Sitting out competitions may not be the obvious way to prepare for the Winter Olympics but Russ Henshaw insists it'll give him the best chance of winning a medal for Australia.
Slopestyle skier Henshaw is part of a small team Australian team competing at the New Zealand Winter Games - the first major championships of 2017/18 - as he prepares for his second Olympics in South Korea.
He finished eighth at Sochi 2014, with injuries holding him back - a situation he's desperate to avoid in five months' time.
"The last Olympics, I went in injured and struggled through the whole process. It wasn't enjoyable," Henshaw told AAP at Cardrona on Friday.
"My main goal in the lead up to the Olympics is to stay healthy.
"It's the first time in a long time that my body has felt awesome. I've been skiing without any pain."
Henshaw, 27, had a solid last season, regularly finishing in the top-10 and claiming a bronze medal at the World Cup leg in Italy.
While he has his eye on a couple of international events, this season will represent a change of tack as he tries to avoid constantly competing in the northern hemisphere winter.
"My other main priority is making sure I go somewhere to train where the snow's good and the jumps are set up well," he said.
"I'd rather that than compete. I know how competitions work.
"It's good for your headspace but it's not really good training."
Henshaw will face a world-class field in New Zealand from Saturday in an event many are using to gauge their progress ahead of the Pyeongchang Olympics.
But Henshaw is less concerned by his performance.
"My biggest hope is to have fun. I know that sounds ridiculous. But over the last 10 years of me competing, I've come to realise when I'm having fun I'm skiing my best," he said.
"There was a year there where I was like, 'I need to do this, this and this and train really hard'.
"But I started to lose the fun in it and my performance went."
