Canada's 17-year-old Eli Bouchard and China's Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic champion Su Yiming led the men's qualifiers of the opener of the 2025-26 International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard Big Air World Cup season on Thursday with shocking tricks. At Chongli's Genting Secret Garden Snow Park, one of the Olympic venues at Beijing 2022, Bouchard landed a never-before-seen complex off-axis rotation. Judges named the trick the "BouchBomb," which earned him 93.25 points and the first place in Heat 1.

Su Yiming of China competes during the men's qualification of the FIS Snowboard Big Air World Cup 2026 at Secret Garden in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province, Nov. 27, 2025. (Photo by Wu Diansen/Xinhua)

Su led Heat 2 with 92.75 points. Although he landed a flawless 1800 spin on his first attempt, but the score was not high enough to guarantee qualification. On his second run, Su increased the rotation to a 1980, securing the top spot in his heat.

A total of 60 male athletes were divided into two heats of 30 riders. The top five from each heat advanced to Saturday's final. Under a simplified qualification format, each rider took two runs, with only the higher score counting.

"This is the first stop of a Winter Olympics season, so there was definitely pressure," Su said. "My plan was to go for the 1980 on my first run, but in the air I felt the speed might not be enough, so I switched to an 1800. I'm very happy I was able to put down the 1980 perfectly on my second run. I have enough tricks prepared."

Su's teammate Ge Chunyu also advanced from Heat 2 with a 1980 spin. High-rotation tricks dominated the session, with all four Japanese riders who reached the final - Kira Kimura, Ryoma Kimata, Taiga Hasegawa and Yuto Miyamura - also landing 1980s.

Beyond the high-rotation trend, the qualification round featured unconventional tricks. On his second attempt, Bouchard executed the remarkable reverse-axis aerial rotation, landing on a completely different axis from his takeoff. The move has officially been named the "BouchBomb."

"Actually, we've known Bouchard could do this trick. Seeing it in competition today was impressive," a judge said. "It's an unconventional 1440 with an excellent grab. Although the landing wasn't perfect, we decided to reward the high degree of innovation."

Similarly, U.S. rider Justus Henkes reached the final with a creative trick. Although his rotation was also a 1440, his innovative nose-butter takeoff won over the judges and secured his qualification.