Txema Mazet- Brown a local snowboarder has taken out the Worlds Junior Snowboard Big Air title at the Junior Snowboard and Freestyle World Championships in Livigno, Italy held March 22nd -30th, 2024.
Huge congratulations Txema. Tell us about this particular event in Italy and how it played out.
The Junior World Champs in Livigno was a tough battle with the weather, as throughout the whole event it was low visibility and really windy which made everything harder to do and even harder to run the competitions. In Big Air I managed to land a cab 1440 to score a 95 and hold the top qualifying spot going into finals. Finals day they had to get through all of the skiers and then the snowboarders afterwards, so it meant if there were any delays it would be hard to complete everything. The weather was not on our side as it was really windy making it dangerous to run the event, so they had to cancel the finals and keep the qualifying results. This meant I was junior world champ.
How has the experience been of competing in the northern hemisphere winter?
This competition season over the Northern Hemisphere has been the most hectic yet. Started off in USA and Canada where I competed in my first World Cup big airs. Then to South Korea for the Youth Olympics and since then in Europe, Switzerland for the most part, and Italy for the Junior World Championships. But throughout it all I have felt like I’ve been doing my best snowboarding yet which I’m hyped on.
What other comps did you have success in?
Other comps which I did pretty well at were the Davos Europa Cup Big Air which I finished in 1st and then Laax Europa Cup premium slope style where I ended up in 4th. Also 9th in the youth Olympics big air although I didn’t land what I wanted to in the finals.
What’s the plan for the next few months?
The plan for the next few months will be the last competition from the 9th – 13th of April being a slopestyle and big air Europa cup premium here in Switzerland. Then I do a week of filming with Beyond Medals before heading home end of April to take a break which will be really good, to recharge the batteries for the NZ winter season.
Where to from here? What is the goal following this great season?
From here the plan will be to compete on the World Cup circuit next season for the first Olympic qualifying year starting in NZ, and to continue to progress and push myself. Of course to do my best riding in those comps but to also continue to enjoy the sport as much as I do.
