SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE: With seven previous Olympic Games and 22 World Cup and World Championship medals between them, the five athletes selected to represent Australia in snowboard halfpipe at PyeongChang 2018 know what it takes to be the best.

Triple Olympian Holly Crawford will compete at her fourth Games, looking to improve upon her best Olympic result of eighth at Vancouver 2010.

The 33-year-old has one gold and two silver World Championship medals under her belt and recently finished 10th at the 2017 World Championships in Sierra Nevada.

"After a long and bumpy road I am mostly relieved to have officially made the 2018 Olympic Team," Crawford said.

"It is less the Olympic Games itself and more the journey to get there that shapes an athlete. By the time you’re at the Olympics most of the hard work is already done and you just have to let yourself do what you’ve trained to do.

"I am very proud to have been able to represent Australia at the previous three Olympics and every four years I am prouder than the last!"

She will be joined by two-time World Champion and Crystal Globe winner Scotty James.

With two 21st place halfpipe finishes from Vancouver and Sochi, plus a 16th place in snowboard slopestyle from 2010, James said his previous Olympic experiences have made him better prepared for his third Games.

“Having been to two Games and with the benefit of many more international competitions under my belt, I now understand what I have to do to achieve my goals,” the 23-year-old said.

“For me, representing my country in the Olympic Winter Team is the greatest honour that I have ever achieved. I really feed off the support that we give each other as Aussie Team members and the support that we receive from all over Australia.”

Sochi Olympians Kent Callister (22) and Nathan Johnstone (27) will return to the Team for their second Olympic experience.

Callister was the surprise packed of Sochi 2014, finishing ninth as the top ranked Australian in a star-studded field. Johnstone wasn’t too far behind, missing the final by one place to finish 13th on debut.

“I’m very excited to be heading to my second Olympic Games,” Callister said.

“I had a blast riding in Sochi so I’m looking forward to the whole Olympic experience at PyeongChang. I feel very grateful to be going to the Olympics again so I’m going to soak it all in.”

The only debutant in the halfpipe team, Emily Arthur, has also had her fair share of international experience.

The 18-year-old won halfpipe silver at the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic Winter Games and placed 15th in snowboard slopestyle.

She recorded a career-best result at the 2017 Secret Garden World Cup in December, qualifying for her first final and finishing in sixth place. She heads into her debut Games with a world ranking of 13th.

“Being selected is the most insane moment of my life!” Arthur said.

“I've wanted to go to the Olympics for as long as I can remember, it's always been in the back of my mind growing up that maybe one day I could go, and I can't believe it’s now a reality.”

Arthur said it will be a dream come true to make her Olympic debut alongside athletes she has admired for years.

“I look up to the older girls on the Australian Team so much, they have really taken me in and been so amazing to me! They are the girls I looked up to when I was young and still do, I know they are going to look after me and definitely make the experience so fun.”

Crawford's advice to all the rookies on the Team is to "be proud and confident in the work they've put in."

"Trust in your ability, we all train and compete all year round and your body knows what it is doing so just let it. Most of all enjoy the ride and take it all in, you’ve earned it!"

Snowboard halfpipe will be held at the Bokwang Snow Park with qualifications on Day 4 (February13). The men’s final is on Day 5 (February 14) and the women’s final is on Day 11 (February 20). Find out more about snowboarding at PyeongChang HERE.

The team of Mitchell Allen, Andrew Burton, Ben Mates, Torah Bright and Holly Crawford made Australia’s snowboard halfpipe Olympic debut at Torino 2006. Bright has won Australia’s two snowboard halfpipe Olympic medals, with gold at Vancouver 2010 and silver at Sochi 2014. Find out more about Australia’s Olympic snowboard history HERE.
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Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au

Australia's Holly Crawford and Nate Johnstone have finished seventh and tenth in the final Halfpipe World Cup prior to PyeongChang 2018.

Competing in Laax, Switzerland, Crawford put down a best score of 46.50 on her second of two runs in the 8-woman final.
 
