Michaela Bridgens

Hi, my name is Michaela Bridgens and I am 14 years old. My passion is Freestyle and
Freeride Skiing. My main disciplines are Slopestyle, Halfpipe, Big Air, and Freeride.

I am originally from Auckland and started skiing when I was 2 years old at Mt Ruapehu with my family.

Since 2020 I have been based in Wanaka during the NZ winter season and train with HPC Freestyle and Treble Cone Freeride teams competing in the SSNZ Freestyle series and Freestyle Nationals and the NZJFT - winning various National Age group titles in all disciplines.

The past 4 northern hemisphere seasons I have travelled to the Norh America (Whistler, Canada and Copper Mountain in Colorado) for more training and competitions in their regional series.

The 2024 NZ season was big for me as I became eligible to compete for New Zealand earning FIS points. My first Open Class event was the NZ Winter Games Slopestyle at Cardrona where I placed 10th.

This 2025 northern hemisphere season I have been training and competing in Europe which was a huge learning experience and fun to travel and compete in different countries.

I had 3 Europa cup events in Switzerland and France and was really happy with my performance especially in La Clusaz, France where I made the finals for Slopestyle and placed 7th.

In January I won the World Rookie Tour Slopestyle (Grom division) at the Livigno event. This gave me
automatic entry to the finals at the end of March in Madonna Di Campiglio, Italy where I won both the
Big Air and Slopestyle events.

I also competed in the Opel Freeski Tour in Davos and won the U18 Slopestyle competition.

Looking ahead I am hoping to keep progressing in all aspects of my skiing, have fun and, represent NZ on the world stage.

In the meantime I am looking forward to the upcoming NZ snow season.