Murray Buchan

Murray Buchan

• Coach Profile

For someone who didn’t set out to become a coach, Scotsman Murray Buchan is now well and truly ensconced, his destined career path eventually landing him in New Zealand and into a veritable field of dreams.

Plying his trade initially for Snowsport Scotland and GB (Great Britain) Snowsport, Buchan has quickly added his lustre to New Zealand’s continuing strong reputation on the international freeskiing circuit.

In his role as National Freeski Coach at Snow Sports New Zealand, Buchan has presided over the remarkable success of teenaged halfpipe talents Finley Melville Ives, 18, and Luke Harrold, 16, during the latest World Cup Tour and World Championships.

With the pair’s progress reaching new heights over the past 12 months, including several podium finishes highlighted by Ives’ winning the Freeski Halfpipe title at the 2025 World Championships in Switzerland in March and Harrold finishing fourth, New Zealand athletes are continuing a strong tradition.

Buchan’s job description as national coach is broad and can require helping out coaches in other discipline, such as slopestyle or snowboard, but predominantly involves working with Melville Ives and Harrold, the two richly talented halfpipe athletes New Zealand currently has.

“It’s been a rollercoaster,’’ Buchan said. “I started the role last June and knew that the athletes were incredible, they’ve just kept growing and progressing and you can see that through their World Cup year.

“The results for both Fin and Luke, they keep getting better and better, and their performances keep improving. That all came together at the World Champs this year in St. Moritz.

“Finley obviously won with an incredible run, the best that he’s ever done and Luke did a trick that’s never been done before in the halfpipe which was a huge achievement. That was almost just as big as Finley’s result.

“It’s been amazing to be a part of it and to help them achieve their goals. They’re both so young and they’ve got a lot of skiing left in their careers. I can’t stress enough how well they both did and it was a real joy to be a part of it, to watch them both have a go, go out under pressure and absolutely smash it, it was amazing.’’

Freeskiing is a creative style of skiing that involves hitting terrain park features, including jumps, rails and the halfpipe, and executing tricks.  Freeskiing is judged sport which requires precision execution, tricks that show progression, huge air time and a wide variety of skills to get the top marks.  The International Olympic Committee approved both halfpipe and slopestyle freeskiing events to be added to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Milano Cortina 2026 will mark the fourth Olympic Winter Games for these disciplines.

Cutting his teeth riding dry slopes in his native Scotland, Buchan was an accomplished halfpipe athlete, competing regularly on the World Cup Tour. He celebrated the sport’s Olympic debut by being part of the Great Britain team for the event while backing up with his second Olympics in Pyeongchang (South Korea) in 2018.  

“When my skiing career came to an end after Pyeongchang, I was at a loose end about what I was going to do and what the rest of my life was going to look like,’’ he said.

Having done quite a lot of coaching at the grassroots level around Scotland as an athlete and enjoying vital support throughout his career from junior levels up, there was a strong desire to reinvest and give back in a similar fashion.

“It was the right thing to do. I’d always done little bits and pieces, I enjoyed it and it brought in a little bit of money to help my skiing career,’’ Buchan said.

“So, I picked up more and more coaching gigs around the UK and I did one camp abroad but the level started to get a little bit higher so I was working with Scottish athletes as opposed to the local dry school. And then a role came up with Snowsport Scotland and GB. It was lower level, working predominantly with younger Scottish athletes.’’

Thinking he was totally under-qualified for the role the thought was `if I don’t, at least try for it, I will never know.’

And nine months after retiring from competing, Buchan secured the role. Thinking he’d be eased into things Buchan’s first assignment was taking a halfpipe athlete to the World Junior Championships.

Enjoying the experience and having fun, Buchan’s coaching odyssey had begun.

After attending his third Winter Olympics (Beijing, 2022) as a coach with Team GB, Buchan began exploring new opportunities which eventually led to his appointment with Snow Sports NZ.

“I felt like I’d reached my ceiling at GB and I needed a new challenge, something different, and what’s more different than moving as far away as humanly possible from the UK?’’ he said.

“I had a quick look online and found that from Aberdeen to Queenstown is the longest flight path you can do on one airliner.

“It was a new challenge and I was a little bit stagnant in my current role. I felt like I wasn’t able to progress any further and I really wanted something else to engage me in coaching.’’

Researching the skiing landscape Down Under and reaching out to one of the New Zealand coaches for advice, Buchan was encouraged to apply for the role.