Crawford's teammate and fellow three-time Olympian Torah Bright progressed through to the final earlier in the week but did not start leaving her in eighth place overall. 

China dominated the competition with Jiayu Lu claiming top spot with a score of 96.25, beating compatriot Xuetong Cai and Spaniard Queralt Castellet.

In the men's event Johnstone put down a best run of 46.00 to end the event in tenth as he builds towards competing at his second Olympic Games in PyeongChang. 

Sochi 2014 gold medallist Iouri Podladtchikov impressed on home soil taking out the victory with a score 90.50 ahead of Yuto Totsuka of Japan and China's Yiwei Zhang.

The event did not feature a number of highly ranked athletes from the USA who had their final selection event at Mammoth Moutain in Colorado. 

Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au

Australia’s top female snowboarders have finished within the top 15 of the Halfpipe World Cup following Thursday’s qualification runs at Snowmass, Colorado.
 
However, with only the top eight making it through to finals, Emily Arthur, Torah Bright and Holly Crawford will not be competing on Saturday and will instead turn their focus to the next competition.
 
Arthur, who came to Colorado after securing her best ever World Cup result at China’s Secret Garden in December, finished 12th today with a best score of 60.25.
 
“I was very happy [with] how I performed considering how awful my practice was,” the 18-year-old said.
 
“I was able to somewhat pull something out when it counted and I’m very happy about that! The pipe and the atmosphere was really fun, I was back with all my American friends which definitely upped the vibes.”
 
Fellow Aussie and three-time Olympian Holly Crawford finished in 14th place with a best score of 56.75 while Torah Bright wasn’t far behind, placing 15th with a best score of 55.75.
 
Bright, who like Crawford is hoping to compete in her fourth Winter Olympics, recently stepped up to the podium twice during the North-American Cup circuit in December after making a stunning return to the Snowboard Halfpipe competition.
 
The last chance for Australia’s Halfpipe riders to secure crucial qualification spots for the PyeongChang Games will be at the next World Cup in Laax, Switzerland from the 17 – 20 January.
 
Arthur, however, will not be competing in Switzerland, instead opting to stay at her “home mountain” in Mammoth, California to compete in the Mammoth Grand Prix and spend time testing out new tricks prior to the Winter Games.

“My coach and I thought it would be good to compete there and get some extra training in and not worry about travelling so close to the Olympics,” she said.
 
As for the men, 2017 World Champion Scotty James qualified for the 10-man Halfpipe final on Saturday after placing second in his qualification heat with a score of 88.75.
 
Unfortunately James’ fellow Aussies Kent Callister and Nate Johnstone did not qualify for the finals, with Callister placing 19th following a best run score of 59.25 and Johnstone 36th with 19.00.
 
The halfpipe finals will be broadcast live on Eurosport from 7am AEDT on Sunday morning. For live results click HERE or follow OWIA on Twitter HERE or Facebook HERE.
 
David Barden
OWIA

Australia’s top Snowboard Halfpipe riders are gearing up for their second last chance to qualify for the Winter Olympics at the first World Cup of 2018 in Snowmass, USA.
 
While PyeongChang is in less than a month, the main priority for Sochi Olympian Nate Johnstone is to put “a good, clean run down at this event” and then repeat it again at the next World Cup.
 
“There’s so much going on at the moment so I think it only really sets in once you actually get there [to PyeongChang],” he said.
 
“Right now I’m not really thinking about Korea, I’m thinking about the comp that’s in the next few days and then after that [I] literally fly straight to Switzerland.”
 
Johnstone, who “decided to pull the pin” on the last World Cup in Copper Mountain after a fall on his way to training, was also prevented from competing in the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, Colorado.
 
“They treated it as a concussion and then I had to follow the protocol and so by the time I was going to get back on snow, it wasn’t going to give me enough time to train,” he said.
 
After heading back to his hometown of Sydney to soak up some sunshine, Johnstone arrived back in the USA last Thursday and has been spending time training and familiarising himself with the pipe ahead of this week’s qualification runs.
 
