“Welcome to the State Capitol grounds,” says St. Paul, MN Mayor Melvin Whitfield Carter III. He’s standing next to Todd Richards and Chris Grenier, two revered, retired pro snowboarders. Melvin is the first Black mayor of the city of St. Paul, as well as the first mayor to welcome pro snowboarders to throw down directly on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol. “Red Bull Heavy Metal has made its roaring return to the capital city of St. Paul,” he continues. “I, Melvin Carter, Mayor of the city of St. Paul, do hereby proclaim Saturday, February 1, 2025, Red Bull Heavy Metal Day in the city of St. Paul. Let’s go! Let’s have some fun!”

ABOVE From left to right: X Games Real Street Gold Medalist and host of The Bombhole Podcast, Chris Grenier, St. Paul, MN Mayor Melvin Carter, and pioneering pro snowboarder Todd Richards kick off the 2025 Red Bull Heavy Metal at the Minnesota State Capitol. Photo: Ashley Rosemeyer / Red Bull Content Pool

With that, the 2025 St. Paul Red Bull Heavy Metal commences. Riders descend on various features throughout three respective zones set up on the front steps of the government building. Zone 1 is made up of a freshly constructed ledge that, halfway through the first heat, is upgraded with an attachable, light post-inspired bonk. Riders take turns sliding the ledge, tapping the bonk, and airing over the structure entirely. By mid-afternoon, they move on to Zone 2, which consists of two two-hit lines made up of rails and boxes. To cap it off, there’s a dastardly down-flat-down handrail—the one Joey Fava slid his viral backside lipslide on during Red Bull Heavy Metal 2024. There’s plenty to appreciate from plenty of perspectives, from everyday spectators, weekend warriors and core snowboarders alike.

ABOVE Veda Allen came in swinging and came out on top, finishing first place overall among the women–a division stacked full of heavy hitters including two-time Red Bull Heavy Metal winner Egan Wint, powerhouse Iris Pham and more. Photo: Bob Plumb / Red Bull Content Pool

ABOVE Men’s overall winner, Austin Visintainer, with a big ole 360 bonk in Zone 1. Be sure to see and read “Unusual Vizzness,” Austin’s print feature in Issue 22.1. Photo: Ashley Rosemeyer / Red Bull Content Pool

From my own perspective, it’s satisfying to see snowboarding take over a capital city. Furthermore, having a highly trafficked event focused on rail riding, as opposed to some insane, femur-breaking scaffolding jump, brings that much more joy to my East Coast, metal-loving inner child. I grew up jibbing and drooling over snowboard videos during a time when rail jam clips still made it into the full-length films (yeah, we’ve come a long way). So, to take part in a spectacle reminiscent of what I watched Eddie Wall and Mike Casanova doing while I fell in love with snowboarding checks some bucket-list boxes for sure. To the credit of Red Bull Heavy Metal organizers, they’ve successfully improved upon certain aspects of the St. Paul layout compared to what we saw here last year, mostly regarding the fat new ledge in Zone 1, as well as the addition of boxes in Zone 2.

ABOVE Young gun LJ Henriquez flew out from the east coast for his first ever Red Bull Heavy Metal. True to his usual “El Niño” form, LJ stood out with his highly technical bag of tricks on full display in Zone 2. Ya tu sabes. Photo: Mark Clavin / Red Bull Content Pool

With the sun setting, Zone 3 presents its ups and downs (pun intended). The down-flat-down rail spanning the Capitol’s biggest staircase is a massive challenge, one that requires riders to lock into their tricks perfectly if they hope to make it to the end. This year, only a few manage to do so. As we near the end of the event, Austin Visintainer seals his first-place overall finish with a backside 180 switch 5050 switch backside 180 out. It’s an incredible feat, especially given the time crunch to put it down. The only issue: I’m not sure how well such a feat translates to folks here who don’t know snowboarding very well.

ABOVE Rob Roethler does his best to balance through the down-flat-down rail in Zone 3. This rail is massive. For scale, Rob is 6-foot-7-inches. Photo: Bob Plumb / Red Bull Content Pool

Austin’s trick through the down-flat-down was objectively the most difficult of the day. Although, we were able to see way more riders stomping their tricks in Zone 2 and, in that sense, Zone 2 was easier for the everyday spectators to digest and appreciate.

