New Zealand’s elite snow sports scene is being recognised, with it set to host superstar Shaun White’s latest competition.
The Snow League is in its second season, and this year will see the introduction of the World Challenge – a first of its kind event hosted at Cardrona in the South Island.
The event is made up of four teams of athletes from around the world —North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Challengers— and features a couple of Kiwis.
Kiwi freeskier Fin Melville Ives is returning after an injury, hitting the slopes as a member of Team Challengers, and told Mike Hosking he’s both excited and nervous, as it’s set to be a crazy and intense event.
He says the event managers plan on making it a regular stop on the tour, which is exciting, and will give us an opportunity to showcase the crazy level of talent coming from New Zealand.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The snow sports scene is about to see the arrival
of Shawn White's latest competition. The Snow League is in
its second season, so this year they're introducing the Snow
League World Challenge, which will debut Katrona in September. Four
teams North America, Europe, Asia, Pacific and the Challenges. Kiwis
a part of it. Cam and Finn Melville ives. Campbell
is in Team Major Pacific and Finn is in Team Challenges. Anyway,
fin Melville ives is, well, it's very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good morning team.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How are you very well? Indeed? What sort of shape
physically do we find you in this morning? Given the
last time I saw you you flat on your back
and a pipe?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Nah, I'm all good now. That was maybe a few
five months ago at the Olympics. Had a little crash,
so I've been scared for maybe four months now.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
How does that recover? Because your collar bone, there's nothing
you can do about it. How sort of disabled are
you during that rehab process?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I wasn't too bad. I just had a minor, like
minor concussion symptoms and a broken collar bone. But I
ended up getting surgery in a Swiss hospital, so I
got a bit of titanium in my column pretty quick,
and then I was pretty good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Do you feel pretty normal? Does that work? I didn't
think they put titanium in a collarbone, and I thought
you just let it heal naturally.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Some cases you don't, in some cases you do. I
feel great now, so yeah, good. Literally the next day
out of the hospital, I felt like pretty much like
eighty percent just locked together.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
What's you're One of the things I'm interested in with
elite athletes is when when you're injured, how psychological does
it become when you come back, and especially in your sport,
when you're doing something you want to do trick wise,
how do you balance that up in your mind?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I mean, yeah, it's definitely a big head game because
you're like, you're not necessarily skiing. You're not doing much
because you don't really have a job skiing as your job.
So when you're recovering, you're kind of that's all you
do is recover, Like you just go to the dym
all day stretch. It kind of just makes up your
day every day and go on walks and stuff. So no,
(02:14):
it can't get pretty boring, but yeah, it's definitely a big,
it's all in the Yeah, definitely gets in the head.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
For sure, exactly. So do you get help in that
or do you do that stuff yourself?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I mean at snow Sports Museum, which is a part
of High Performance Support new Dyum, which is a government
funded agency for like athletes, we have like sports sykes
and yeah, they help us out a bunch and stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, what's your injury toll? I mean, how many times
you've been injured? And how many times do you have
to come back? And do you get sick of it?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
This is maybe only my second major injury and I've
been probably like competing at World Cups for four years.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's not bad. So is that average? Is that normal
all the people you ski with them?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Know? Yeah? Probably? I'm not sure honestly. Yeah, some people
get injured more than others, but I'm sure I feel
like that's pretty average normal. Maybe, I'm sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
The other thing I'm interested in with elite athletes is
you grew up on the mountain, so your parents were instructors.
You guys, just that's what you did. You lived on
a hill. How much of that if I had a
kid and stuck them on a mountain would they automatically,
in some way, shape or form become a great skier
or does there have to be a lot of natural
god given talent there in the first place?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I reckon. I reckon. If you put a little we
child like skiing like three or four times a week
and they find the love for the sport and they
really love doing what they do, I feel like they're
down to become a real good skill of snowwater. Yeah.
I think. I think it's got to come from with them, though.
