Pipe technology right at cutting edge

Global Cutter engineer John Melville with Cardrona's special pipe groomer. Photo by Matthew Haggart.

Wanaka reporter Matthew Haggart meets the man they can thank for the buzz, Cardrona Alpine Resort halfpipe groomer John Melville.

Terrain snowpark and engineering whizz John Melville invented a specialised shaping groomer to build the southern hemisphere's first and only Olympic standard halfpipe.

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He subsequently patented the super-sized snow-shaper technology and is awaiting an international trademark for the Global Cutter name.

It's a pipe dream that has certainly paid off for the freeskiers and snowboarders of the Southern Lakes, and the visiting pro riders competing on the international snowsports circuit - not to mention Melville's employer, Cardrona Alpine Resort.

The Cardrona halfpipe is now host to the big three of the terrain park halfpipe events in the country.

International competitors are lining up to ride the halfpipe at the New Zealand Burton Snowboarding Open, this week, and the upcoming New Zealand Freeski Open, and the New Zealand Winter Games.

The latter event doubles as an FIS World Cup halfpipe competition and is one of the last opportunities for international team riders to make qualification standards for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February.

FIS organisers told Cardrona, after the skifield first hosted a halfpipe event in 2007, that if they wanted to host further World Cup competitions they needed an Olympic standard 22ft (6.8m) super pipe.

Melville duly obliged, coming up with a new super-size hydraulic pipe cutting arm and shaping system, after a summer spent tinkering in his back yard shed at home in Wanaka.

"I spent about five years thinking about the different designs and have produced three prototypes to come up with the demonstration model," he says.

Melville brought in Wanaka company Aspiring Engineering to help with the production aspects for the cutter and is proud to have been able to construct and keep the technology "local".

Global company Burton Snowboarding subsequently shifted its signature New Zealand Open event from Snow Park, citing Cardrona's investment into terrain park infrastructure and halfpipe development as one of the key factors.

Melville's Global Cutter is a massive hydraulic boom, which works a chain-run system rotating custom-made engineered paddles - they look a bit like cookie-dough cutters, which can run both up and down - to groom and shape halfpipes with an "ideal" curved base and vertical wall.

It also incorporates laser-guidance systems to help operators get the best straight lines while driving the Snowcats along, while shaping the walls and curved base of the halfpipe.

It is one of only two pipe shaping machines on the international market, he says.

The Wanaka engineer has since set up a company - Developments Snowparks Ltd - patented his pipe cutter design system, and it is now in demand on the international ski industry market to shape halfpipes and terrain parks.

He travels regularly during the northern hemisphere winter to skifields in Korea, the United States and Canada, returning home to Wanaka for southern winters.

While a lifestyle of travel and international ski resort visits might sound glamorous, the reality of Melville's terrain park grooming job is more night-owl than jet-set.

"We can spend up to 12 hours working through the night and day to try and get everything ready for the big comps," he says.

"There's a lot of time, effort, and expense, which resorts put into creating this type of facility. It's a huge promotional tool for the greater good of the sport," he says.