New Zealand's Winter Olympics campaign has started strongly after snowboarder Carlos Garcia Knight nailed his first run to qualify for the slopestyle final.

The 20-year-old placed second in the first qualification heat with a ride scored 80.1 in PyeongChang on day one of the Games on Saturday.

He was sixth down the Bokwang Snow Park course, straight after Norway's Marcus Kleveland set the benchmark with an 83.71.

The Kiwi was steady in the rail sections before scoring 9.05 out of 10 on his jump on the fifth section when he landed a backside 1260 tail grab (three-and-a-half spins with a clockwise rotation).

"What makes it unique is the tail grab. It's quite hard.

You have to reach outside your back foot and you're completely blind on the last spin," Garcia Knight told NZ Newswire.

"I learnt it in New Zealand and got a good feel for it in Aspen just before I came here.

"It's super rewarding to put it down on a good slopestyle run."

On his second run, he failed to land on the fifth section but maintained his position as other riders faltered, qualifying for Sunday's 12-man final with a 2.09-point buffer from third-placed Canadian Sebatien Toutant.

"I'm not usually good at landing my first run. The nerves get me sometimes," he said.

"But I felt right up there. To land your first run takes all the pressure off."

The top six scorers for single runs from the two heats progress to the final.

Garcia Knight was the only New Zealander competing on day one after Tiarn Collins was ruled out of the event through injury.

Garcia Knight won bronze at his home World Cup event in Cardrona in September but had some disappointing results in more recent World Cup and X-Games events in the United States.

But he now has his eye on an Olympic medal.

"I'm not going to come here and not think about a medal," he said.

"In snowboarding, we have to battle it out with our own tricks. It makes it a bit tougher to call where we'll be.

"But it's anyone's game from now on, really. Whoever lands the best run and whoever rides best on the day."

Garcia Knight reaching the podium would end the country's Winter Olympic medal drought stretching back to the 1992 Lillehammer Games when Annelise Coberger won silver in alpine skiing.