Australian snowboard star Scotty James has produced one of the best runs of his impressive career to claim the halfpipe gold medal at the Laax Open in Switzerland.
It was James's 10th World Cup title and the fourth time he had emerged triumphant at the prestigious Swiss event.
The two-time Olympic medallist opened with a score of 88.75 points in the best-of-two-run night final, and topped that with a spectacular effort in his second run, which included a switch frontside triple cork 1440 and a huge score of 95.75.
That was good enough to secure the gold medal ahead of Japanese duo Ruka Hirano's (93.75) and reigning Olympic champ Ayumu Hirano (87.00).
"It might be one of the best moments of my competitive career," said the 30-year-old James.
"It's always challenging to win, but this year I feel like I have been put on the ropes quite a bit from the other competitors, especially the Japanese - they are riding incredible.
"Not for a second did I think it was a done deal until the last rider went because any rider could have won.
"It's always been a super-important detail for me to spin in every direction, and try and keep a bit of soul in there with the switch McTwist at the start before it gets into a lot of spinning."
The victory moves James into equal first on the World Cup standings alongside Yuto Totsuka of Japan on 230 points.
Dual Olympic gold medallist Chloe Kim beat fellow American Maddie Mastro and South Korean Gaon Choi in the women's halfpipe competition in Laax.
James will now head to the famed US resort of Aspen for the X-Games, which begin on January 23.
The Victorian will be aiming to win a fourth straight X-Games gold medal.
Meanwhile, Danielle Scott has made a great start to the aerial skiing World Cup season, winning silver in the first event of the year in Lake Placid, USA.
The back-to-back defending World Cup Champion placed second in qualifying and then secured her spot in the medal round by leading the first round of finals with an impressive full-full double twisting double back somersault that scored 92.29 points.
In the super-final medal round, Scott increased her degree of difficulty to perform a triple twisting double back somersault, scoring 95.17 points, missing victory by just 0.35 points.
In testing conditions due to wind and falling snow, reigning Olympic Champion Xu Mengtao of China claimed the gold medal on 95.52 while Canadian Marion Thenault was third on 90.94.
"Pretty stoked," said the 34-year-old Scott.
"It was awesome to get back in the start gate again. This year has been a pretty big ride on a rollercoaster, so grateful to just be here.
"Experience definitely played a big role. It wasn't my first time dealing with tricky weather. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't with wind gusts, so you have to take it as it comes, and I am grateful for that experience."
Abbey Willcox also qualified for the final in fifth place and went on to finish eighth in the first round of finals, while double world champion Laura Peel was 21st.
