Australia will send an unprecedented ten snowboard athletes into World Cup action in this coming week, as the 2008/09 World Cup season gets underway in New Zealand and Argentina.

In what is a crucial lead-up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, World Cup results in the second half of the season will help determine Olympic qualification.

The qualifying rounds of the opening halfpipe World Cup will took place in the New Zealand resort of Cardrona on
Saturday 6th, with the finals following on Sunday 7th

Former world number two Holly Crawford leads a five-athlete contingent which also includes last year’s debutant World Cup medallist Nathan Johnstone, Torino Olympians Mitch Allan and Ben Mates and rising female rider Hannah Trigger.

Crawford, 24, is returning from injury, having missed the entire 2007/08 season while she rehabilitated a damaged shoulder.

Trigger, 21, was also missing from the circuit last season, nursing an injured ankle back to health following a trampoline training mishap.

Eighteen-year-old Johnstone was the surprise packet of the Australian halfpipe contingent in 2007/08, riding to a bronze medal in only the third World Cup of his career, albeit not in a full Olympic-strength field.

And for Mates and Allan, it will be a welcome return to their first World Cup events since the Torino Games.

Next weekend another five Australian Olympic aspirants will begin their Vancouver campaigns in snowboard cross World Cup action in Chapelco, Argentina.

Mt Buller’s Alex Pullin was the best of the Australian SBX riders last season, ending in 13th place on the World Cup standings in his second year on the circuit

The 20-year-old Mansfield rider collected his maiden podium appearance with a bronze in Gujo Gifu, Japan, and also added another two top ten placings for the year, reaching a high as sixth place on the standings.

Damon Hayler, who finished in seventh place at the Torino Olympics, ended last season at 13th on the World Cup standings, with three top ten results, including a fourth in Sungwoo, Korea. The previous year, the Perisher Blue 32-year-old had ended in ninth place on the standings.

The Olympic Winter Institute duo will be joined by Ski and Snowboard Australia athletes Stephanie Hickey, Taan Robrahn and Charles Ferry.

Nineteen-year-old Ferry, from Mt Buller, will be making his World Cup debut, while Hickey, 23, also from Mt Buller and Robrahn, 25, from Perisher Blue, have made just 13 appearances between them.

The five riders will also warm up for the World Cup event with a Continental Cup snowboard cross at the same venue on Friday.