The former national junior freestyle event (under-8 to under-18) has expanded to a full national championship with an added open division.
Both freeskiers (big air) and snowboarders (boarder cross) were strutting their stuff on Tuesday.
The freeski big air open division was a FIS-sanctioned Australia New Zealand Cup, drawing an international field with athletes from nine countries competing. Each athlete had three attempts at the jump with their top two scores combined for a total score.
Wanaka athlete Luca Harrington (18) showed why he is one of the brightest stars coming through the ranks with all three of his jumps scoring in the 90s.
Harrington landed a right triple cork 1440 and switch right double 1800, being awarded a combined score of 194.34 to secure the top spot on the podium.
"It was nice to get out there today and get the competition done with a good crew," Harrington said.
"There were a lot of international athletes and the competition was of a really high level, so for me to be able to ski the way I wanted to ski is really amazing.
"This is good competition training to be landing my tricks under pressure.
"It gets me more comfortable and confident in the start gate before heading away to the northern hemisphere and into those bigger competitions."
Daisy Thomas, of Australia, was the winner in the women’s field, landing a switch cork 540 and a left 720 to claim the win with a combined score of 136.00.
The judges were also impressed with Canadian athlete Caoimhe Heavey, who was attempting a technical cork 900, although she could not quite manage to land the trick.
In the boarder cross, athletes took individual timed runs down the course to seed them into heats, in which they raced in a knockout format until a winner was crowned.
There were 96 snowboarders across the various grades, including 16 in the under-14 boys division, won by Australian youngster Jake Anderson.
A new masters division featured a couple of familiar faces.
Paralympian Carl Murphy won the men's division, and two-time Winter Olympian Juliane Bray claimed the women’s masters title.
The ski freeride event was also scheduled for Tuesday but postponed due to hard snow conditions in the Lil Tulips venue.
Competition is scheduled to resume today with the snowboard and freeski halfpipe, the open divisions of which will be FIS-sanctioned ANC events.