They've got to have that like real higher and drive
to a common good skier, and they if they love
(04:03):
what they do, there's no holding them back. I reckon.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Did you have love hate relationship because a lot of
as im I'm a perent of five kids, so as
a perient of five kids, kids want to play every sport.
So did you have a love hate relationship with the
mountain and snow and skiing when you were a kid,
or did you just love it from day one?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I just loved it from day one. I didn't really
want to do anything else other than go skiing. Yeah,
I just I just loved dripping around Kajona and trouble coroners.
It's the circle circus spot.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Why why skis the boards and why boards v skis?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
So my brother and I both started off skiing. My
parents both snowboard instructors, so they started off us skiing
because they wanted us to both learn skiing when we
were younger, because they were like, well, it'll be easier
for them to get around on skis when they're like three, right, yep. So,
and then a year or two later they swall cam
(05:00):
first because it'd be easier for and can really wanted
to lunch the snowboard, just to do one at a
time and then can learn how to snowboard. But I
was like already really stoked with skiing, so I just
stayed skiing.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, And why pipes, the slopes, slalom anything else?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I think it's I think it's really important to
be a really well rounded athlete. I mean, you look
at any good athlete from New Zealand, Nko Potius, Jossy Wells,
all the Welsh boys. They've all done ski racing, they've
all done sloat style, and they've all done pipe like
(05:40):
they're just really well rounded athletes. And I think that
that's what makes like New Zealand skiers like different from
around the world. I think that they really like to
ski everything and they're really all good at all round skis.
It means they really exceed in their children discipline, like
whether it's at a high level competition.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, the one ker things magic, isn't it. I mean
that the totally what's happening in your part of the
world is and it's it's too many people now for
it to be ignored. It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, it's it's nuts how many incredible athletes are from
one o'co or live in one ocral based in Monka.
I think I think it goes down to like the
Kiwi like mindset almost like not scared to give it
a go, get out of their comfort zone, and I
always start to go skiing or snowboarding even though it's
(06:35):
bad weather.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, exactly. The Snow League second season, the Snow League
will Challenge coming in September. Are you excited about this?
I assume you often.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, this is really sick for New Zealand and New
Zealand athletes. It's really cool to see at such a
crazy high level event. First of it's kind to be
hosted at Cadrona, so it's really exciting and if anyone's listening,
definitely go watch. It's been person it's sick. It's a
really sick event.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So what's its value? I mean, does it matter who
the teams are and stuff or is it just a
lot of really high executing elite athletes doing cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well, there's four Kiwis. I actually think Kiwis almost make
up them with like the biggest chunk of like single nation.
So it's like it's a really high level event. It's
invite only and you just go to see the most
incredible high level event throw down in the sport. So
(07:32):
it's really crazy and proper intense. I'm really excited, also
pretty nervous for it because I was going to.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Say, what is this with a view to it being
a regular event in Wanaka year and year out?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah? Yeah, I think I was talking to one of
the managers of the event and that's their plan. They
want to make it one of the like tour stops
every year now. So that's really exciting, and that's really
sick for New Zealand and to showcase the crazy level
of talent coming from you, Giando.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
How's it? How's it coordinated? Within the team, do you
do whatever you want or does the team go we
want you to pull off or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So there's four athletes in each team. This this event
is kind of like a one off. Normally it's it's
a single event, but this is the World Challenge, so
it's a new kind of format where it's four athletes together.
So I'm not really sure how it's going to work out,
but I'm pretty excited for it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Right as far as trick, as far as tricks go,
what what's the what what's the current thinking in your sport?
Do you try to hone the developed tricks to the
best of your ability or is there a constant pressure
to do something new?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I mean there's always a constant pressure to keep keep
the progression of the sport. Guy. But yeah, so like
you always I feel like I'm if you're on the
top of the support, you always got to keep pushing
because to like keep seeing what's possible for the sport.
