This year, with the awards going fully virtual (shout out to Swany Gloves @ON3P & @Windells for making these awards possible), we are taking the opportunity to shed some clarity on what each award means, and the judging process. @Twig and @curt_ had LJ Strenio, Alex Hackel & Xavier Mayrand are ultimately behind the decisions, with the rest of the NS team involved in the preselection too.

Breakthrough skier is another award that is particularly tricky to know where to set the bar. Who counts as a Breakthrough Skier? Is it someone who is relatively new and has sick shots? Someone who blew up on social media, won a contest, stacked new sponsors? There are so many ways it could be defined, and this one proved tough for our judging panel. We wanted to recognize so many skiers, so even picking nominees was super tough. When it came to pick winners, we considered it all, wanting to find a skier who had both killed it, and significantly raised their profile in the ski world. Jed & Aapo stacked a ton of hammers. Aapo had arguably the strongest tricks in Forre 2, while Jed was everywhere from Traveling Circus to Buldoz projects. Shonny seemed to blow up out of nowhere with a unique style and a banger part in Joey Kraft's Water The Plants. Mikkel BK took social media and the SLVSH Cup by storm with his flawless style and some mind boggling single tricks.

But when we really looked across the spectrum, the winner seemed clear enough. She racked up a Freeride World Tour podium in her debut season, headed up the very unique Milkbox Girls project 'Con Artist', and brought a new element of style to the game while doing it. Her year's work didn't only earn her a spot on the K2 Factory Team, it also won Addison Rafford our Breakthrough Skier Of The Year award. We can't wait to see what she brings for 2024.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1085267/BREAKTHROUGH-WINNER-16X9-v2-mp4