Dear Park & Pipe Members,

Following a short hiatus, our monthly P&P community updates are back.

A lot has happened since our last update, most notably the success of our Olympic Team in Beijing. To recognise and celebrate these achievements the snowsports community will be coming together at the 2022 Snow Australia Awards in a few weeks time. The broader snowsports community are welcome to attend and tickets are now available so make sure you book yours early.

Carrying on the Olympic theme, the dates for Interschools FK and SB Slopestyle comps have been released, and with all P&P athletes at Beijing being past Interschools participants, it is clear these grassroots participation events are where the enjoyment of competing is born.

Watch out next month for info on P&P Futures and Interschools specific NSTC Park-Airbag and Pre-comp sessions dates.

After 2 long years of no overseas travel due to COVID, the National Park & Pipe Committee invited 17 aspiring athletes to Leysin, Switzerland for the P&P Junior World Championships in March, and what an invaluable experience it was for all involved. We are excited to see the athletes build on this momentum year after year.

Finally, with the Development Airbag now installed at the NSTC to complement the current upgrades of the High Performance Airbag the facility is almost ready for a busy winter of training for participants at all levels. Make ure you follow the socials to stay across the reopening date for community sessions.

That's all for now.

Stay safe, Ride hard

David Parr

We would like to remind the community that tickets are now on sale for the 2022 Snow Australia Awards. Following an exciting Olympic and Paralympic Games this night is a chance for the entire snowsports community to gather to reflect on and celebrate the amazing performances and outstanding achievements of all of our Snow Australia athletes and their team. 

Tickets are NOW ON SALE for Snow Australia members and guests and can be purchased HERE.

Congratulations to all the 30 former Interschools athletes who participated in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. The Australian team included 13 Interschools competitors who were making their Olympic debut, along with 17 athletes who had previously competed in the Winter Olympics. Three Olympic medals were won by former Interschools athletes, two of these being in Park & Pipe.

Interschools is a great opportunity for children to get involved with snow sports. For more information on participating and getting involved in interschools this upcoming season, be sure to check out the Interschools website.

The Australian Junior Park and Pipe Team have wrapped up their Leysin 2022 Junior World Championships campaign with 12 top-20 results, three finals appearances, and an incredible experience that will greatly benefit their future snowboard and skiing careers.

Seventeen-year-old Paige Jones narrowly missed out on a medal, placing 4th in the Women’s Snowboard Big Air.

Also making a Finals appearance was Meila Stalker, placing 6th in a very competitive field in the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle. Fresh off his World Cup debut in Georgia the week before, Jesse Parkinson also qualified for the final of the Men’s Snowboard Big Air, placing 18th.

Teen sensation Valentino Guseli has finished the snowboard season on a high, capturing a bronze medal at the World Cup slopestyle final in Silvaplana, Switizerland.

The medal is Guseli’s second of the season in slopestyle and shows what an amazing talent the 16-year-old is after placing sixth in the halfpipe discipline at the Beijing Olympic Games in February. Guseli was one of the most consistent riders in the final, scoring 83.40 points on his first run, and then increased his score in the second run with 89.40 points to finish in third place. 

Rectification work in the NSTC Park has been progressing well since our last update in March.  

The weather has been kind and enabled us to make good headway in repairing the erosion damage across the whole site from the recent summer storms. The staff has been hard at work installing over 4 tonne of JF Snow on the run-in of the Development bag which is almost complete. The development bag was installed earlier in the month and is almost ready to go!

Weather depending, we remain hopeful to be open again to the community during late April. We will also have further information about the incredibly exciting upgrade and expansion of the NSTC Building in the coming weeks. This is likely to impact the Action Sports training activities in Term 2 & 3. We will have more to say about this shortly.