With more than one week to go to the 2013 season's first halfpipe competition and thus official FIS Snowboard World Cup opener on August 26, Cardrona Alpine Ski Resort, New Zealand, is getting ready for the big show.

While aiming to open the super pipe on Friday and thus allowing athletes from all over the world valuable training time ahead the World Cup event, the grooming team Alli Zehetner (AUT) and Hamish Rudhall (NZE) is currently getting the ditch ready for the riders.

“Both have done an exceptional job this year and we are very excited to get the pipe open. It’s taken a bit longer this year to get the pipe fully-operational because the grooming staff had to travel long distances to gather natural snow from wind pockets and push it back to the halfpipe,” said Cardrona Operations Manager Gary Husband.

“As halfpipes have grown over the years so has the amount of snow needed to build them. Without large natural snowfalls it takes a lot of man hours to push the 20,000 cubic meters of snow needed to build the Olympic halfpipe.”

The 22ft sized pipe was the first of its kind in the Southern hemisphere and will once again be ready to allow experienced snowboarders to push the boundaries to what is possible.

Just to remember: three years ago, Shaun White (USA) nailed the first back to back double corks 1080's in a contest. In addition, all six 2010 Olympic medallist came down under to train for the major event at Cardrona Alpine Ski Resort.

Rumor has it that also for this year, the World Cup opener in New Zealand will feature a quality field including several Olympic medallists.

Cardrona Marketing Manager Nadia Ellis added: “With just over 18 months to go until the Sochi Olympic Games we are entering a really important training time for athletes.

We are expecting to see lots of well-known faces from around the planet maximizing the training opportunity at Cardrona. The World Cup this year will also be particularly important with the FIS points counting towards Olympic qualification.”

Facts about the Cardrona super pipe:

• 22ft walls

• 160 m long

• 21 m wide

• 20,000 cubic meters of snow

• Since 2011, a platter tow means super fast laps of the pipe and no more hiking! In addition, the dedicated platter tow called Wells Pipe Platter will also help to cement Cardrona’s 22ft halfpipe position as one of the best training facilities in the world

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