For someone who grew up on skis, today was a good day for Olympian Nico Porteous.
Skis in hand, Porteous was back up to his second home at Cardrona, for his first run in four months.
“I've just been kind of sitting here, itching, waiting to come skiing for our season, and the day has come, so I'm absolutely frothing,” he said.
Boarder Zoi Sydowski-Synott was another one of the first on the mountain this morning, shaking off some lockdown rust.
“I just went into straight Playstation mode, and I was super lazy for like a week,” Sydowski-Synott said.
It's been a weird few months for Kiwi snow sports athletes, rushed home from a European season, World Cups abandoned and the future uncertain.
“We were just about to fly to Norway for our World Cup finals, the pinnacle sort of event of our season. We were actually in the airport, and we got told to not bother coming to Norway,” Paralympian Corey Peters said.
While future competitions are in doubt, there are hopes of travel later this year.
“Today's a bit like Mark Todd taking Charisma for a jog down the beach - it's super good excitement, good for your wellbeing, but our athletes need high-end, elite facilities,” Nic Cavanagh, high performance director at Snow Sports NZ said.
There will be some competition though with an all-Kiwi event called Obsidian planned for August. It's a competition that'll combine home-grown talent across all disciplines.
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