(09:07):
You know, it's pretty scary doing that, but someone's going
to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Exactly. How does tech help or not help in terms
of the skis the quality of the technology involved in
all of that? Is that part of the equation yep.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I have a full time wax tech who it's from
the wax room in Monarcha. He waxes my skis every day,
like crazy amount of wax layers. So it's called like
hot boxing, and you'll put on heaps of layers of
wax and then you let it on your skis overnight
in a warm room where like and for red lights
(09:44):
on the skis and it lets the like wax really
soak into the pause. We also have like video reviews
so we can review tricks. And we also have like
height measurements, so you take the video review and you
put it into a calculator and it calculates the exact
ample tudio right out of the half part.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I reckon, you could look at yourself doing that forever,
couldn't you. I mean that sounds like the best fun
to me.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, it's pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Coaches, lock on, hey, can you help us out? I
mean the thing, the last time I thought about you,
apart from you falling over at the Olympics and stuff,
was Nico Portius and this this is what blows my mind.
So in sport, you have a window, right, so you
you developed as a kid, you hit your peak you
go to a World's you go to an Olympics, whatever,
(10:28):
what's going on in snowsport that a guy like Nico
at the age of whatever he was goes that's me done,
Thanks very much. How do you do that? What goes
through your mind at that age to be able to
walk away from what you've lived your whole life.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I don't think he's necessarily walking away. I think he's
just he's just not necessarily competing anymore because because there
are so many more aspects to like high performance skiing
than just like high performance commendations. Because he's really he's
actually got a video project coming out, so he's more
transitioned into like filming movies and like ski like docos.
(11:06):
Always good. That's it's a it's a enough. It's not anywhere.
It's still crazy intent, it's just a different aspect essentially.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It's interesting. Mike, go well with us one in September
and and to meet and chat with you and we'll
get you on again soon.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Che No where is it all for Melville lives? That
is the snow League World Challenge, which is coming to
Wanaka as part of the part of the Snow League
I Honestly, I'm just trying to think. I don't have ski,
so I don't have someone who wax my skis, But
I mean I need something. I mean, he's got a
(11:45):
guy who waxes his skis. That's all he does. He
just goes, have you waxed? Mysky? Come on, I've always
want to be one of those guys who tunes the guitars.
It takes the guitar out on stage and then just
hands it over. Yeah, that's the guy I play. You
need peop like that around you. That's a sense that
I've made it. When you've got people like that, isn't it?
A nice guy?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean, I am here tuning your microphone off. I
suppose For more
Speaker 1 (12:08):
From the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to News Talks
at B from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
The snow sports scene is about to see the arrival
of Shawn White's latest competition. The Snow League is in
its second season, so this year they're introducing the Snow
League World Challenge, which will debut Katrona in September. Four
teams North America, Europe, Asia, Pacific and the Challenges. Kiwis
a part of it. Cam and Finn Melville ives. Campbell
is in Team Major Pacific and Finn is in Team Challenges. Anyway,
fin Melville ives is, well, it's very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good morning team.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How are you very well? Indeed? What sort of shape
physically do we find you in this morning? Given the
last time I saw you you flat on your back
and a pipe?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Nah, I'm all good now. That was maybe a few
five months ago at the Olympics. Had a little crash,
so I've been scared for maybe four months now.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
How does that recover? Because your collar bone, there's nothing
you can do about it. How sort of disabled are
you during that rehab process?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I wasn't too bad. I just had a minor, like
minor concussion symptoms and a broken collar bone. But I
ended up getting surgery in a Swiss hospital, so I
got a bit of titanium in my column pretty quick,
and then I was pretty good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Do you feel pretty normal? Does that work? I didn't
think they put titanium in a collarbone, and I thought
you just let it heal naturally.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Some cases you don't, in some cases you do. I
feel great now, so yeah, good. Literally the next day
out of the hospital, I felt like pretty much like
eighty percent just locked together.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
What's you're One of the things I'm interested in with
elite athletes is when when you're injured, how psychological does
it become when you come back, and especially in your sport,
when you're doing something you want to do trick wise,
how do you balance that up in your mind?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I mean, yeah, it's definitely a big head game because
you're like, you're not necessarily skiing. You're not doing much
because you don't really have a job skiing as your job.
