GAME 13 || Max Moffatt vs. Kuura Koivisto || SLVSH CUP GRANDVALIRA '25

Profile and significance

Kuura Koivisto is a Finnish freeski rider whose blend of technical imagination and calm execution has earned him attention across slopestyle, big air, and edit-driven culture. Born in 2000 and aligned with Armada, he is best known to core fans for pushing trick boundaries—he’s credited as the first skier to land a 2160—and for a style that keeps axes clean and grabs honest even at high rotation counts. On the competitive side, he represents Finland on the World Cup circuit, with season points in both big air and slopestyle, while his presence in creative formats like SLVSH and documentary projects signals a dual track: scorecards and storytelling. That combination makes Koivisto one of the notable European riders shaping how modern freeskiing looks and feels.

His significance extends beyond any single podium. In an era where judging rewards mirrored directions, grab integrity, and readable axes, Koivisto’s skiing checks each box while still carrying a distinctive silhouette. He has become a reference among athletes and fans who value tricks that hold up under slow-motion replay and who want the progression narrative—injury, rebuild, return—told with transparency.

Competitive arc and key venues

Koivisto’s pathway runs through Finland’s club system—Mountain Club Ounasvaara—and into FIS starts across Europe and North America, accumulating World Cup points in both disciplines. Appearances at invitational-adjacent sessions, including SLVSH Cup matchups against heavy hitters, established his contest composure in front of cameras as well as judges. The competitive cadence has been steady rather than explosive: qualify clean, protect grab standards in changing wind or light, and place strategic upgrades late in runs when amplitude and speed align.

Certain venues and ecosystems have mattered. The repetition-friendly parks in Rovaniemi at Ounasvaara helped develop his timing and both-way spin literacy on smaller features, while high-exposure scaffolding and alpine courses around Europe refined his takeoff reads and landing management on bigger jumps. Spring lanes at glacial venues and media-heavy stages—where pressure, orientation, and broadcast angles magnify mistakes—reinforced his preference for tricks that look composed rather than chaotic.

How they ski: what to watch for

Koivisto skis with a tall approach and very late rotation initiation, which keeps tips quiet and shoulders level at the lip. That delay buys time for early grab contact and axis definition—why his spins read clearly even when the degree count is pushing limits. He mirrors directions across a run and treats switch approaches as first-class citizens, not just variety padding. On rails, he favors linkable lines that conserve speed—clean feet on long pads, subtle redirections, and exits that set up the next feature rather than forcing a reset.

The trademark look in the air is silhouette control. Whether he’s dialing a double or flirting with triple families, he pins the grab long enough to change how the trick reads to judges and cameras. For viewers, the cue is economy: minimal arm noise, neutral takeoff, held grabs, and bolts landings that keep momentum for finals-day closers.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Koivisto’s documentary “Dream” follows his comeback after a serious knee injury that cost him a chance at a major championship start. The film frames a practical resilience: narrow the trick library to what matters, polish it relentlessly, and return with a tighter identity rather than simply more degree. That mindset also shows in SLVSH appearances, where pressure shifts from judges to peers and cameras; his ability to choose tricks that are high-value yet repeatable under session fatigue has earned respect inside the scene.

Influence-wise, he is part of a new Finnish wave that blends standout difficulty with an insistence on execution. Younger riders reference his 2160 milestone but also cite the way he holds form—grabs pinned, axes tidy, rotations initiated late—so the trick looks composed rather than frantic. As brand projects and films proliferate, expect Koivisto’s clips to be the kind that garner replays because they teach as much as they impress.

Geography that built the toolkit

Finland’s geography—a mix of compact hills, reliable park builds, and long winter nights—naturally emphasizes repetition over vertical. Training at Ounasvaara and similar parks sharpens micro-skills: edge-angle control before the lip, exact speed reads on short in-runs, and consistent grab timing. Those habits transfer efficiently to the World Cup: when a scaffolding big air demands a single perfect hit, or a slopestyle course strings together rails into high-speed jump lanes, the same timing that was drilled at home scales up under pressure.

Layer in European travel—glacier springs, wind-prone alpine bowls, variable snow—and Koivisto’s toolkit becomes venue-agnostic. The common thread is that his tricks look the same on a media day as they do in a qualifier: calm approaches, readable axes, and landings that preserve speed.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Koivisto rides Armada park/big-air platforms set up for predictable pop and wall-to-wall neutrality, with optics and softgoods partners that support long contest weeks and night sessions. For progressing skiers, the gear lesson is straightforward: choose a twin tip with a lively but controlled flex; mount near center to balance switch and natural approaches; pair with a binding package that preserves underfoot flex for rail work but tolerates cross-loaded landings off big hits. Keep tuning consistent so speed reads don’t change between training and finals.

Equally important is workflow. Treat a repeatable home park like a laboratory: rehearse quiet arms, late spin initiation, and long grab holds until they’re second nature. Then escalate degree only as fast as you can keep the silhouette clean. That’s the Koivisto template in a sentence.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Kuura Koivisto because he represents the sweet spot in modern freeskiing: real innovation—think the 2160—delivered with poise that makes difficult tricks look almost inevitable. His runs are readable on broadcast and satisfying on replay, and his films add narrative to the technique. Progressing riders get a clear blueprint: build mirrored directions, treat grabs as non-negotiable, delay rotation to protect axis, and escalate only when execution holds. Whether he’s logging World Cup points, trading letters in a SLVSH game, or telling a comeback story on film, Koivisto’s skiing explains itself the moment his skis leave the lip.

