Grey skies and snowfall had nothing on the thousands of people who came out for Saturday’s street snowboarding competition at Boston City Plaza.
The 200,000 square-foot plaza, which can accommodate up to 25,000 people, drew crowds of snowboarding fans and local spectators for the Red Bull Heavy Metal Finals before the start of the early week nor’easter.
The emcee detailed every action through the loudspeakers, which simultaneously boomed loud music. Several fans climbed up trees, statues, and street lamps for better views. Food trucks and sponsor tents lined the brim of the plaza.
Chris Harley of Providence, sporting a Red Sox jacket, arrived four hours early with his son to secure a front row spot. Unable to attend the Red Sox preseason game that day in Florida, they came here instead: “When it’s so close to home and such a great opportunity to see the best snowboarders, why not take a few hours to go see it?” said Harley.
The Red Bull Heavy Metal Finals was a 3-hour street snowboarding competition featuring two amateur qualifiers and a curated lineup of pro-snowboarders, including 2026 U.S. Olympian Jessica Perlmutter, X Games gold-medalist Zeb Powell, and athletes hailing from Japan and Finland.
Snowboarders competed across three distinct zones for a winning title and total cash prize of $30,000, split among winners.
This year was the competition’s second consecutive year in Boston, and drew similarly large crowds. The event originally began in 2002, and relaunched in 2022 in Minnesota.
After hearing about the Red Bull Cliff Diving event at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Iris Morales of East Boston was curious to attend a similar event. “I’m excited about the atmosphere. Seeing everybody enjoying themselves with the music, and it’s a free event, so why not?” she said.
Robert Contreras of Weymouth, who snowboards himself, was looking forward to watching Zeb Powell. “He is very versatile, the way he rides. I like when he rides the ‘rooster tail 180 reverse,’” he said, referencing a maneuver in which a rider spins 180 degrees, leaving a spray of snow.
Unlike Olympic snowboarding, where athletes complete tricks off of prebuilt obstacles, street snowboarders use objects found in cities like staircases, ledges, or handrails. This year’s three zones were integrated with City Hall’s main stairwells.
One after another, snowboarders glided down the railings or propelled off of the building’s brick exterior, gaining enough momentum to jump into the air and perform a freestyle trick. The emcee and the crowd reacted with collective gasps and cheers. Many held up their phones or cameras.
“It is really impressive when you see it in person. You realize how hard this stuff really is. You watch someone try a trick over and over and over. And then they get it, and the crowd goes crazy,” competition director Joe Sexton told WBUR’s Amy Sokolow.
There was just as much excitement around complicated tricks and smooth landings as there were for crashes and falls. After one injurious fall, one snowboarder was escorted off the snow with a limp, though this was par for the course – the competition continued on.
“I wanna see some sparks fly. Usually when they start to hit the brick wall, some of the metal edges will catch,” said Kevin Arnett of Fenway, who carried his own snowboard while watching the event.
Judges ranked three winners for each zone, considering execution, style, and overall impression. For each zone, finalists were chosen from the qualifying rounds, and three winners were ranked. The competition’s overall winners were Telma Särkipaju from Finland, and LJ Hernandez from New Jersey.
“Some of the folks here are some of the best competitors for street snowboarding and slopestyle in the world. And to get them to come to where I currently live and see them do tricks in places where I’d never be allowed to is pretty sick,” said Arnett, who began snowboarding three years ago through the Boston Ski and Sports Club.
“I think Boston gets a bad rap sometimes for not being fun to live in for a quarter to half a year. I think snowboarding has really changed my perspective on what it is to live here. I’ve found something that has made me get through this part of the year and part of the season,” he said.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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