The Snow League: World Challenge Recap
The Snow League's first team event, the inaugural World Challenge, brought the world's best halfpipe snowboarders and freeskiers to Cardrona Alpine Resort this week. The event featured 16 Snow League athletes across four teams: Team North America, Team Europe, Team Asia-Pacific and Team Challengers. Each team was represented by one male and one female snowboarder, alongside one male and one female freeskier.
Teams competed across men's and women's snowboard and freeski disciplines in a fast-paced, head-to-head format that the athletes helped develop. A 720-degree spin cap in the semifinal round encouraged creative riding, and the finals were set to open up to full spin rotations and progression, with team points accumulating to crown the first Snow League World Challenge champion. But New Zealand's spring wind had other plans.
Cam Melville Ives handplant taken by Dean Blotto Gray @deanblottogray
It wasn't all about the pipe, though. In the days leading up to Saturday's event, the teams built chemistry the Kiwi way, with bungee jumping, jet boating, 4x4 adventures, and heli tours, which is fitting given New Zealand invented the jet boat and launched commercial bungee jumping.
The snow gods also delivered some freshies on Wednesday night, giving the Snow League athletes the full New Zealand powder day experience, with a rope drop into the Saddle Basin at Treble Cone. Queralt Castellet called the scene "unreal", adding that she had "never seen so many people hike to the summit so fast." The day doubled as a team-building challenge, with the athletes capturing their best clip of the day using self-shot footage and competitors voting on a winner.
Team Asia-Pacific winning clip at Treble Cone
Each team took a different approach, and votes from their peers narrowed the field to Team North America and Team Asia-Pacific. Team Asia-Pacific came out on top with a clip featuring Cam Melville Ives' huge front 3, Luke Harrold's hard-earned pillow line, and Indra Brown's follow cam of Gaon Choi's diving board drop. The win gave them the World Challenge's first strategic advantage with the ability to set the bracket by choosing their opponent heading into Saturday.
Friday's Mini-Pipe Challenge drew a great turnout, with local young riders and skiers joining Shaun White and the Snow League athletes at Cardrona. It was a glimpse of the future of snowboarding, and that future is bright.
Photos of Mini-Pipe Challenge by Dean Blotto Gray @deanblottogray
With high winds and potential snowfall on the way, our local weather guy Cam was checking hourly forecasts and reports to get the best read for the start of the competition. The morning began sunny with moderate winds during warm-ups, but by the end of the semifinal head-to-head battles, the light was flat and the winds were strong, pushing riders around. The finals round was cancelled due to the wind.
Sara Shimizu put down a strong run against Brooke D'Hondt, despite feeling ill the morning of the competition, and won the battle. The battle between Queralt Castellet and Gaon Choi went to a third, trick-for-trick tiebreaker run, with Castellet taking the win on a beautiful frontside 7.
Jake Pates crippler over his teammates from Team North America. Photo by Paddy Edmondson @paddy_edmondson
The match-up between Jake Pates and Ryusei Yamada was heavy and also went to a tiebreaker, with Yamada taking the win. Pates was a crowd favourite for his style, with his butters, slashes and frontside crippler stalefish over his teammates among the standouts. Yamada's amplitude and inventive runs were jaw-dropping, and he thrived in the 720 spin-cap format with his trick selection.
New Zealand's Cam Melville Ives put down a strong first run against Jonas Hasler, and the match-up went to a third round battle. Hasler landed his McTwist pull, a favourite trick of the day, to edge out Melville Ives' backside air to fakie, which had the largest amplitude of the day but wasn't landed.
Cam Melville Ives semifinal run 1 by Paddy Edmondson @paddy_edmondson
The 720 spin cap in the semifinal round proved a success. With big rotations off the table, riders couldn't rely on spinning more than their opponent, so they had to stand out with amplitude, style, grabs, trick variety and flow. As progression pushes tricks further beyond what most riders will ever attempt, the cap pulled the spotlight back to skills the wider public can see themselves in, making snowboarding feel more relatable. Riders pushed creativity and style in ways not seen in the halfpipe for years and the crowd loved every minute of it.
With the finals round cancelled due to weather, Team Challengers Mischa Thomas, Sara Shimizu, Fin Melville Ives and Ryusei Yamada won the Snow League's inaugural World Challenge at Cardrona Alpine Resort. Yamada, Melville Ives and Thomas also each won their respective divisions, while Shimizu finished second behind Queralt Castellet.
Team Challengers: Sara Shimizu (JPN), Mischa Thomas (NZL), Fin Melville Ives (NZL), & Ryusei Yamada (JPN). Photo by The Snow League
The World Challenge carried a US$100,000 purse, including a US$20,000 prize for the winning team, split equally among its members, and a US$5,000 appearance fee for each of the 16 athletes (US$80,000 in total). As part of the event, the Snow League also made a NZ$5,000 donation to the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and growing yellow-eyed penguin colonies in New Zealand. Team Challengers will get to name the GPS trackers placed on the penguins, giving the team a unique connection to the conservation effort.
Watch the full replay on The Snow League YouTube channel.