“I got back over here on the fourth of January so we had a few days riding Copper prior to driving down here … Today was the first day of comp practice and everything felt pretty good, just getting used to the pipe,” he said.
 
“It’s a bit different to the ones we’ve ridden in Copper and Breck so it’s just a matter of adapting and getting used to it, feeling it out. It’s good, just different.
 
“They all ride a little bit different, because we mostly train in Summit and we’re riding in Copper and Breck a lot, you tend to get used to them and they have a style.”
 
Fellow Aussie and 2017 World Champion Scotty James will also be competing in this week’s World Cup after claiming silver at the Dew Tour with a solid score of 96.00.
 
James, who has been described as probably ‘the most popular Australian sports star in America’, competed in his first Olympics at Vancouver in 2010 after injury prevented Johnstone from competing.
 
Sochi Olympian Kent Callister, 22, who narrowly missed out on the top 12 final in the Dew Tour after finishing 13th, said that he is feeling “very confident going into this next World Cup”.
 
“Training has been going great recently,” he said.
 
“I’ve been in Colorado all season riding at Copper Mountain. The halfpipe has been awesome so I’ve been able to do all my tricks I wanted to do for that season.
 
“I have been working on the backside double McTwist 1260. I’ve tried it a few times and I’ve come around to my feet almost every time so I’m aiming to do it in this World Cup.”
 
After securing her best ever World Cup result at China’s Secret Garden, Emily Arthur will also compete in this week’s event.
 
The 18-year-old – who only finished her HSC exams a few months ago – burst onto the international scene after claiming a silver medal at the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Winter Olympic Games.
 
Three-time Olympian Torah Bright, who has made a stunning return to the Snowboard Halfpipe competition after bursting back onto the podium twice during the North-American Cup circuit in December, is also scheduled to compete in Snowmass as is fellow Aussie Holly Crawford.
 
For live updates from Snowmass click HERE or follow OWIA on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.
 
David Barden
OWIA
 

As Australia’s first Men’s Halfpipe World Champion in 2011 and multiple World Cup medallist, snowboarder Nate Johnstone knows a good pipe when he sees it.

His assessment of the halfpipe at Phoenix, PyeongChang for the Olympic Test Event and World Cup earlier this year was that it was, “better than expected,” and “one of the best pipes I rode all season.”

“There were challenges at the test event. The pipe was quite short with the athletes only getting four hits, where normally we get five or six. I think they’ll have to make it longer to allow an extra hit.”

Johnstone said that the test event was well organised, ran well and that he is looking forward to returning for the 2018 Olympic Games.

“Ideally, my expectation (for next February) is to land a really good run. Yes – there is the top five, but more so it’s about walking away with a run I’m happy with and that I wanted to do at the Games,” he said.

The 27-year-old, who is now a parent to son Louis with his partner Emma, has made many adjustments to his life since his first Olympic Games in Sochi where he finished in 13th.

“The longest I’ve spent away from Louis is just over two weeks. One of the best things about last season was when Emma and Louis came with me from January until the World Championships in Spain. It was really good having them there.”

In late August Johnstone heads to New Zealand for the first World Cup of the 2017/18 season.

Scotty James has put down “the run of his life” to win gold at the Phoenix PyeongChang Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup.

His third and final run in today’s competition not only secured James the individual World Cup victory, but he takes home the overall 2016/2017 Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup series crown.

In an Australian first, Scotty James is the current World Cup, World Championship and X Games champion. He wears three of the four major world snowboard halfpipe crowns, the fourth being Olympic glory.

“I am absolutely over the moon!” James said.

“I knew what I had to do to come away with a win today and I just had to let the rest do the talking.

“To come away on top is just an amazing feeling.”

The two-time VIS Olympian qualified for the final in fifth place. After a shaky start, only scoring 24.75 points in the first run of the final, James returned to his exceptional form to score 92.25 in the second run, before his series winning 96-point performance.


“The first one was just trying to get the jitters out,” the 22-year-old said.

