With the season's first slopestyle World Cup already in the books, the focus has turned to the Cardrona superpipe. The competition will see the worlds finest entering the event including Iouri Podladtchikov.

The Russian born Swiss superstar will be the favorite against a strong field of 18 women and 27 men, many of which are Olympic and World Championship medalists. FISSnowboard.com had the chance for a quick chat with iPod after today's sunny training session.

FISSnowboard.com: How has your season preparation been so far?

iPod: Quite nice actually. I have been to Saas-Fee for a few days and I did some skateboarding here in Wanaka. I was really excited of the new skate park, it's amazing.

FISSnowboard.com: So you like it here in NZ?

iPod: Well it's not my favorite trip of the year because it is summer back home. But for some reason I missed it last year, and I was quite excited to come back.

Excitement always brings motivation and motivation always makes everything good. So, it's been nicer here than the other years.

FISSnowboard.com: Why is that so?

iPod: I don't know, I guess you get into a routine. You start getting better at the simple things in life. You manage the little things a bit better which sometimes make your life harder. Traveling this far is really hard on the body. I took the time to make it an easy journey. This makes a huge difference.

FISSnowboard.com: So, what are your goals here for the season's opener in Cardrona?

iPod: I really wanna win. This is what I wanna do. I never won the FIS World Cup here. I got second once. So, it's still on my bucket list

FISSnowboard.com: John Melville, the pipe shaper of Cardrona was the one in Sochi, too. Is that a good omen for you?

iPod: Definitely. Well it was good for me there, so it might be good for me here too.

The pipe has got a lot of vert this time because the skiers wanted it. But the funny thing is, we have been struggling with not enough vert, and now we struggle with too much vert.

But I'm always optimistic for the final days. I think, everybody gets a little bit more tense, and so does the shaper. I guess those little bugs are easy to fix. And if the weather stays like this we will have an insane event.

FISSnowboard.com: Are there any new tricks you have been working on?

iPod: It's really early in the season but I am definitely going to work on some new tricks. Not sure if this is not the place to showcase them yet. But you never know.

FISSnowboard.com: What's next for you after NZ?

iPod: I'm going back home and will spend some days in Saas-Fee waiting for the snow to arrive. However there is a slight chance that I might come back to New Zealand. We'll see.

Qualifiers will start Friday morning at 8:40 AM NZST for the men with the ladies start time set for 10:40 AM NZST.

Source: fis-ski.com