CSB - Fynn Powell: Winter Games NZ

Fynn Powell joins Hamish McKay to chat his Freeride runs at the Winter Games in Queenstown and his hopes of getting to the World Tour.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Harris McKay with you in for BK. Great to have
you company here on our Wednesday morning. Right, we're talking
now the Winter Games, right referred to as the Winter
Games en Z the Mini Olympics. Flynn Powell is joining
us now to talk us through this. Good morning, Flynn.
This sounds like a pretty exciting event coming up.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, good morning, It's been a great one so far.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, talk us through what we what we can expect.
Are we underway or how far? When do we kick off?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
So the free right events have just happened in these
past couple of days, the two and the four, and
then I believe there's a couple more freestyle and racing
events to come.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Okay, So how many sort of competitors have we gotten?
What's the competition?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Like? So in the free rating the four star there
was around about one hundred competitors I believe, and about
thirty in the ski now division where I was in.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
And how did you get on? What's what's what's the competition?
And like is it some of the world's best here?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah? People come from all around the world for this competition.
It's pretty much the first on the calendar for the
world qualifiers. And so it's a great way to build
points before heading to Europe or North America to do
the challenges and final series.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
So when you say, for instance, in your case, you
can bet in the two stars and the four star
event yet a second of the first what is that?
What does that mean for you? Sort of on the
global stage.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's a really good start to the season and a
really great way to build points going forward. So these
points weld views in Europe and I'll be able to
use them to get onto qualifying hopefully for the thread
Will Tour, which is the top level of our sport.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Right, Okay, tell us a bit about what your expertise,
what do you do best? What when we're talking about
these huge three sixties and the like, Just give us
a bit of an idea of what your your run
looks like.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, I kind of specializing forrad so we kind of
go out there and look at a natural features and
base and try to pick a line through and fill
it with as many freestyle tricks as we can. But yeah,
it's a kind of a blend, I guess between a
lot of different disciplines and skiing. You really need to
be able to bring everything to the table I feel,

(02:17):
and I think that's what I really like about it.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, okay, and have we got a good growing contingent
of Kiwi's is sort of taking on the world stage.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, we've got more and more, it seems every year
through RAID. There's a great kids program that's been in
the works for the last I think ten years with
the on Newport and it really helps the grums work
their way up to the big leagues and the big stage.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Right. I just want to get from just a check
on the structure here. So you're competing saying a four
star event, you do well, you pick up a lot
of qualifying points there. What can that lead to in
terms of the competitions you might be able to get
into on the international stage.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, So from here will be points and if you
get enough points then you can go to the finals events.
So there'll be a couple events and everyone's points will
be white and there will be about thirty odd schemeal
in that event, and then from there you have three
events to then dictate how many points you get that

(03:21):
will lead to the World Tour. So the top four
I believe Skimal will go through and you just got
to find yourself as high on that list as.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
You can how many would be on the World Tour?
How many places are out there on the World Tour?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
I think it's about again twenty thirty Schimel. I can't
speak for all the categories, but that's the one I'm
familiar with.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, yeah, okay. How do you get on with costs
and sponsorship and those sort of things. Have you got
good support?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah? I've got great support. I think Vocal New Zealand
has been really instrumental in my journey so far, and
then the likes of people like this but not and
just working between seasons to try and get the money
to afford it. It's obviously family and friends have always
been helpful and always there to give you the support

(04:12):
when you need it.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
What do you do between seasons? What else do you
do besides skiing to help pay to pay for it?

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I pick up like any job really. I was working
out at Walter Pek last year and then I've just
been tuning skis this year.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yep, yeah, oh fantastic, good lifestyle. Who is your favorite
place in the world to compete?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
I do really love it in Europe. Over in Austria
has been great. Hopefully we'll be heading back there this season,
but it's really hard to put a finger on it.
All around the world in Whistling and Canada out incredible.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, you've got everybody wanted to get their passport out fun.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Hey, well done. Congratulations on the good form and keep
it up and we look forward to following your progress there.
That is thin Powe coming after competing in the Freeride
World Qualified Tour there and it's been happening over the
Queenstown Lakes a district