ABOUT OBSIDIAN 2020
Each 9-person team will comprise a mix of 7 elite snow sport athletes and 2 world class videographers. Male and female, ski and snowboard, freeride and park athletes and will be led by a Team Captain.
Between the weather window from 10th – 20th August there will be a thrilling Freeride heli event in a breath-taking backcountry venue, two progressive Park events (Park Jam and Big Air) to showcase the immense style and skill of New Zealand ski and snowboard talent. These three events will be scored by an expert panel in each of the sporting disciplines.
The Mountain Shred challenge will see all three teams sent to separate ski resorts for a one-day shred where they will build and session a line that can feature natural, man-made or enhanced natural features. The teams will be scored on their style, creativity and sport from their video edit of the day.
OBSIDIAN 2020: FROM THE WORLD OF FREE SPORTS
Winter Games NZ is the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest snow sports event. Traditionally it welcomes the world’s best skiers and snowboarders to compete in the opening of the FIS Park and Pipe World Cup season and The North Face Frontier, a Freeride World Qualifying Tour 4* & 2* event. This year that can’t happen, so rather than let the event lapse Winter Games NZ will run Obsidian. Obsidian is an epic new mixed Team Challenge event for the Winter Games NZ 2020, set across New Zealand’s Southern Alps. 21 of New Zealand’s best freeski and snowboard athletes pitted against each other in five challenges over a ten-day weather window between the 10th and 20th of August 2020. Each 9-person team will comprise a mix of 7 elite snow sport athletes and 2 world class videographers. Male and female, ski and snowboard, freeride and park athletes and will be led by a Team Captain. From Conception to reality the Obsidian has been an athlete focused, sport and content driven event with Olympic medalists, Freeride World Tour winners and film orientated athletes at the top of their game involved throughout the journey. There will be a thrilling Freeride event in a breath-taking backcountry venue, two progressive Park events (Park Jam and Big Air) to showcase the immense style and skill of New Zealand ski and snowboard talent. These three events will be scored by an expert panel in each of the sporting disciplines, while the fourth and fifth challenges will be very different. The Mountain Shred challenge will see all three teams sent to separate ski resorts for a one-day shred where they will build and session a line that can feature natural, man-made or enhanced natural features. The teams will be scored on their style, creativity and sport from their video edit of the day. The fifth challenge is the videographers edit and this is where each teams embedded videographers will shine. The videographers will capture the action as it unfolds on and off the mountain from their team’s perspective. This will allow them to bring their creative talents to the fore with the Videographers overall competition, which will form part of the overall event scoring. Finally, to really spice up the sporting action, we have incorporated the Obsidian ‘joker’ card. Each team will receive a Joker card and they will have to nominate which of the four ‘sporting’ events they play it on. This card gives the team double points for the event they play their Joker card on, so it is up to the team to determine which event they think will be their strongest.