“I unfortunately came unstuck, but was able to put the next two down and probably the run of my life on the last one.

“I knew I had to mix it up to come away with a win today, especially with a field like there is here.”

To claim the win, James had to defeat legendary American snowboarder Shaun White.

White is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, and winner of 24 winter and summer X Games medals in
snowboarding and skateboarding.

Winner of the Mammoth World Cup last weekend, White threatened James’ victory today, finishing second overall, a mere one point behind James with a score of 95. China’s Yiwei Zhang won bronze with 93.25.

James entered the final World Cup event sitting in second place on the overall leader board with 1700 points, trailing American Chase Josey by 260 points.

His victory at Bokwang Snow Park scored him 1000 points towards the discipline world standings and he claimed the overall series with 2700 points.

Josey finished second overall with 2360 points and White won bronze with 1930 points.

James is having the season he’s always hoped for.

After finishing in the top 10 for all World Cup events this season - including winning silver in Laax in January – the 2015 World Champion won gold in the men’s SuperPipe at the 2017 Aspen X Games on Australia Day.

“I am in a really good place at the moment on my board and off my board – life is really good.

“I’ve made big changes in my off-season and my pre-season. I started to take myself a little bit more seriously and approach it with a different attitude, and I will continue to do that.”

To further sweeten today’s glory, his win comes at the Test Event for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

According to James the pipe itself is exceptional, as is the atmosphere in PyeongChang.

“It has been an amazing week here in Korea – they have put on an amazing event for us.

“I absolutely love South Korea. The people here have been awesome, everyone loves snowboarding and is very supportive and helpful.

“And then the halfpipe obviously - they really turned that up for us.

“They’ve put on a really good pipe and I’m sure it’s going to be exactly the same next year, so I think we can expect another really fierce competition in a year’s time.”

Teammate Kent Callister also qualified for today’s 10-man final, finishing in eighth place; while Nate Johnstone finished 31st.

In the women’s competition, 2016 Youth Olympian Emily Arthur had her first top-10 finish for the season, placing 10th with a run of 72.25. Triple Olympian Holly Crawford placed 13th and is now heading to Sapporo to represent Australia at the Asian Winter Games.

Although the World Cup season has come to an end, it is not the end of the Northern Hemisphere winter season for our snowboarders. James will now fly back to the US for the next American Cup, before defending his World Championship title in Sierra Nevada, Spain in March.

And he cannot wait for more to come.

“I’m in a really good place now, but I’ve still got a bit of a fire under my butt!

“I still want to keep on pushing and I’ve got stuff to work on to keep solidifying my place on top of the podium.

“I’ve now got a bit of a target on my back, but I like this position and I will keep working hard to make sure I can stay on top.”

Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au

IMAGE: Halfpipe World Cup podium with (ltr) 2nd Shaun White (USA), 1st Scotty James (AUS) and 3rd Yiwei Zhang (CHN) in Bokwang Phoenix Park. Photo: Mateusz Kielpinski

The Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup competition heads to Korea this weekend for the final event of the series, which doubles as the Test Event for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

For Scotty James, the Phoenix PyeongChang World Cup is the final chance for him to make up the points needed to take out the overall series title.

Currently sitting in second place on the leader’s board with 1700 points, the two time Olympian is trailing American Chase Josey by 260 points.

The 2015 World Champion has had another very strong season, winning gold at the X Games in Aspen on Australia Day, and finishing in the top-10 at every World Cup event with his best result a silver medal in Laax in January.

A solid performance at the Bokwang Snow Park this weekend would be the icing on the cake of a stellar season.

“I’m excited to cap off the World Cup season, hopefully on top,” James said.

“The game plan for this event is to take the same approach as every other one – enjoy myself and the competition. Let the rest just fall into place.

“I’ve got some great competitors here so it’s going to be a good show.”

James will be joined in Korea by fellow Aussies Kent Callister, currently in 12th place on the World rankings, and Nate Johnstone in 20th place.

For Johnstone, he will relish his first experience of the Olympic venue.

