United States skier Bobby Brown (18) walked away with the men's title yesterday, while Canadian Dania Assaly had to wait 24 hours to find out she was a winner after competing in the finals of the women's competition on Tuesday.
It was Brown's first competition in New Zealand and he clinched a spinning double cork 1080 jump on his final run to score a title-winning 93.2 points.
"I'm pumped. I've been working on that trick a lot lately, so it was sweet to land it in a competition like this," he said.
Judges said the number of innovative skiers in the "incredibly strong" field who successfully landing the difficult trick was "breathtaking".
It was Brown's stylish execution of the trick which separated him from his fellow freeskiers, the judges said.
Assaly's winning run of 89.4 points came in her second run of the women's final.
New Zealand's leading freeski slopestyle hope, Jossi Wells, of Wanaka, finished sixth and his brother, Byron, 15th.
It was a disappointing day for the pair, who had both looked impressive during practice.
An awkward landing from a rail in Jossi's first run in the final appeared to throw the seasoned international competitor's confidence, although he rallied for his second to score 78.2 points.
He last won a New Zealand Freeski Open slopestyle title in 2006 and finished third in 2007.
He missed last year's event with a broken wrist.
Queenstown skier Matt Soundy, who was the only New Zealander to make it through qualifications to the men's final and join a tough field of 12 internationally ranked invited skiers, finished 16th.
Brown was joined on the men's podium by Tom Wallish (22), of US (89.6pts), and Henrik Harlaut (17), of Sweden (86pts).
Winter X Games 2009 slope-style winner Anna Segal (22), of Australia (85.8pts), placed second in the women's event and Eva-Maria Patscheider (23), of Austria (82.8pts), was third.
