By now, you probably know what Red Bull Heavy Metal is if you are spending time a snowboard website. But if you don’t, it is exactly what it says it is… with a little airtime added in for good measure. Right before the storm that is currently hammering the city and trapping anyone who was too hungover to get out before noon yesterday, Red Bull put on the signature event at City Hall Plaza in the heart of Downtown Boston. It was quite the Saturday. A ton of tricks, a ton of bails, a handful of lands, and a few trips to the hospital. The crowd threw snowballs despite Todd Richards and the announcing crew (Chris Grenier and Alex Caccamo) pleading for them to stop, and everyone who didn’t get hit in the face seemed to have a great time.
The biggest complaint from year one in Title Town was that people couldn’t see all the action, so Red Bull added big screens to the budget this year and livestreamed the whole event on some jumbotrons, which must have worked well because there hasn’t been an uprising on social like there was before. Way to listen to the people! I didn’t read the press release for the official number, but there were about 40 or so riders, all incredibly talented, who put on a show for a similar-sized crowd to the year before (20,000 people, according to last year’s press release). The sky was grey, but it didn’t get as cold as last year, so that was nice. I also didn’t sweat as much as I did last year running around looking for angles, which was very nice. And before you say, well maybe you didn’t try as hard, I would just say mind your own business and why are we talking about how much I sweat while shooting photos at a snowboard contest when I should probably be talking about the snowboard contest?
It is hard to remember everything that went down when you write a recap without a press release (and were running around through a massive crowd looking for angles to shoot). I know LJ Henriquez and Telma Särkipaju won and deserved it because they might be the only ones that I have good shots of on every feature. Lucas Magoon and Halldor Helgason put on a show for everyone. Zeb Powell got his normal huge cheers for doing seemingly things only he can do on a snowboard, but I will say in the autograph department, Josh Eckert (aka @gimpy) might have beat him this year due to his massive rise on social media spreading positivity about garage beers, Lord of the Rings, and crispy leaves. The rider list was a mix of street savants, up-and-comers, and contest heavyweights. Fresh off the plane from the Winter Games in Italy, Team USA’s Jess Perlmutter put on a show alongside Pat Fava, who could honestly go to the next Olympics if they add rail jams to the FIS fold. Plenty of homegrown and overseas talent went at it all day. Stevie Bell, Forest Bailey, and Grace Warner were the judges (and also an insane snapshot of talent in snowboarding).
The day was broken down into three zones. The first zone consisted of a down bar with a tube and a box to drop. The second zone was a jump off the terrace (with riders being pulled by a winch for speed) to the plaza. The third zone was a down bar to nightmare kink for 95% of snowboarders and a multi-kink ledge with a sign in the landing. Anyone out there looking at these photos who thinks they can hit the last two zones, take a sip of water and go watch the bails that the professionals had on them. Sam Klein was the only one I saw get down the full thing including the gap up top, but I would imagine a few others did as well. LJ hit everything including a pretty solid gap to the ledge that made the crowd erupt. Benny Milam could have probably be in the convo for winning it all. Veda Halen and Mees Oostdijk kept the style flowing with tech tricks on everything metal. Nick Fox showed that he is extremely underrated in the snowboarding world, like he always does. When is he going to get the credit he deserves? Unreal on every zone. Egan Wint said she was going to keep it chill in the riders tent and then proceeded to not keep it chill. Rob Roethler said the same and ended up hyping up the crowd every time his tall ass dropped in. Pat Fava was going off, Jaylen Hanson joined in the going off as well.
It ain’t easy being in Heavy Metal, and the crowd’s cheers whenever a rider landed were a nice reminder of that. What these people do on their snowboards is extremely impressive. Go watch the videos to see all the tricks and enjoy the photos here. This was the final for the U.S. but Montreal Heavy Metal is going down this upcoming weekend. Not sure how it all fits together, but more Heavy Metals is probably a good thing for us, and a bad thing for the riders’ bodies. That is just a general take, not a shot at the builders. The course was pristine all day thanks to the park crew from Loon and the organizers at Frankiebird. I think that is about it.
Sorry for the ramble. Talk again soon. Full results below (I just found the press release in my email).
Men: Zone 1
- Benny Milam
- Mees Oostdijk
- Nick Fox
Men: Zone 2
- LJ Henriquez
- Beck Lobben
- Benny Milam
Men: Zone 3
- Nick Fox
- LJ Henriquez
- Benny Milam
Women: Zone 1
- Telma Särkipaju
- Veda Halen
- Jaylen Hanson
Women: Zone 2
- Egan Wint
- Jess Perlmuter
- Veda Halen
Women: Zone 3
- Jess Perlmuter
- Telma Särkipaju
- Egan Wint