If Red Bull Heavy Metal is meant to be a street snowboarding spectacle that appeals to both core snowboarders and casual viewers alike, I would argue that organizers should lean into setting up features like those seen in Zones 1 and 2, allowing for a bigger variety of tricks and higher number of successful stomps. On the other glove, if the event is meant to focus more heavily on what real street snowboarders would appreciate, the heaviest feature in the event should be a true street spot, like we saw at Red Bull Heavy Metal 2022 in Duluth, MN, and 2023 in Detroit, MI.

ABOVE Danyale Patterson, aka JibGurl, airing down an iconic street snowboarding spot during the 2022 Red Bull Heavy Metal in Duluth, MN. This spot is recognizable from videos such as 1817 The Movie (2020), among others. Photo: Emily Tidwell / Red Bull Content Pool

When Red Bull hosted Heavy Metal at the Cascade Park in Duluth, MN in 2022, the event took place on spots familiar to riders who watch professional snowboarders’ video parts. Seeing pro snowboarders compete at real street spots in front of thousands of spectators made it feel like snowboarding had its own version of Back to the Berg, a skateboarding event hosted by Thrasher Magazine that had thousands of spectators watching pros throw tricks down the Wallenburg Four—a spot that every skater worth their wheels should recognize from multiple videos. During that 2022 Red Bull Heavy Metal in Duluth, snowboarders were airing through Cascade Park’s castle-like, stone laid gazebo, and testing their might on the nearby kink rail—two highly-popularized features. In 2023, Red Bull hosted Heavy Metal at Hart Plaza in Detroit, MI. The focal point of that Heavy Metal was the wallride—a feature Scott Blum handplanted for his video part in The SNOWBOARDER Movie: SFD (2015).

ABOVE In front of thousands of excited spectators, Zeb Powell (featured in Issue 20.2) tackles the wallride at the 2023 Red Bull Heavy Metal in Detroit, MI. This sort of stunt can be appreciated by any human with eyeballs. But it can be appreciated on a deeper level by snowboarders who recognize this spot from Scott Blum’s video part in The SNOWBOARDER Movie: SFD (2015). In this iteration of the contest, Red Bull transformed a real, high-bust street spot into a contest hit. Photo: Joe Gall / Red Bull Content Pool

ABOVE Benny Milam going for broke with a frontside boardslide in Zone 3 of the 2022 Red Bull Heavy Metal in Duluth, MN. This rail wasn’t constructed for Red Bull Heavy Metal. It’s a real street snowboarding spot that lives there year-round. Weather dependent, you could go try it out yourself tomorrow. Any takers? Photo: Emily Tidwell / Red Bull Content Pool

It’ll be interesting to see what Red Bull builds in Boston for its next iteration of Heavy Metal at the Boston City Hall Plaza tomorrow, February 22, 2025. Hopefully, there’ll be some riding at a spot that us hardcore snowboard nerds can recognize from video parts. Although, prefabricated rails or not, the event seems to be mostly beneficial in spreading the stoke for street snowboarding. It’s turning eyes on snowboarding that might’ve not looked towards it at all in the first place, and that’s something every rider should be able to get behind.

ABOVE St. Paul’s up-and-coming hometown hero, Jaylen Hansen, grabbing Weddle over the freshly constructed ledge-like feature made for Zone 1 at Red Bull Heavy Metal 2025 in St. Paul, MN. This hit could be aired, slid or bonked and offered plenty of opportunities for both straight forward and more technical tricks. Despite this feature being prefabricated specifically for Red Bull Heavy Metal, the nature of this setup had it feeling like a street spot. Photo: Mark Clavin / Red Bull Content Pool

Thank you to Luke Westnedge, Casey Peterson and the entire Red Bull crew for putting on and hosting us at Heavy Metal. It was an incredible event and we’re looking forward to seeing what’s in store for Red Bull Heavy Metal in Boston and beyond.