events, programs, and clinics in 2023.

Click here to renew or join Snow Australia’s 2023 membership

We hope you all continue to enjoy your season and stay safe. All the best.

Park and Pipe National Discipline Committee

Are you interested in becoming a judge? Snow Australia is holding Park and Pipe judging clinics in August.

The Park & Pipe Snowboard Judges Clinic will be held 19-20 August, with the Park & Pipe Freeski Clinic to follow on 21-23 August.

The clinics are suitable for first-time judges wishing to get into judging at national-level events such as the Thredbo Series, Interschools, and AJFC, as well as experienced judges looking to refresh and re-certify for the coming year. Prior experience in judging, coaching, or as an athlete is required.

Recently we caught up with Australian Park and Pipe judge, Adam Begg, who told us about his story and how he fell in love with judging, making the transition from a competitor into an Olympic judge.

Begg has been involved in the snowsports industry for over 30 years. He said he has always “lived and breathed snowboarding”, but his passion for judging came as a surprising consequence of a severe snowboard injury.

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

NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) winter athletes, coaches, support staff and high performance sport administrators have descended on Jindabyne for the annual NSWIS Winter Induction ceremony at the National Snowsports Training Centre, to celebrate the past 12 months of success and welcome the Institute’s newest scholarship holders.   

Snow Australia is seeking expressions of interest from Alpine, Freestyle and Snowboard instructors and coaches to participate in on-snow coaching workshops to be held at Perisher, Thredbo, Mt Buller, Mt Hotham and Falls Creek in August and September. These workshops form part of the Level 1 Coach accreditation process, alongside other online training and coaching experience requirements.

These coach workshops are free for instructors and coaches working within the resort snowsport schools and race clubs. Prerequisites for the coaching workshops include APSI level 2 qualifications and completion of Snow Australia's Coach Fundamentals online courses. Participants must also be current Snow Australia members.

It is our privilege to be promoting the upcoming Women @ Buller Event on Tuesday the 29th of August. 

This event is a free event which includes a complimentary drink on arrival.

This is an amazing opportunity for women within the snow industry to make connections, learn something new and have a fun night!

We know that a young person’s first trip to the snow can be a daunting experience, which is why the Snow Australia ‘Little Shredders’ program is the perfect introduction to snowboarding, conducted in a safe and welcoming classroom environment.

Designed to teach kids fundamental snowboarding skills, as well as build their confidence balancing on a board, the Little Shredders program has been developed to be taught in classrooms, giving kids a snowsport experience from the comfort of the indoors.