Profile and significance

Max Moffatt is a Canadian freeski specialist whose blend of technical rail mastery and measured amplitude has made him a mainstay in slopestyle and big air finals. Born in 1998 and developed through Canada’s high-performance system, he emerged onto the global scene with a World Cup slopestyle win at Seiser Alm/Alpe di Siusi in 2019, then consolidated his reputation with a silver medal in Ski Slopestyle at X Games Aspen 2022. Those results, combined with multiple World Cup podiums including a 2024 slopestyle podium at LAAX, place him among the most reliable all-conditions rail riders on tour. Moffatt’s competitive profile is reinforced by a complete trick vocabulary spun both ways and a habit of squeezing extra difficulty out of rails where others conserve. For fans and progressing skiers, he represents the modern slopestyle archetype: creative line selection, clean execution under pressure, and a style that reads well on TV and in person.

Competitive arc and key venues

Moffatt’s breakthrough came in January 2019 with a World Cup gold at Seiser Alm, historically one of the most flow-oriented slopestyle courses in Europe. He has since accumulated World Cup podiums and consistent finals appearances across venues that reward technical rails and precise jump management. In January 2022 he stepped onto one of the sport’s biggest stages, taking slopestyle silver at X Games Aspen on the Buttermilk course inside Aspen Snowmass/Buttermilk. That same winter he represented Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, competing in slopestyle and big air under the lights and scaffolding that defined the urban-style big air venue; his participation at Beijing 2022 established him as an Olympic-level contender and broadened his profile beyond core audiences. In 2024 he added a podium at LAAX, a park renowned for world-class rail architecture and creative features, further validating the strength of his rail-first approach on Europe’s benchmark terrain parks.

How they ski: what to watch for

Moffatt’s defining trait is rail difficulty layered onto smart line choice. He frequently opens with technical entries—switch approaches, gap-to-rail transfers, and blind change combinations—that set a high base score before he ever leaves the ground on the jump line. Watch for him to incorporate pretzel exits, surface swaps, and high-spin dismounts without sacrificing board-on-rail control. On jumps he’s balanced rather than reckless, favoring both-way doubles in the 1440–1620 range and upping risk only when the scoring window demands it. Judges reward his variety: both-direction spins, grabs held to the bolts, and course usage that squeezes an extra feature or an extra change onto a rail. The result is a run profile that feels dense with trick content yet remains readable and clean to the finish corral.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Like most top freeskiers, Moffatt’s career has required resilience—weather holds, re-runs, and the inevitable knocks that come with learning new variations at speed. His competitive consistency over multiple winters, particularly after the 2019 breakthrough, speaks to a patient, process-driven approach rather than boom-or-bust risk. While he’s known foremost for contest performance, he also shows up in progressive park and rail showcases, including specialty events that emphasize creativity and presentation. That crossover matters: slopestyle trends increasingly flow from experimental sessions back into judged formats, and athletes who contribute in both spaces often push the meta forward. Moffatt’s rail choices—clean, exacting, and deliberately high-difficulty—are an instructive template for younger riders learning to score without gambling their whole run on one huge send.

Geography that built the toolkit

Moffatt’s foundation runs through Ontario club culture and Canada’s national system. Early repetitions at Caledon Ski Club, a private club north-west of Toronto with dedicated terrain-park programming, gave him a high-volume environment for fundamentals. From there, time spent in European park strongholds—LAAX and Seiser Alm—helped refine his rail repertoire on long, feature-rich courses with judges who reward technical nuance. In North America, recurring laps at Buttermilk exposed him to the pressure cooker of X Games finals and top-tier build quality that lets athletes attempt the kind of switch-on, high-spin rail tricks he’s known for. That mix—Ontario repetition, Swiss precision, Italian flow, and Colorado contest polish—shows through in how he links rails and how confidently he manages speed on the final jump.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Moffatt skis on Liberty Skis, a brand whose freestyle shapes prioritize lightweight swing weight and dampening that pays off on both rails and jump sets. For viewers trying to translate sponsor talk into on-snow feel, Liberty’s park-oriented models emphasize edge hold for takeoffs and stable landings without dulling the ski’s willingness to pivot on rails. His eyewear partner, XSPEX, is a Canadian brand whose goggles and sunglasses target clarity and quick lens swapping, useful when light changes between practice, qualis, and finals. The broader lesson isn’t about copying his exact setup; it’s about matching your equipment to venue realities. If your local hill is rail-heavy with short run-ins, weight and swing dynamics matter more than big-mountain stability. If you’re chasing jump progression, prioritize predictable pop and platform on landings—the attributes that help Moffatt keep grabs locked while maintaining speed for the next feature.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Max Moffatt matters because he embodies the direction modern slopestyle is heading: dense rail difficulty, both-way spin literacy, and runs built to score in any weather window. His X Games Aspen silver and World Cup podiums show the competitive ceiling; his steady finals presence shows the floor. For fans, he’s an easy watch—smooth style, clean landings, and a knack for making complex rail sequences look inevitable. For skiers learning to evaluate or emulate elite slopestyle, he demonstrates that you don’t have to send the absolute biggest spin to build a winning score if your rails are impeccably difficult and your variety is complete. Track him at LAAX, Seiser Alm, and Buttermilk, and keep an eye on Olympic-cycle events after Beijing 2022; his profile suggests more podium-capable seasons ahead, particularly on courses that reward technical precision from the first kink to the final booter.