A halfpipe built to help Australia's snowboard king Scotty James win an elusive gold medal could also assist his greatest rival heading into the next Olympics.
While American legend Shaun White built his own private 22-foot pipe out the back of the Perisher resort in NSW to prepare solo for the 2014 Sochi Games, the facility built in Thredbo was the first open to all elite athletes - including internationals.
That meant that rather than training off the snow, James spent this winter working alongside Japan's Ayumu Hirano - the man who pipped him for gold with an inspired final run at the 2022 Olympics in China.
James told AAP it meant strategising his training in terms of timing and tricks in the Olympic standard super pipe.
"It's unique to snowboarding, particularly halfpipe, because we don't have them everywhere so when they are built, typically, we all have to train in the same environment," said the Victorian product.
"So, myself, Ayumu, a lot of my key rivals and competitors were all there so it can be a little bit tough to strategise and do some things.
"Obviously you don't want people to see but it's a little bit in the nature of the game too so you have to just adapt and be comfortable in training in those same environments.
"We all have a lot of respect for each other, we just do our own thing and we just work on what we need to work on."
Winning silver in Beijing and bronze in Korea's Pyeongchang four years earlier, James has also won four world championships, 10 World Cup events and is the only man to win four straight X-Games halfpipe gold medals.
Last season adding the cab (switch frontside) triple cork 1440 to his repertoire, the 31-year-old feels he's in career-best form.
"I think it's a result of being very mindful over all those years about how to keep the spark and keep the energy and pulling back when you need to, and being strategic," said James, who had a baby boy with wife Chloe last year.
"Myself and my team, we've always been very mindful of what my North Star is, in terms of being a competitor.
"I have a really good balance in my life at the moment about my sport and what my priorities are on the hill and at home and it's made me just have a very good, sustainable foundation to continue to have the love, passion and drive to want to compete at the high level."
James said his "North Star" remained Olympic gold.
"It's fair to say, the elephant in the room for me, from an accolade perspective, is for sure, I haven't won an Olympic gold medal yet," he told AAP.
"I think I can put myself in the best possible position to make it happen."
And while he strives to be on top of the podium in the Italian resort of Livigno next February, James is also carving a path for the next generation of Australian snowboarders.
At a cost of more than $100,000 he donated a new mini cutter to build a 13ft pipe at Thredbo, which was dubbed Mooki's mini pipe in a nod to his childhood nickname.
James also ran a mini pipe cup competition with 200 young snowboarders.
"With Thredbo we talked about needing to create a pathway for the younger kids so they would ride the mini pipe and then kind of look at the super pipe, so build that aspirational bridge, which we hadn't had," James said.
"So I just used my own money and bought the cutter and gave it to the mountain, and I said, 'Let's make sure that we're giving the kids the opportunity to fall in love with halfpipe riding like I did'.
"It's been a really fun project and one of the more fulfilling things I've done from a professional standpoint."
