Nick “Drax” Draxl is the Snow Sports NZ Park & Pipe National Pathways Coach. As part of our collaboration with Cardrona’s High Performance Centre, Drax will be embedded in the Cardrona Parks Squad crew and will coach a combination of Snow Sports NZ athletes and Park Squad athletes.
Drax has over two decades of experience in coaching and has worked with athletes on all levels of the progression pathway, from Alpine Race Coach to National Freeski Coach and Austrian Ski Instructor Examiner.
Drax has also competed professionally as a member of the Australian National Alpine Ski Team and competed internationally in both Freeski and Freeride.
From 2007 to 2009 Drax was the New Zealand National Team Freeski Coach, at which time he also served as the NZ Freeski Association President and event organiser for the NZ Freeski Open. After this Drax spent six years as the Atomic International Freeski Athlete Performance Manager and accompanied the team to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, where the Team secured three medals; a silver and bronze in Halfpipe, and a silver in Slopestyle.
Drax then took a brief hiatus from coaching to focus on raising his young family, before returning to the sport, spending two years in Livigno, Italy, coaching Italian National Team athletes.
Having a keen interest in Strength & Conditioning, Drax is a qualified Strength and Conditioning Coach, Olympic Weightlifting Coach and CrossFit Trainer. During his stints away from on-snow coaching, he owned and operated his own CrossFit gym in Australia and managed the prehab and functional training of clients for a Physio Therapy practice in Ischgl, Austria.
Raised following winters between Australia and Austria, Drax has accumulated 80+ winters to date and is looking forward to adding more! Drax and his family have now settled in Wānaka, NZ and he is excited to continue his work leading the next generation of athletes along their path to international success.
