The New Zealand Winter Games 2018 has drawn to a close. As the dust settles, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that this year saw the highest calibre of competitive skiing and snowboarding (and for some partying) that New Zealand has ever witnessed.
From the first-ever Quad Cork landed in competition in the Southern Hemisphere to Junior World Championship competitors stepping up to beat some of the biggest names in the game. You know it's been a Winter Games to remember.
Mons Royale's own Nico Porteous lit up his local halfpipe and took Gold in the Junior Ski Halfpipe confirming what many have been predicting, that the standard in the juniors is no longer any different to the seniors.
Kelly Sildaru cleaned up almost everything in the juniors and elite level in the women's skiing. The Japanese won snowboarding with Kokomo Murase, Takeru Otsuka and Reira Iwabuchi taking out all the silverware except for the men's Big Air which was taken in style by Chris Corning and his Quad 1800, the first quad ever landed in the Southern Hemisphere.
A relaxed festival atmosphere at the 4* Freeride World Qualifying event was curated by NZ freeriding royalty Sam Smoothy. In full fancy dress and teamed up with his sister Anna they made the day one of the most entertaining of the Winter Games. In the men's skiing the kiwi trio of Craig Murray, James Hampton and Blake Marshall went toe to toe, with the local Freeski coach Marshall eventually prevailing. In the women's local knowledge proved to be key as Jessica Hotter took the win.
Throughout the Games, we have been running our #JudgeMons campaign where we put our reputation on the line and asked three independent judges to publicly test Mons Royale. You can go on to any of our social media feeds to find out how they got on, or check their journals. But now the Games are over we want to extend the invitation to #JudgeMons to you.
All you have to do is post a photo of yourself in Mons and caption it with a review using #JudgeMONS and we will enter you into the draw to win a new Mons Royale winter wardrobe. You can post to FB or Instagram. We look forward to hearing what you think!
Images: Winter Games NZ, Daisy Maddinson, Tom Brownlee & Jay French.
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