NSWIS Park & Pipe Program

NSWIS Park and Pipe Athlete Scholarships opportunities are provided to select athletes in Park & Pipe disciplines (slopestyle skiing and snowboard and halfpipe skiing and snowboard) aligning their potential for success with “Australia's Winning Edge 2012-2022” - our nation’s high performance strategy for moving from world class to world best.  

The NSWIS/SSA Park & Pipe Program underpins the OWIA “Pro Athlete Performance Contract” model, and provides a clear and supported transition opportunity for athletes that chose to be involved in a high performance pathway. 

NSWIS/SSA Park & Pipe Program works to deliver athlete outcomes to scholarship holders based on a combination of program opportunities, individual scholarship support and targeted performance camp initiatives. 

New for the 2016 - 2017 scholarship year, an integrated high performance program with the Perisher Winter Sports Club has been established to enable scholarship athletes in Snowboard Slopestyle to be supported by a dedicated NSWIS/SSA park and pipe coach.

The program currently services eight NSWIS scholarship holders, with the program is based in Perisher with the Winter Sports Club for the Australian Winter and Flachauwinkl in Austria for the Northern winter, the home of Absolut Park. Chad Collier has been appointed as the program coach and brings with him years of experience coaching slopestyle athletes. The program aims to develop athletes capable of achieving international podium success to a point where their potential is confirmed through performances at international level competition and they are eligible to transition through to OWIA Pro Athlete support. 

This transition through NSWIS to OWIA has been achieved by Jess Rich, the first of the Park and Pipe snowboard athletes to progress up to the highest level of support aimed at providing athletes with what they require to bring home Olympic Winter Games medals. Jess achieved an outstanding result at the Benchmark Event (PyeongChang OWG Test Event) in February 2016.

The 2016/2017 NSWIS Park and Pipe Team is: