The Snow League Tried Something Fresh in New Zealand, and It Was a Hit

30ish Minutes With Shaun White

Shaun White is beckoning a duck from his first-story hotel room in Wānaka, New Zealand.

Throwing a slice of pear in front of the open sliding door, White encourages the duck to enter the room, but the bird uses its long neck to reach the tasty treat while remaining outside. “Dang, you’re a smart little guy,” White says with a chuckle.

White is scheduled to speak with me for 30 minutes, sandwiched by interviews with other media outlets, but I’m in no rush. Honored by the opportunity to meet one of my childhood heroes, I feel privileged to be in the room with snowboarding’s all-time great, let alone that he’s agreed to answer my questions. I kind of want to see how this whole thing with the duck plays out, anyway.

The duck eventually waddles away when the slices of pear run out, and White tells me it’s his first time back in New Zealand since a brutal training crash in 2017 that left him with 62 stitches. Nine years later, White has retired from professional riding, but an upstart league bearing his name is hosting an event in the same pipe.

The Snow League World Challenge New Zealand is set to take place at Cardrona the following day, and a new 720 spin cap in the semi-final round has been the talk of the town. What tricks will the riders try? Is this a good thing for halfpipe, or a gimmick? Who will come out on top?

Assuming White had already been bogged down by journalists with generic questions about the 720 cap, I asked what his 720-capped run of choice would look like. White’s face lit up.

“Well, if I did a front double 9, but then rewound it back to 7, does that count?” White asked with a smirk. “Then I would probably try some air to fakies, and definitely some stylish 540s. I’d probably throw some hand plants in there too just to mix it up.”

Again, he’s retired from riding professionally, but the passion for sliding on snow, and apparently, airing out of the pipe, still courses through Shaun White’s veins. That was also evident after I asked him simply, “Why are you involved in the Snow League?”

White took a second to think on the question, and then answered poignantly. “I just can’t picture ever walking away from the sport. It would feel too weird to have done something my entire life and then just be like, ‘All right, I’m gonna go start a company that builds computers’. Unless it was a huge passion of mine, which it’s not.”

As the world’s most famous snowsports athlete, White sees his current status from a place of privilege. His name can figuratively move mountains and, in turn, help current athletes with financial security, fairness in competition, and more.

“The winter sport landscape was pretty stagnant, but I saw a gap in the market,” White said of skiing and snowboarding competitions prior to the creation of the Snow League. “Obviously, my brand is called Whitespace. It’s a play on my last name, but it also references a gap in the market. It’s kind of what my career has been based on, you know? These guys are doing this trick and that trick, but what trick are they not doing, or what could be different? What could be unique? What’s the white space? What’s the gap? And so for me, when I sat back and went, man, this is the landscape right now for competitive winter sports, but if there was somebody to bridge the gap or to bring about change in the sport, I would be best suited to do that.”

The Snow League World Challenge New Zealand Results and Format

The Snow League is already groundbreaking with its guaranteed appearance fees for athletes, world-class prize pool, and head-to-head format, but the World Challenge New Zealand presented another opportunity for the upstart league to test the waters.

The aforementioned 720 cap in the semi-finals was the biggest change in how skiers and riders prepared for the competition, but a team-based format was also implemented to amp up the excitement.

Four teams of four riders were assembled, with each consisting of a male skier, a female skier, a male snowboarder, and a female snowboarder. The team with the most cumulative points at the end of the competition would be crowned champions of the Snow League World Challenge New Zealand.

The winds were howling throughout the day, and the finals were ultimately canceled when the riders agreed that conditions were unsafe for throwing doubles, triples, and big airs. The semi-finals, however, were one of the most exciting competitions I’ve ever watched.

To start, the 720 spin cap was awesome, for lack of a better word. Multiple skiers attempted zero spins, Hunter Hess landed a trick on the deck before dropping back into the pipe, and the style was off the charts.

Fin Melville Ives stole the show with a nose butter cork 7, but nearly every athlete had something unique up their sleeve. It was entertaining, exciting, and, honestly, quite nice from a spectator’s perspective to not have to count four- and five-spin tricks.