“Korea is just one more stepping stone to get over in qualifying for the Olympics,” Johnstone said.

“Being the Test Event, there is a little extra pressure but I am excited more than anything because it’s our first look at what the Games are going to be like when we get there.

“I’ve only been to one other event in Korea and that was a long time ago, but they put on really good events so I’m expecting it to be pretty good conditions for the halfpipe.”

Scotty James is already in Korea and can confirm Johnstone’s expectations of the pipe.

“The halfpipe is awesome,” James said on Tuesday.

“I had the first day of practice today and it went great. The halfpipe cutter, Jeremy, did a great job and I'm really enjoying Korea so far.”

The men’s qualification round for the Phoenix PyeongChang Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup will be held on Friday 17 February, kicking off at 1.45pm AEDT. The final will be held from 3pm AEDT on Sunday afternoon.

The men will then head to Sierra Nevada, Spain in early March for the Snowboard Halfpipe World Championships.

Georgia Thompson
Olympics.com.au

Weather has played havoc at the US Snowboard and Freeskiing Grand Prix event in Mammoth Mountain, CA, USA, with events shortened or cancelled completely.
 
The US Grand Prix also doubles as a FIS World Cup event counting towards Olympic qualification. Unfortunately, wild weather featuring high winds and snow forced the cancellation of the men’s Slopestyle Skiing event which was to feature Russ Henshaw and Ryley Lucas. The extremely heavy conditions led to the men’s Snowboard Halfpipe and Slopestyle qualification rounds to be abandoned.
 
In total, four top ten performances where achieved by the Australian athletes across three different disciplines.
 
The highlight of the event was 16-year-old NSWIS Snowboarder Tess Coady placing sixth in the slopestyle final in her first ever World Cup. Jess Rich was unable to advance to the eight woman final, finishing in 21st place.
 
VIS 2017 X-Games Gold Medallist Scotty James was the leading Australian male in the men’s Snowboard Halfpipe, finishing in sixth place. NSWIS riders Kent Callister and Nathan Johnstone also had good runs in the difficult conditions placing eighth and eleventh respectively.
 
In the women’s Snowboard Halfpipe, Holly Crawford made a positive start to her first event of the season finishing in eighth place, just missing advancing to the final by two places. Emily Arthur was also in action with a 14th place qualification performance.
 
The Snowboard Halfpipe athletes now head to PyeongChang, Korea, for the Olympic Test Event World Cup, with the Slopestyle Snowboarders and Skiers off to World Cup events in Quebec City, Canada.

IMAGE: Tess Coady in nicer weather conditions at Mammoth at the start of the week! © Tess Coady Instagram

Where there's a halfpipe World Cup anywhere in the world, you can bet there's a few Aussies looking to tear it up.

And that's just what happened last night in qualification for the Halfpipe World Cup in Laax, Switzerland, as Scotty James and Nate Johnstone both advanced to the semi-finals on Thursday.

Some unfavourable weather conditions interrupted some training sessions to the lead up to the event, both Aussies had clean runs in the 2nd qualification heat to make the Top 12 cut.

After missing out in Copper Mountain last month, Johnstone opened the heat with a strong score of 72.25.

He was followed immediately by James who with a barnstorming run, set a great score of 87.00 points, more than any of the top scores from heat 1.

It was a competitive heat however, with American's Ben Ferguson and Gregory Bretz topping the group, as James put up a near perfect qualifying set with a score of 86.50 in his 2nd run to hold onto 3rd spot.

Johnstone took his foot off the pedal slightly in his 2nd run, only managing 38.25 points, but his opening score remained enough to see him qualify in 7th place from the heat.

Kent Callister did not compete after deciding to stay in Colorado for further training.

It's a few days wait now for the boys until the Semi-Finals on Thursday before the Finals Saturday night, which can be watched worldwide on the livestream at www.open.laax.com 

Current World Champion Snowboarder Scotty James has made a strong start to his 2016-2017 northern hemisphere season, finishing fourth in the halfpipe final at the US Snowboard Grand Prix/World Cup event in Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA.
 