“It was an opportunity to work with some great athletes, some great coaches and be part of a really successful programme, so I thought, `why not’ and chucked my name in the hat,’’ he said.

“To be perfectly honest, the New Zealand programme’s always been really successful. You’ve got the likes of Zoi (Sadowski-Synnott), Nico (Porteous), the Wells boys (brothers Jossi, Byron, Beau-James and Jackson)……they’ve had a such a successful programme over the years that I thought it would be very competitive, and it was, for the coaching role.

“Then I got offered the role, and I had this moment of, `this is a reality, I didn’t expect to get to this stage, now I’m going to have to figure out what I’m going to do with all my stuff.’

“It all worked out really well and the staff have been so welcoming, really supportive, the athletes are great. It’s been wonderful and I’ve really enjoyed it. You’re away from home a lot but we’ve had some amazing trips, some incredible performances backed up by some incredible results.

“I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with all the different coaches, all the different members of the support staff and feel like I’m really starting to settle into the role and, also, make some good friends along the way.’’

Buchan’s working life revolves around chasing the snow between the hemispheres to where the best training facilities for halfpipe, big air, slopestyles and other disciplines can be found. In a positive move for Snow Sports NZ, a world-class training facility, the Dry Sloep Facility is set to open in the coming months just outside Wānaka in the Cardrona Valley.

“A lot of the coaches try and take a couple of small breaks throughout the winter, maybe go home to see friends and family, go and see some sunshine because that’s the bit that maybe gets to coaches a little bit……you spend a lot of time on the road and you’re always in the winter,’’ Buchan said.

“That’s the nature of the beast but it always helps to have a break and go and get some sunshine and spend time with family and friends.’’

Big mountain skiers by nature, the park and pipe disciplines have long resonated with the bold spirit of New Zealanders where their international reputation continues to soar from a seemingly limitless production line.

It is not lost on Buchan. Being from the UK, he didn’t see any of the lower level national development of grassroots athletes, only Europa Cup and World Cup athletes.

“And then when I moved to New Zealand I could see why they keep turning out incredible athletes because they’ve got such a good approach to junior level skiing and snowboarding,’’ he said.

“It’s really inclusive, very supportive and encouraging and I think a lot of kids are drawn to it because it’s a free sport, and I say this in the best possible way, but it lacks structure, so it allows people to be really creative and expressive without the constraints of a traditional sport.

“The appeal is that a little kid can ski a totally different way and a different style from another and there’s no set rules on how you ski the mountain.’’

There’s the added element of many of the resorts in New Zealand providing impressive park and pipe programmes for the younger brigade to go and be a part of complete with coaching.

“When I first turned up around Wānaka and Queenstown, I saw loads and loads of kids who were all part of this programme that allows them to be supported and free at the same time,’’ Buchan said.

“That’s why our athletes are doing so well and it’s really important Snow Sports New Zealand keeps investing in that grassroots level so that they keep having younger athletes coming through.’’

In the here and now, Buchan has lofty goals for his two young charges, who sit tantalisingly close to completing the rarest of doubles.

“I would love to go to the Olympics with the boys (Melville Ives and Harrold) and have a one-two on the podium, that would be massive for me,’’ he said.

“So, we’re looking at tricks now for next February (2026 Winter Olympics, Italy) to put into their runs, and I would love them to turn up and do exactly what they’d imagined for years previous and worked hard for. And, hopefully, the result will take care of itself.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aiming to win and get both the New Zealanders one and two on the podium, something that’s never been done before. And for them to just continue to be happy and thrive in this environment.

“A happy athlete is a successful athlete and we all know that sport can be brutal and ruthless and cut-throat. I would love to see them have really long ski careers, not just as a competitive career but also as a lifestyle.’’

Buchan credits many for helping with his coaching progression, constantly taking little bits and pieces from everyone throughout his career to add to his repertoire.

For him, time in the saddle and building relationships are the key ingredients to making a good coach.

“It’s about trial and error and a lot of it is about relationships, how you interact with the athlete,’’ he said

“At the level Luke and Fin are at, they know all the technical, yes we can help and have some input, but a lot of it is about guidance, making sure they’re positive, happy, confident in themselves and their skiing, and being supportive.

“There’s no secret formula but I think it’s about having a bit of a bond with the athlete. The big thing for me is relationships and that’s relationships between athletes and staff, relationships between staff and staff…….that’s the one big thing.’’