Scotty James has had a World Cup to forget with the halfpipe world champion bombing at the season-opening event in China.
Australia's reigning world champion had an uncharacteristically poor showing at Secret Garden, the pipe where he won a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2022.
In a dent in his preparations for next year's Milano Cortina Games, which are in February, James finished 10th.
The four-time Olympian only scored 50.0 for his first run, taking a cautious approach in the icy conditions that brought down a number of the 14 riders in Friday's final.
But the 31-year-old's hopes of improving his ranking in the second run were dashed when he crashed trying to land his first double 12 off the lip.
"That's mind-blowing ... a good lesson for the kids - the best to ever do it is still going to have bad days and they've got to recover and have the mental strength to come back at the next World Cup and put this one behind him," the commentator said.
"I'm sure he (James) wanted to open his Olympic season with a really strong performance."
Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano, who pipped James for gold, topped an all-Japan podium, scoring 93.50 in his first run, also unable to complete his second with a late fall.
Yuto Totsuka was second, posting a score of 90.25 with his first run while top qualifier Ruku Hirano, recovered from a first-run fall to place third with 89.00.
Pat Burgener, who competed for Switzerland at the past two Olympics and is now representing his mother's heritage and riding for Brazil, finished fourth.
Korea's Gaon Choi won the women's event, followed by Rise Kudo of Japan and China's Xuetong Cai.
James' next World Cup event is at Copper Mountain in the United States on December 19.
That's also the date of the release of a Netflix documentary about his life.
Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Pat Dimon, the documentary, called "Pipe Dream", features two decades of his career, including home videos and competition highlights.