Competing in the best of three run final, the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete produced his best in the third run, scoring 88.75 to narrowly miss out on the podium.

Ahead of Scotty where Swiss riders Patrick Burgener and 2014 Olympic Champion Iouri Podladtchikov, who took out the first two places of the podium withh American Chase Josey in third.

Post-race, James said he was happy with the result despite the weather and equipment issues, grateful for his best off-season to date.

"Due to the weather, my snowboards I was riding through practise couldn't cut it on Semi-Finals day. I ended up riding my coach James Jacksons snowboard in Semi finals which was 10cms too short and a board I have never ridden before," he explained.

"For finals I rode a two year old board I pulled from the archives but with a strong preparation for the season, nothing was gonna stop me!"

"Would have been great to finish on the podium but I'm fired up and ready for the next competition in LAAX."

James will head back home to Warrandyte in Victoria for Christmas, before jumping straight back onto a plane to the US to begin his next preparation. 

In the women's final, teenage sensation Chloe Kim took first place with Chinese athletes Jiayu Liu and Xuetong Cai  in second and third place.
 
The qualification round took place a few days earlier, featuring Kent Callister, Nathan Johnstone and Emily Arthur. Unfortunately all three athletes where unable progress to the final, with Kent and Nathan finishing in 15th and 41st place with Emily 19th.

Current World Champion Snowboarder Scotty James has made a strong start to his 2016-2017 northern hemisphere season, qualifying second in his heat to advance through to the halfpipe final at the US Snowboard Grand Prix/World Cup event in Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA.
 
Competing under the best of two runs format in the heat round, The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete produced his best in the second run, scoring 83.75 to secure one of the ten places available in the final.
 
Also in action in the men’s event for Australia, but unable to qualify for the final was Kent Callister in 15th and Nathan Johnstone 41st.
 
In the women’s event, NSWIS Youth Olympic Winter Games Silver Medallist Emily Arthur was unable to qualify for the six-person final, finishing in 19th place.
 
After the successful qualification round, James commented.
 
“Competed in some interesting conditions today, but pulled through. Excited for finals!”
 
The men’s Halfpipe Snowboard final featuring Scotty James will take place Friday afternoon in the USA, Saturday morning AEST.
 
 

A brilliant effort from 17-year-old Emily Arthur during last weekend's halfpipe final of the season opening 2016 U.S Revolution Tour, landed her in fourth place as she continued her outstanding push up the world rankings.

The talented Aussie who trains with the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS), fought hard in a highly-contested event against Olympic standard athletes to score 110 points in the opening halfpipe competition of the season at Colorado's Copper Mountain.

Currently ranked 13th in the world, Arthur has been in solid form since her silver medal at the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games and will be one to watch in the coming years as she works towards PyeongChang in 2018.
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In the Men’s field, Nathan Johnston finished with a score of 70.40 to sit in an impressive 8th in the final standings, while Scotty James and Kent Callister did not compete.

The event is the perfect warm-up to the Grand Prix World Cup later this week, also based at Copper Mountain, with all four Aussies competing.

Three Australians will be aiming to impress in the Snowboard Halfpipe as the 2017 U.S Revolution Tour kicks off tonight (AEDT) at Colorado’s Copper Mountain.

Scotty James, Kent Callister and Nathan Johnstone will all contest the first of four stops on the tour in Copper’s world class 19-meter superpipe, their first time on the pipe for the season.

James and Callister have both been training in New Zealand during Spring and will be keen to start the year off with success.

The start of the tour itself was interrupted due to unreasonably warm temperatures and delays in halfpipe construction, condensing the competition to just one halfpipe event instead of two.

In a statement on the official World Snowboard Tour (WST) website, USSA Director of Events Eric Webster said, “Weather has been a challenge this season but the Main Vein Superpipe upholds its reputation as one of the top venues in North America while the Rev Tour remains a top competition for these up-and-coming athletes.”

The national-level event brings together Olympic hopefuls who will earn points for their overall ranking in the WST.