So when you're recovering, you're kind of that's all you
do is recover, Like you just go to the dym
all day stretch. It kind of just makes up your
day every day and go on walks and stuff. So no,
(02:14):
it can't get pretty boring, but yeah, it's definitely a big,
it's all in the Yeah, definitely gets in the head.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
For sure, exactly. So do you get help in that
or do you do that stuff yourself?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I mean at snow Sports Museum, which is a part
of High Performance Support new Dyum, which is a government
funded agency for like athletes, we have like sports sykes
and yeah, they help us out a bunch and stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, what's your injury toll? I mean, how many times
you've been injured? And how many times do you have
to come back? And do you get sick of it?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
This is maybe only my second major injury and I've
been probably like competing at World Cups for four years.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's not bad. So is that average? Is that normal
all the people you ski with them?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Know? Yeah? Probably? I'm not sure honestly. Yeah, some people
get injured more than others, but I'm sure I feel
like that's pretty average normal. Maybe, I'm sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
The other thing I'm interested in with elite athletes is
you grew up on the mountain, so your parents were instructors.
You guys, just that's what you did. You lived on
a hill. How much of that if I had a
kid and stuck them on a mountain would they automatically,
in some way, shape or form become a great skier
or does there have to be a lot of natural
god given talent there in the first place?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I reckon. I reckon. If you put a little we
child like skiing like three or four times a week
and they find the love for the sport and they
really love doing what they do, I feel like they're
down to become a real good skill of snowwater. Yeah.
I think. I think it's got to come from with them, though.
They've got to have that like real higher and drive
to a common good skier, and they if they love
(04:03):
what they do, there's no holding them back. I reckon.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Did you have love hate relationship because a lot of
as im I'm a perent of five kids, so as
a perient of five kids, kids want to play every sport.
So did you have a love hate relationship with the
mountain and snow and skiing when you were a kid,
or did you just love it from day one?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I just loved it from day one. I didn't really
want to do anything else other than go skiing. Yeah,
I just I just loved dripping around Kajona and trouble coroners.
It's the circle circus spot.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Why why skis the boards and why boards v skis?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
So my brother and I both started off skiing. My
parents both snowboard instructors, so they started off us skiing
because they wanted us to both learn skiing when we
were younger, because they were like, well, it'll be easier
for them to get around on skis when they're like three, right, yep. So,
and then a year or two later they swall cam
(05:00):
first because it'd be easier for and can really wanted
to lunch the snowboard, just to do one at a
time and then can learn how to snowboard. But I
was like already really stoked with skiing, so I just
stayed skiing.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, And why pipes, the slopes, slalom anything else?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I think it's I think it's really important to
be a really well rounded athlete. I mean, you look
at any good athlete from New Zealand, Nko Potius, Jossy Wells,
all the Welsh boys. They've all done ski racing, they've
all done sloat style, and they've all done pipe like
(05:40):
they're just really well rounded athletes. And I think that
that's what makes like New Zealand skiers like different from
around the world. I think that they really like to
ski everything and they're really all good at all round skis.
It means they really exceed in their children discipline, like
whether it's at a high level competition.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, the one ker things magic, isn't it. I mean
that the totally what's happening in your part of the
world is and it's it's too many people now for
it to be ignored. It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, it's it's nuts how many incredible athletes are from
one o'co or live in one ocral based in Monka.
I think I think it goes down to like the
Kiwi like mindset almost like not scared to give it
a go, get out of their comfort zone, and I
always start to go skiing or snowboarding even though it's
(06:35):
bad weather.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, exactly. The Snow League second season, the Snow League
will Challenge coming in September. Are you excited about this?
I assume you often.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, this is really sick for New Zealand and New
Zealand athletes. It's really cool to see at such a
crazy high level event. First of it's kind to be
hosted at Cadrona, so it's really exciting and if anyone's listening,
definitely go watch. It's been person it's sick. It's a
really sick event.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So what's its value? I mean, does it matter who
the teams are and stuff or is it just a
lot of really high executing elite athletes doing cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well, there's four Kiwis. I actually think Kiwis almost make
up them with like the biggest chunk of like single nation.
