Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – The 2010-11 U.S. Snowboarding Rookie crew wrapped up its nearly month long stay in New Zealand. During their time in the Southern Hemisphere, the rookies competed in two contests, the Burton New Zealand Open and the 2010 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships, and managed to get some quality riding time in between the events at Cardrona Alpine Resort and Snow Park.n”Around the FIS Junior Worlds, the Rookie Team been making the most of every minute with riding time on hill at Cardrona and Snow Park,” said Rookie Coach Spencer Tamblyn. “Both resorts have great jumps, rails and box features that we have been working hard on to relearn and polish slopestyle tricks that had been left behind during the highly halfpipe focused Olympic season.”

Although the block down under has been jam-packed with events, camp attendees have incorporated freeride time and fun into their schedules.

“All the rookies are killing it in the halfpipe,” said Tamblyn. “They also get to enjoy more freeride time in the park and across the mountain, relighting that passion and fire that brought them so far in the first place.”

With the 2010 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships having wrapped up Tuesday, with the Big Air contest, the rookies worked hard on progressing their tricks.

“In the past two days the boys have moved into the realm of double flips and double corks off of the step up jump and into the airbag at Snow Park,” said Tabmblyn. “Kelly [Marren, Hillsborough, Calif.] and Ellery [Hollingsworth, Stratton, Vt.] have been destroying jumps and rails alike from top to bottom. Pro Teamer Ellery has been lending a hand coaching Kelly who has learned back flips off of jumps and many different rail and box variations.”

As the Rookie Team moves out of New Zealand, the Pro Team moves in. U.S. Snowboarding coaches Mike Jankowski and Rick Bower will be leading the U.S. Snowboarding Pro Team down under for their three week stay.