“They’ve felt pretty crazy. Like, the Snow League was my first pro-level event win and then to follow that up with my first-ever World Cup win is amazing,” Harrold told the Herald.
Season one of The Snow League – which is fronted by three-time Olympic gold medallist and 23-time X Games medallist Shaun White - included four events.
However, only two involved freeski halfpipe. Harrold finished second in the first, in China in December, before winning at LAAX late in March.
Both times he met Canadian Brendan Mackay in the final of the bracket-style competition.
“During the Snow League, it’s such a big day. There’s, I think, a maximum of nine competition runs and a minimum of six. So yeah, there’s definitely a bit of strategy involved trying to conserve energy and be able to come out swinging for the later rounds.
“It’s definitely a game of conserving energy and just trying to push through and hold on all the way to the end.”
Harrold automatically requalified for season two of the league, which was expected to feature more events.
With an event win, the season championship win and the runner-up finish, Harrold earned about US$105,000 ($182,000) for his Snow League efforts.
“It hasn’t come through yet and so we’ll see what happens after tax, but probably not as much as everyone thinks after tax.”
Capping that off with his first World Cup win was not something Harrold had expected.
With a short turn around between the Snow League final and the World Cup in Silvaplana, the young Kiwi noted he was tired and only completed one of his two qualifying runs in order to get more rest.
He was able to do enough to make the final in that single run, before putting on a show in the final.
It was a great way to finish the campaign, which was derailed slightly when he broke his hand in January.
He admitted he didn’t perform as he had hoped to in the Winter Olympics, where he finished 15 and failed to qualify for the final.
“I think the season’s been pretty interesting. There’s been a few ups and downs, especially not doing quite as well as I wanted to at the Olympics.
“Coming back and winning these two events was amazing and a great way to end the season off,” he said.
“My mindset coming in was really just, it was the last event, I just wanted to have fun and give it everything I had and leave it all out so I wasn’t going to be thinking about it all year.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
