Shaun White’s Snow League Heads To New Zealand With A New Twist

New Zealand snowboarder Cam Melville Ives competes successful men's halfpipe qualifying astatine The Snow League arena successful LAAX successful March 2026.

The Snow League / Blotto

The Snow League, Shaun White’s master winter sports league, will clasp its first arena successful New Zealand successful September pinch a caller twist connected halfpipe competition.

A 16-athlete world section will travel together astatine Cardrona Alpine Resort for the inaugural Snow League World Challenge, a squad title dissimilar the league’s individual regular play events.

Four world teams—Team North America, Team Europe, Team Asia-Pacific and Team Challengers—will correspond 4 disciplines, pinch each squad fielding 1 antheral and 1 female snowboarder and 1 antheral and 1 female freeski athlete. The teams will accumulate points passim the competition, pinch the highest-scoring squad crowned the first World Challenge champion.

It’s an innovative team-based building successful a athletics wherever athletes typically compete connected an individual basis. And an athlete-requested norm alteration to the title building will adhd different twist.

The semifinal rounds will enforce a 720-degree rotation cap. Athletes tin still showcase amplitude, style, grabs, rotations and creativity, but the format puts a deliberate ceiling connected degrees of rotation. The finals will unfastened the title to afloat progression, pinch athletes facing disconnected head-to-head.

A caller one-hit tiebreaker format will spell into effect should a head-to-head spell into a 3rd run. The thought was inspired by Yuto Totsuka and Ryusei Yamada’s thought to do one-hit head-to-head battles past season.

“They were exhausted and had done the astir runs of everyone and truthful they decided, ‘If you do 1 trick, I’ll do 1 trick.’ That’s truthful nosy and unique,” said freeskier and Olympian Hunter Hess, noting that successful immoderate different competition, organizers would not beryllium thrilled if the athletes decided to alteration the format mid-event. “Snow League is athlete-driven and they attraction connected the champion consequence for the competitors and the champion title format for the competitors.”

The format is designed to reward the champion all-around halfpipe rider, not conscionable the 1 who tin do the astir spins.

“It’s conscionable gotten truthful crazy, to the constituent wherever the spectator is having a difficult clip relating,” says halfpipe snowboarder and Olympian Jake Pates. “It’s bully for the spectator to beryllium capable to watch thing and not beryllium ace confused astir what’s happening and why personification sewage a definite score.

“This is thing we’ve been talking astir successful snowboarding for years and years,” Pates added astir the athlete-requested rotation cap.

And make nary mistake: capping spins astatine 720 successful nary measurement makes for an easier halfpipe run.

After taking 4 years off from master snowboarding, Pates had immoderate crushed to dress up erstwhile he returned to competition. The athletics had progressed to halfpipe runs featuring aggregate triple corks and 1620s wherever erstwhile doubles and 1440s would person been capable for gold. Needless to say, Pates has been focusing connected those rotations and inversions successful training the past mates years.

“I haven’t moreover spent clip training mini stylish tricks nether a 720,” Pates said pinch a laugh. Perhaps counterintuitively, it’s a situation for the riders to spell backmost to the drafting committee and put together runs that will beryllium wholly different than what they usage successful World Cup title passim the season. But it’s a invited one.

“It speaks to the truth that the big, high-difficulty tricks don’t needfully person to beryllium harder than the mini spins for illustration a 720,” Pates said.

The format changes different aspects of athletes’ strategies.

“When I compete astatine different contests, I ne'er watch anyone else’s runs because it’s not maine competing against them; it’s maine competing against me, to put down the champion tally I perchance can,” Hess said. “What they do doesn’t matter; it conscionable matters if I show up connected the time and do the champion tally I can.”

And Hess, who competes connected the U.S. men’s freeski halfpipe team, knows amended than anyone what it takes to hit his competitors. The squad is arguably the astir ascendant among the U.S. freestyle disciplines; though only 4 members could suffice to correspond the United States astatine the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympics, six Americans were classed in the apical 10 up of the Games.

But fixed Snow League’s head-to-head format—as good arsenic the semifinals rotation headdress introducing wholly caller runs from athletes who typically cognize each other’s apical tricks—“you person to beryllium strategic,” Hess said. “You person to watch everyone’s runs, and possibly you tin get an advantage dropping aft them if they put down a bully run. It’s truthful different; it’ll beryllium nosy to spot really it goes.”

New Zealand will beryllium peculiarly good represented astatine this home-soil event. Team Asia-Pacific includes snowboarder Cam Melville Ives and freeski jock Luke Harrold, while Team Challengers features freeskiers Mischa Thomas and Fin Melville Ives. They’ll compete alongside established world names including Canadian snowboarder Brooke D’Hondt, Spanish Olympian Queralt Castellet, Estonian freeski prima Kelly Sildaru and Korean snowboarder Gaon Choi.

The Challengers squad adds different wrinkle. While North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific are geographic groupings, the 4th squad is built astir emerging talent from aggregate regions, giving the adjacent procreation a spot alongside established World Cup and Olympic-level competitors.

The World Challenge bracket will beryllium influenced by a Teamwork Challenge astatine Treble Cone successful Wānaka connected Thursday, September 17. Athletes will activity together to create self-shot upland footage, pinch the teams presenting their clips astatine Rippon Vineyard that evening. The winning squad will gain a strategical advantage by determining the title bracket for Saturday.

While competitions person integrated slopestyle title pinch all-mountain riding, this whitethorn beryllium the first halfpipe title to see an all-mountain element.

Friday, September 18, will characteristic a Mini-Pipe Challenge involving White, Snow League athletes and section young skiers and snowboarders. The World Challenge itself runs Saturday morning, followed by an awards ceremony.

“The effort to archive and put immoderate attraction connected the Mini-Pipe aliases the backcountry filming facet will beryllium really cool,” Pates said. “It puts an accent connected america arsenic individuals and arsenic a group, and that should springiness the spectator a batch much penetration into america arsenic people. You spot that pinch F1 and pinch different sports that person done contented that’s much jock focused. That’s really important for the sport.”

The event, though technically a preseason competition, besides marks the opening of Season Two for The Snow League. The league’s regular play will statesman successful January 2027 astatine Buttermilk successful Aspen earlier moving to Park City and yet LAAX, Switzerland, wherever the adjacent Snow League World Champions will beryllium crowned.