The Snow League used its classic best-of-three, head-to-head format in the semi-finals, but a new, quite exciting tiebreaker rule was introduced. Instead of athletes dropping in for a full third run, they could only throw one trick. The rider with the best trick would advance to the finals.

This scenario didn’t play out in any of the ski matchups, but three of the four snowboarder heats went to the tiebreaker. American rider Jake Pates didn’t land his massive grab over teammates Hunter Hess, Brooke D’Hondt, and Amy Fraser (as seen in the photo above), who were sitting on the edge of the pipe, but it showed that the Snow League not only encourages creativity, it feeds off it.

Team Challengers won the overall competition, with three out of four athletes winning their individual competitions. Click here for a full roster breakdown, results, and more from The Snow League World Challenge New Zealand.

Keep reading for reactions from the winners.

Reactions From the Winners

“Oh yeah, bru, tell them to f***ing come!”

Fin Melville Ives had just won the Snow League World Challenge on home soil and responded with the perfect one-liner after I asked him, “What would you say to Americans thinking about visiting New Zealand to ski?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at his delightful Kiwi way of speaking. We dapped, I thanked him for his time, and he scurried away to join a fray of athletes who mobbed him with fist bumps, high-fives, and hugs. I had to remind myself that this pipe skiing aficionado was only 20 years old.

I spotted the women’s ski winner across the pipe, fellow Kiwi Mischa Thomas, and asked her about the 720 spin cap and how it played out. Thomas, who is just 18 years old, responded with maturity well above her years, but her unmistakable stoke for skiing slipped through.

“I was really struggling to plan my run,” she admitted of the 720 cap. “But, I wanted to be creative, I didn’t want my run to be just a stepped-down version of my regular comp run. So I incorporated that with the cut-back, and that just made me so stoked.”

Thomas, in a nod to fellow Kiwi halfpipe champion Nico Porteous, was the only skier to hit consecutive tricks on the same side of the pipe. She utilized Porteous’ famous “cut-back” move, something she doesn’t normally try in competition runs.

The winning athletes joined each other on stage about 30 minutes later in front of a roaring crowd for a champagne celebration. Thomas and Melville Ives doused each other and took a big swig in unison. Then, a chant erupted from the crowd:

“Shoey. Shoey. Shoey. Shoey…!”

Melville Ives answered the call and poured the remaining champagne into his well-worn shoe. Champagne spilled out, but not before he put the heel to his mouth and chugged.

With foam running down either side of his mouth, Melville Ives lifted his arms in celebration, and the après DJ began playing a bass-heavy track as the crowd laughed, cheered, and took photos.

It had been decided. The Snow League World Challenge in New Zealand, with its 720 spin cap and unique team format, was a hit.

Heli Skiing With The Snow League World Challenge Winners

I met the winners of the Snow League World Challenge at Harris Mountain Heli Ski in Wānaka the next morning. Everybody was tired from the day (and night) before, but the vibes were high.

This would be Fin Melville Ives and Mischa Thomas’ first day ever of heli skiing, and to do so after winning the first competition of the season on home turf was a delicious helping of icing on the cake, so to speak.

The pair got the green light to drop together into a wind-buffed bowl high in New Zealand’s Southern Alps about midway through the day. I watched with delight as they hooted, hollered, and chased each other down the playful terrain.

Thomas and Melville Ives shouted “TEAM CHALLENGERS!!!” when they reached the bottom in celebration.

As a ski-obsessed kid from Delaware, I took a moment to appreciate how special the trip had been. New Zealand is the most beautiful and wonderful country in the world, I decided. 

Then, right before I dropped into the bowl, two keas (the world’s only alpine parrot) flew overhead. Their bright-orange underwing feathers contrasted against the deep blue, cloudless sky.

“Where the f*** am I?!” I asked no one with a chuckle.

Related: Why Can’t Pro Freeskiers Get Paid? Inside Shaun White’s New Multi-Million Dollar Snow League Solution