Snow Sport New Zealand is set to build a new million-dollar world-first facility in the Cardrona Valley that will allow year-round training for our elite snow athletes.
"It's never been done before," said Snow Sport NZ chief executive Nic Cavanagh. "But our coaches are pretty clever thinkers!"
The design is dreamt up by Kiwi coaches and features a 40-metre dry slope made of plastic material that allows athletes to carve into it and propel into their jump. The dry slope will then lead into a 58-metre long landing bag.
"We've actually got two facilities in one, every other country has got the straight big air to a landing bag," said Cavanagh.
"But the Kiwi ingenuity of us has come up with a quarter pipe to airbag as well. That allows us to not only look after our slopestyle athletes like Zoi [Sadowski-Synnott], but also provides year round training for our halfpipe athletes like Nico [Porteous]."
Snow Sport NZ already has a landing bag on the slopes of Cardrona – but it's not always usable.
"You can imagine if we get five or 10 centimetres of snow, it's a good thing, but if that lands on the bag it can take 20 to 30 people up to five days to actually physically get the snow off," Cavanagh said.
That has forced many of our athletes to travel abroad and use other country's facilities.
"There's a training bag in Austria that we've travelled a bit to use," said Kiwi freeskier Ruby Andrews.
"There's also one in Australia that I was actually at a couple of weeks ago."
Now, Snow Sport NZ has finally been given clearance to break ground after more than three years fighting for consent. By moving the landing bag from Cardrona to the valley, it's estimated that training sessions will increase from just 20 a year to at least 160.
The goal: To be open all year round, to keep Kiwis on top of the world.
"They allow us to safely try new things," said Olympic gold medallist Porteous, who was a key part in helping Snow Sport NZ get consent.
"It minimises that risk of injury and making sure we can protect the longevity of our careers but at the same time progressing as fast as we can."
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