So it's like it's a really high level event. It's
invite only and you just go to see the most
incredible high level event throw down in the sport. So
(07:32):
it's really crazy and proper intense. I'm really excited, also
pretty nervous for it because I was going to.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Say, what is this with a view to it being
a regular event in Wanaka year and year out?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah? Yeah, I think I was talking to one of
the managers of the event and that's their plan. They
want to make it one of the like tour stops
every year now. So that's really exciting, and that's really
sick for New Zealand and to showcase the crazy level
of talent coming from you, Giando.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
How's it? How's it coordinated? Within the team, do you
do whatever you want or does the team go we
want you to pull off or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So there's four athletes in each team. This this event
is kind of like a one off. Normally it's it's
a single event, but this is the World Challenge, so
it's a new kind of format where it's four athletes together.
So I'm not really sure how it's going to work out,
but I'm pretty excited for it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Right as far as trick, as far as tricks go,
what what's the what what's the current thinking in your sport?
Do you try to hone the developed tricks to the
best of your ability or is there a constant pressure
to do something new?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I mean there's always a constant pressure to keep keep
the progression of the sport. Guy. But yeah, so like
you always I feel like I'm if you're on the
top of the support, you always got to keep pushing
because to like keep seeing what's possible for the sport.
(09:07):
You know, it's pretty scary doing that, but someone's going
to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Exactly. How does tech help or not help in terms
of the skis the quality of the technology involved in
all of that? Is that part of the equation yep.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I have a full time wax tech who it's from
the wax room in Monarcha. He waxes my skis every day,
like crazy amount of wax layers. So it's called like
hot boxing, and you'll put on heaps of layers of
wax and then you let it on your skis overnight
in a warm room where like and for red lights
(09:44):
on the skis and it lets the like wax really
soak into the pause. We also have like video reviews
so we can review tricks. And we also have like
height measurements, so you take the video review and you
put it into a calculator and it calculates the exact
ample tudio right out of the half part.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I reckon, you could look at yourself doing that forever,
couldn't you. I mean that sounds like the best fun
to me.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, it's pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Coaches, lock on, hey, can you help us out? I
mean the thing, the last time I thought about you,
apart from you falling over at the Olympics and stuff,
was Nico Portius and this this is what blows my mind.
So in sport, you have a window, right, so you
you developed as a kid, you hit your peak you
go to a World's you go to an Olympics, whatever,
(10:28):
what's going on in snowsport that a guy like Nico
at the age of whatever he was goes that's me done,
Thanks very much. How do you do that? What goes
through your mind at that age to be able to
walk away from what you've lived your whole life.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I don't think he's necessarily walking away. I think he's
just he's just not necessarily competing anymore because because there
are so many more aspects to like high performance skiing
than just like high performance commendations. Because he's really he's
actually got a video project coming out, so he's more
transitioned into like filming movies and like ski like docos.
(11:06):
Always good. That's it's a it's a enough. It's not anywhere.
It's still crazy intent, it's just a different aspect essentially.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It's interesting. Mike, go well with us one in September
and and to meet and chat with you and we'll
get you on again soon.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Che No where is it all for Melville lives? That
is the snow League World Challenge, which is coming to
Wanaka as part of the part of the Snow League
I Honestly, I'm just trying to think. I don't have ski,
so I don't have someone who wax my skis, But
I mean I need something. I mean, he's got a
(11:45):
guy who waxes his skis. That's all he does. He
just goes, have you waxed? Mysky? Come on, I've always
want to be one of those guys who tunes the guitars.
It takes the guitar out on stage and then just
hands it over. Yeah, that's the guy I play. You
need peop like that around you. That's a sense that
I've made it. When you've got people like that, isn't it?
A nice guy?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean, I am here tuning your microphone off. I
suppose For more
Speaker 1 (12:08):
From the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to News Talks
at B from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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