China's Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic champion Su Yiming led the men's qualifiers in the opener of the International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard Big Air World Cup season at Secret Garden in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province on Thursday.

Su led Heat 2 with 92.75 points. Although he landed a flawless 1800 spin on his first attempt, 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 the heat.

"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."

Canada's 17-year-old Eli 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.

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

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.

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.