The North Face | Freeride

Profile and significance

Jossi Wells is the benchmark New Zealand freeskier whose career spans X Games gold, Olympic finals, and a long-running role as a cultural organizer through his namesake invitational. Born in 1990 and raised in Wānaka, he established himself early as an all-terrain modernist who could win on the biggest contest stages and still shape the sport’s style language through films and projects. His defining competitive moment came at Aspen 2016, where he won men’s ski slopestyle at the Winter X Games, becoming New Zealand’s first X Games gold medalist. He is also a rare triple-threat across disciplines, with X Games hardware in slopestyle, superpipe, and big air, and he represented New Zealand at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games—finishing fourth in halfpipe and eleventh in slopestyle. Those results, combined with his influence off-hill, place Wells among freeskiing’s most complete and enduring figures.

What elevates Wells beyond the medals is the way he continually balances execution, variety, and creative identity. He competes with the clarity judges reward—mirrored spins, grab integrity, and clean axes—but he also curates spaces for progression, most notably the Monster Energy Jossi Wells Invitational at Cardrona Alpine Resort, which gathers elite skiers and snowboarders for a week of formats that prize style as much as difficulty. That dual footprint—winner and tastemaker—explains why his name is a reference point for both fans and riders.

Competitive arc and key venues

Wells moved from New Zealand national pathways into the highest tiers of international competition as a teenager, first stacking AFP and World Cup podiums and then converting at the invitationals that define freeskiing prestige. His X Games résumé stretches across more than a decade and multiple disciplines, including superpipe silver (2010), big air bronze (2012), and the career-defining slopestyle gold at Aspen 2016. The Aspen win arrived on the meticulously shaped lanes of Buttermilk Mountain, where consistent speed and consequential finals-day decisions separate podiums from also-rans. Earlier hardware in Aspen’s big air showcased his ability to translate style to single-hit theaters, while the superpipe medals underlined genuine cross-discipline fluency.

His Olympic chapter at Sochi 2014 demonstrated range under unique pressure: fourth in halfpipe—just off the podium—and eleventh in slopestyle on an inaugural Olympic course. Across the northern circuit he has been effective on glacial venues and altitude venues alike, but two geographies loom largest. The first is Aspen, where he spent years refining contest craft and ultimately secured gold. The second is home soil at Cardrona Alpine Resort and Treble Cone, where he built the timing and edge control that make his skiing look unhurried at speed and where his invitational now stages elite sessions each September.

How they ski: what to watch for

Wells skis with tall posture into takeoffs, late rotation initiation, and an insistence on long, clean grab holds. The tall approach delays spin until the last beat, keeping tips quiet and shoulders level; the late initiation compresses rotation into a tighter window without looking frantic. On jumps, he often sells tricks through silhouette management—holding safety, tail, or blunt variations long enough to change how the spin reads to judges and cameras. On rails, his line design conserves speed: precise feet on long pads, both-way spin entries and exits, and subtle redirections that keep momentum for the closer. The net effect is elegant difficulty—runs that look inevitable when they work.

Variety is deliberate. Expect mirrored directions across the jump line, switch both ways, and grab catalog depth used to differentiate tricks with similar rotation counts. Even when he escalates to higher-degree spins, he protects axis integrity so landings arrive bolts rather than scrappy. The style cue for viewers is simple: minimal arm noise, quiet skis at takeoff, and grabs that stay pinned long enough to be unmistakable from the chair and on broadcast replays.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Wells’ influence extends beyond the bib. He has been a fixture in major film projects and brand storytelling, where his contest-polished technique translates to natural features and backcountry step-downs without losing identity. The curated environment of the Jossi Wells Invitational has become a southern-hemisphere anchor for the sport, encouraging riders to prioritize form, creativity, and peer-judged impact alongside degree-chasing. That platform matters as much as any medal, because it sustains a progression culture that values execution and originality.

His durability is another throughline. Across injuries, judging evolutions, and equipment shifts, he has repeatedly rebuilt trick families rather than leaning on dated habits. The Aspen 2016 gold arrived late in a long pursuit—proof that patient iteration pays off. In later seasons he has pivoted fluidly between selective contests, filming blocks, and hosting duties, modeling a sustainable pro template that younger athletes can emulate.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place is inseparable from Wells’ skiing. The Wānaka basin—anchored by Cardrona—provided repeatable park builds, a national-team ecosystem, and a community of high-level riders cycling through each winter. Repetition on consistent features yields the calm timing visible in his takeoffs and the confidence to switch directions without second-guessing speed. North American seasons layered in the altitude, cold smoke, and media spotlight of Aspen’s Buttermilk, where he ultimately seized gold. European glacier laps added long in-runs and different light, expanding the contexts in which his form-first approach could thrive.

That geography also underwrites his invitational. By staging the event across Cardrona and Treble Cone, Wells leverages New Zealand’s terrain variety—standardized park lines, wind-read tactics, and natural transitions—so invited riders can display complete toolkits. The venues he knows best are the ones he uses to elevate others.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Wells’ long-time ski partnership with Atomic centers on predictable pop and edge durability that hold up to high-volume rail sessions and finals-day jump repetition. Energy backing from Monster Energy and optics from Oakley have been visible through the arc of his career, aligning him with brands that anchor both competition and filming calendars. For skiers translating lessons to their own setups, the message is to choose a lively, balanced park ski, mount close to true center to preserve mirrored-spin confidence and switch takeoffs, and pair it with a binding package that keeps natural flex underfoot so landings stay composed when cross-loaded.

Venue choice functions like equipment. If you can access repeatable jump lanes—Aspen-style standardized features or Cardrona-style winter builds—you can rehearse the micro-beats that define Wells’ look: quiet approach, delayed spin, and grabs held to the bolts. Tuning consistency matters as much as model choice; identical speed reads from training to finals are a hidden edge.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Jossi Wells matters because he proves that the sport’s highest competitive achievements and its most enduring cultural contributions are not mutually exclusive. The X Games slopestyle gold at Aspen validates his contest ceiling; the hardware across three X Games disciplines confirms breadth; the Sochi 2014 fourth place in halfpipe shows Olympic-level poise; and the invitational he built demonstrates stewardship of freeskiing’s creative core. Watch him for tall, quiet approaches, long-held grabs that reshape a trick’s silhouette, and run construction that reads beautifully to judges and audiences. Study him if you’re progressing: mirror spin directions, treat grab standards as non-negotiable, and build a trick library that can live on a scorecard and on film. Wells remains a north star for how to be both a champion and a custodian of freeski style.