It’s the third major street snowboarding contest in as many months.
In December, it was the inaugural X Games Street Style Pro, held at Copper Mountain. That event served as a chance for street riders to clinch their spot at the otherwise invite-only big show: X Games Aspen in January, where street has returned as a medal event after a 10-year hiatus between 2014 and 2024.
This past weekend, it was Red Bull Heavy Metal in St. Paul, the street contest that arguably has done the most to support the discipline’s robust revival.
Before Red Bull resurrected its Heavy Metal rail jam in 2022, it had last been held in Portland, Oregon, in 2003.
The aughts marked a time of halfpipe and slopestyle dominance. Between 2011 and 2014, street snowboarding emerged as a medal event at X Games Aspen, then fell off the program.
Core street snowboarding, where riders, supported by sponsors, film video parts on urban features, exists independently of the contest scene. But there’s no question that having opportunities to compete can expose street riders to potential sponsors, build their fan bases and provide another way to earn money through riding.
Street snowboarding is also simply more accessible. Not everyone grows up within driving distance of fresh powder. Not everyone can afford to spend $300 on a day lift ticket or $1,500 on an Ikon Pass. For riders in the Midwest and on the East Coast, icy conditions and sporadic snows naturally push them toward the terrain park.
All of this means that the recent resurgence of street snowboarding is more than welcomed in the industry. And Red Bull bringing Heavy Metal back in 2022 was a major catalyst.
In 2023, Dew Tour (now on indefinite hiatus) added a “Super Streetstyle” event to its program, giving street riders a chance to compete in a rail jam at night under the lights alongside their slopestyle counterparts.
X Games Aspen 2024 included a snowboard street jam session with Nixon watches awarded to the male and female winners, but it wasn’t widely broadcast.
In 2025, X Games debuted a full medal event in both snowboard and ski disciplines. It meant a packed schedule for street riders leading up to this year’s iteration of Red Bull Heavy Metal. That was more than OK with them.
“I think it’s great for snowboarding just for people to see these athletes in a competition format as well,” Luke Winklemann, a slopestyle rider and the male overall winner of Red Bull Heavy Metal 2024, told me. “And it’s great for street riders to get the opportunity to compete and be seen.”
Winklemann was unable to compete in this year’s Heavy Metal as he recovers from a torn ACL. But he put on a completely different hat as a judge of this year’s contest, lifting the veil that typically exists between riders and judges.
In all, 32 riders took to the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol Building over the weekend for the latest iteration of Heavy Metal, where they threw down their best tricks in three overall competition zones.
The 2025 overall winners were Lake Tahoe’s Veda Hallen and Spokane, Washington, native Austin Visintainer.
“I think Heavy Metal just exposes the way that we all snowboard in the streets to the general public, which is huge for everyone,” Visintainer said. “To see us just having a good time, I think it exposes the best side of snowboarding.”
The Zone 1 winners were Hallen and Beck Loben. Hallen also won Zone 2, along with Sam Anderson. Iris Pham, coming off gold at X Games Aspen and having recently just signed with Rockstar Energy, and Visintainer won Zone 3.
“I think it’s so special to have Red Bull Heavy Metal back in St. Paul for the second year in a row,” said contest director and Minnesotan pro rider Joe Sexton. “The rich history of infamous spots and riders that have come out of this area makes this a really a cool full-circle moment.”
One of the elements a rail jam offers riders that is absent from a slopestyle run is the concentration of the crowd right on top of riders.
“I think that’s a cool element when you can feel the energy of the crowd,” Michigan rider Grace Warner, who helped host Heavy Metal in Detroit in 2023, told me. “You can gather that energy and use it to your advantage.”
This year’s Heavy Metal event will be broadcast in its entirety on ESPN2 on Sunday, February 16 at 10:30 p.m. ET. Red Bull will also release video content on the Red Bull Snow YouTube channel.
For the first time in its modern iteration, there will be two Heavy Metal events in one season. Now, the team turns its attention to Boston, with an event at City Hall Plaza on February 22. East Coast rider Zeb Powell will be taking the reins for that event.
“It’s really cool to see it bouncing around to different regions and just growing,” said street phenom Benny Milam, who hails from Minnesota and has helped oversee the Heavy Metal events there.
“Red Bull Heavy Metal’s mostly always been in the Midwest, which isn’t a bad thing because it’s what the Midwest is all about, but we can’t forget about the East Coast. They’ve got the same scene.”
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