Chipped Ice And Scaffolding: Urban Snowboarders To Rip Minneapolis

You can’t bring the city to the mountains, but you can at least bring the park to the people. The Lib Tech Downtown Throwdown, a terrain park-centric snowboard competition, is coming to the heart of Minneapolis on Oct. 19th at noon.

The competition will give 25 riders known nationally for their work on urban riding video projects the chance to compete head to head in front of a crowd, said Dana Westbrook of online retailer and sponsor The House.

Invited local riders will also have a chance to earn their way into the money round, with the top three locals selected during a morning contest at the venue advancing to the final 25.

To create a snowboarding venue in of one of North America’s flatter cities, event creators Snowboy Productions will build a three-level structure complete with jumps, drops and rails in a parking lot at the intersection of Hennepin and Third Avenue. The location will give photographers a city skyline as a background for the action.

Blocks of ice will be chipped to provide the riding surface for this urban, mid-fall event.

Downtown Throwdown started on the west coast and is making its first foray into the midwest.

“We’ve had an amazing run in Seattle and San Francisco, but we’re really stoked on the opportunity to move it around each year and really keep it fresh,” said organizer Krush Kulesza of snowboard manufacturor Lib Tech.

The Downtown Throwdown invites urban snowboarders who focus on filming video parts for the competition. This year’s line-up includes Forest Bailey, Dylan Thompson, Ted Borland, Brandon Hobush, Nial Romanek, Andrew Brewer, Johnny Lazz, Ryan Paul, Jaeger Bailey, Spencer Shubert and Dylan Alito among the 25 riders chasing over $20,000, which is dolled out using the unique form of giant cardboard I.O.U.’s and made possible by major sponsors like Monster Energy.

This year’s DTTD will debut its largest course to date with nine features on three different levels.

”The Downtown Throwdown is a snowboarding event, not a ‘rail jam,’ and adding the third level to the course this year is going to really drive that home!” said Think Thank owner and Lib Tech Ripper Jesse Burtner

The contest is free to spectators. —Sean McCoy