Winter Games Obsidian With Craig Murray
The event was a world first, a concept that was dreamt up in the wake of Covid.
There were three teams, each with seven athletes across all disciplines.
• September 1st 2020
words by craig murray
Photos by Ross Mackay
"The highlight of the winter games obsidian was getting to hang out and ride with some of New Zealand's best snow sports athletes in a more relaxed and casual environment. I enjoyed getting to know and spend quality time with some people I hadn't met before as well as hanging out with good friends throughout the event period. Competing in a team environment was awesome and kept the vibes and energy high. Usually, we compete individually, so having that comradery was super cool."
"The event was a world first, a concept that was dreamt up in the wake of Covid. There were three teams, each with seven athletes across all disciplines. Each team was randomly assigned a film crew, as well as a mountain location for one of the challenges. We had five challenges three of them being on snow and the two of them being content-based. It started with the Big Air, then the Freeride day, followed by Mountain shred. Points were awarded to the teams after each challenge. We had a 10-day weather window for the whole event, which put a lot of pressure on film crews as well as the unstable weather in NZ."
"It was really interesting competing, and having a full event go ahead this winter. The organizational crew and everyone behind the scenes did an amazing job to make it happen. It was really special just having kiwi athletes and seeing how deep the talent runs in Aotearoa. The amazing thing is that there were only 21 athletes, yet there are 50 athletes in NZ at the top level."
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