22-year-old James, currently ranked 15th in the world, will headline the Aussie brigade, aiming to match his successful 2013/14 season where he finished 5th in the overall World Tour rankings.

The youngest of the three, 21-year-old Callister is ranked 26th and will be searching for a repeat of his success at the Tour in 2012 where he won best trick with a FS inverted 900. Johnstone is ranked 37th.

Qualification starts early morning Sunday, followed by the Final.

Keep your eye out in the Ladies for 17-year-old  Emily Arthur, one of Australia’s brightest talents who won Silver in the halfpipe at the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic Games in February. Her qualification is at 2:30am, with the final starting at 3:50am.
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For more information on the Revolution Tour, visit www.ussnowboarding.com/revolutiontour

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) athlete Kent Callister has finished sixth in the Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup event in Sapporo, Japan.

Callister finished with a best score of 85.25 in the Final, which he scored on his second run.

Teammate Nate Johnstone, after also qualifying for the ten man final, finished tenth, after falling in each of his three runs.

Scotty James finished 24th in qualifying, after falling in both his qualifying runs.

In the Women's Halfpipe, Holly Crawford just missed out on a spot in the Final after finishing eighth, with only the top six progressing to the final.

Crawford fell just 7.75 points short of qualifying for the final.

OWIA/NSWIS supported Snowboarders Nathan Johnstone and Kent Callister have both finished in the top 10 at the US Snowboard Grand Prix/World Cup event in Park City, UT, USA.

Competing in a very strong field, Johnstone and Callister advanced to the 10-man final in fifth and tenth places respectively.

Both athletes put down two of the three runs in the Final, but were unable to challenge for the podium, with Johnstone finishing in eighth and Callister ninth.

The event served as an encouraging performance for both riders to give confidence for the remaining events in the season including the benchmark event in Sapporo later this month.

In the women's event, NSWIS athlete Emily Arthur finished in 18th place, missing out on the top-6 Women's Final.

In a dominating performance, 15-year-old teen sensation, Chloe Kim of the USA, became the first female to ever perform back to back 1080's and scoring a perfect "100" on her final run, taking out the victory.

IMAGE: Kent Callister & Nathan Johnstone boosting large out of the Park City halfpipe © Andrew Pattison

The first event of the northern hemisphere winter has taken place for the OWIA Park & Pipe athletes, with the Dew Tour competition taking place in Breckenridge, CO, USA.

The highest placing athlete was OWIA/VIS Halfpipe Snowboarder Scotty James, who finished in 13th place after the semi-final, which advanced James to the last chance qualification round. In the last chance round, James finished eighth, unfortunately missing out on the final.

Also in action in the men's Halfpipe Snowboard were OWIA/NSWIS riders Nathan Johnstone in 23rd and Kent Callister in 29th.

Competing in the Slopestyle, OWIA/NSWIS skier Russ Henshaw finished 26th, with SSA/NSWIS Snowboard Slopestyle athlete Jess Rich finishing in 15th place.

IMAGE: Scotty James boosting out of the Breckenridge halfpipe © Scotty James Instagram

Australian Snowboard Halfpipe athletes have competed in the opening World Cup event of the season at Copper Mountain, CO, USA, with Scotty James and Kent Callister narrowly missing out on the final.

Qualifying for the men’s event was split into two heats with the top five from each heat qualifying for the 10-man final. All three Australian male athletes were drawn in the same heat, making the challenge of an Australian advancing to the final round difficult.

Scotty James came agonisingly close to qualifying for the final, placing sixth in his heat, which gave him an overall result of 11th place.

Kent Callister was also narrowly close to making the final, placing two spots behind James in eight place, finishing in 14th.

Nathan Johnstone was 14th in his heat and 24th place overall.

In only her second World Cup start, 15-year-old Ski and Snowboard Australia (SSA) athlete Emily Arthur placed a very encouraging 13th place, which was easily the best place by an athlete under the age of 18.

IMAGE: The halfpipe at Copper Mountain © Sarah Brunson/U.S. Snowboarding