Tiarn Collins ''couldn't be happier'' with his first taste of competing in a major event.
The 15-year-old Queenstown snowboarder finished 15th in the men's slopestyle qualifying at Cardrona yesterday, the first of four world cup events at the fourth biennial Winter Games.
Collins scored 36 in his first run, before an impressive second run netted him a score of 63.
''I put down probably the best run I have ever done,'' Collins said.
''I just couldn't be happier with that.''
While only the top 10 qualified for tomorrow's final, Collins was the second-best New Zealander behind Carlos Garcia Knight, who scored 86.25 to qualify fourth.
Collins, who was born in Australia but considers himself a Kiwi after living in Queenstown for eight years, qualified for the Winter Games after winning the slopestyle event at the Continental Cup at Cardrona last month.
Snow Sports New Zealand entered him in the Winter Games and helped him train for the event over the past month.
Japanese snowboarder Yuki Kadono scored 90 to finish top qualifier and is one of a group of athletes whom Collins admires and is competing against.
''I look up to a lot of those guys,'' Collins said.
''A lot of them are my favourite riders. It's so cool to be in the same start gate as them.''
Before yesterday, Collins had competed only locally and in a few small competitions in the United States. He has come a long way since first trying snowboarding about seven years ago.
''I got into it through skateboarding. I would skateboard all summer and all I wanted to do was skate all winter,'' he said.
''Instead, I tried snowboarding and fell in love with that.''
To ensure he gets more time on the snow, he has been doing his schoolwork through correspondence for the past two years.
He usually spends about five days a week on the snow, while ''chipping away at school work'' the other two days.
''It's pretty full on at the moment,'' he said.
Collins is entered in the snowboard halfpipe world cup event next week - qualifying starts next Friday - and could also enter the snowboard big air, which starts on Wednesday.
Collins hopes to one day become a professional snowboarder and represent New Zealand at the Winter Olympics.
