Despite bombing out, spectators had nothing but praise for her performance.
Had she landed the trick, she would have performed a world-first in women's slopestyle competition and almost certainly won the first prize of $6000.
Instead, the second-seeded athlete sacrificed all by trying the stunt twice, including in her final run when she could have done a "safety run" instead.
Spectators were saying at least Gotlieb's attempts, in the presence of eventual winner and world No 1 Jamie Anderson (20), of the United States, set a high bar for the Winter Games slopestyle at the Snow Park next weekend.
Gotlieb was philosophical afterwards.
"The achievement was in attempting it. It is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. A lot of preparation goes into that on snow and on airbags.
"No girl has done one in a competition and I was looking forward to the challenge of landing it in a competition run. If the opportunity arises [to try it at the Winter Games], you never know," she said.
Gotlieb took part with a wrist injury which prevented her from competing at the Snow Park's Billabong slopestyle a week ago.
Mark McMorris (17), of Canada, won the men's slopestyle title yesterday from compatriot Sebastien Toutant (18) and Stale Sandbech (18), of Norway.
The trio were uncertain whether they would compete in next week's Winter Games, because they did not know anything about it.
They were staying for at least another 10 days, so would observe the games and consider entering, they said.
The New Zealand Snowboard Open finishes today with half pipe finals for women and semifinals and finals for men.
Results from the slopestyle finals. -
Women: Jamie Anderson (US), 88.83pts, 1; Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas (Norway), 84.38pts, 2; Jordie Karlinski (US), 61.35pts, 3; Shelly Gotlieb (NZ), 31.58pts, 7.
Men: Mark McMorris (Canada), 90.90pts, 1; Sebastien Toutant (Canada), 90.55pts, 2; Stale Sandbech (Norway), 89.78 pts, 3.
