Cam Melville Ives has been a member of the Snow Sports NZ National Development Team since 2018. He competes in Snowboard Slopestyle, Big Air and Halfpipe.
Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Winter Games snowboard big air bronze medalist, 1st place 2023 Snowboard Halfpipe LAAX European Cup Premium, 1st place 2023 Snowboard Halfpipe World Rookie Tour Finals, 2nd place 2023 Davos Snowboard Big Air European Cup, Finishing in 2nd place in Slopestyle and 7th place in halfpipe at the 2022 Park & Pipe Junior World Championships, 5th place at the 2022 World Rookie Tour Slopestyle Finals, 3rd place at the 2022 FIS ANC Halfpipe competition, 3rd place at the Burton US Junior Jam in 2019.
Cam was born in Dunedin and has been living in Wānaka, NZ his whole life. His parents are avid snowboarders and taught Cam how to ski when he was three years old up their local mountain, Cardrona Alpine Resort. Cam switched to snowboarding when he was five years old.
For aslong as he can remember his family have been doing back to back winter seasons between NZ and the Northern Hemisphere (during the NZ summer).
Cam first competed in the New Zealand Junior Freestyle Nationals in 2011 and loved it. He continued to compete in local events around New Zealand and in the Northern Hemisphere.
In 2018 Cam was selected to the Snow Sports NZ National Development Team and has spent the following Northern Hemisphere seasons training and competing in Colorado and Europe. A highlight of this time was finishing in third place at the Burton US Junior Jam in 2019.
Since then Cam has gone on to make his mark on the junior snowboard world, including a 2nd place finish in Slopestyle and a 7th place finish in halfpipe at the FIS Park & Pipe Junior World Championships in 2022.
In December of 2022 Cam competed in his first ever World Cup events, dropping into both the Big Air and Halfpipe events at the Copper Mountain World Cup. Cam gained valuable experience from these events and also learnt new tricks and developed his competition approach and methods.
In 2023 Cam finished in 1st place at both the heavily stacked LAAX Snowboard Halfpipe European Cup Premium and Snowboard Halfpipe World Rookie Tour Finals. He also claimed a second place finish at the Davos Big Air European Cup.
In 2024 Cam was selected to represent NZ at the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Winter Games where he claimed snowboard big air bronze medal.
Cam takes inspiration from his peers and teammates, they motivate him and encourage him to continuously improve.
In the future Cam's goals include podium finishes at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games, being a competitive pro snowboarder and competing at international events including World Championships, X Games and multiple Winter Olympic Games.
