Veda Hallen and Austin Visintainer are your Red Bull Heavy Metal St. Paul 2025 winners.
Hallen dominated Zones 1 and 2 on her way to top honors. Her massive underflip had the crowd roaring. Combine that a number of 50-50s over the creeper ledge, and that was good enough to take the first zone. A noseslide pretzel in Zone 2 helped her take home a win there, too, on the way to claiming her crown.
“This is such a special event,” Hallen said after. “Having the opportunity to ride the State Capitol is just, honestly, so insane to me. I don’t know how Red Bull pulls it off, but they somehow manage to do it, and bringing all these talented people here to showcase their snowboarding is super special.”
Visintainer returned to St. Paul after winning Zone 1 in 2024. His backside 180-on switch 50-50 switch back 180-off on Zone 3 helped him take home his first overall Heavy Metal victory since he started competing in the contest in 2022.
"It felt absolutely surreal. When I landed it, it just felt like a dream. I was so happy to be riding away. Just like a dream come true, for sure,” Visintainer said after. “I think Heavy Metal just exposes the way that we all snowboard in the streets to the general public, which is huge for everyone. To see us just having a good time, I think it exposes the best side of snowboarding.”
Snowboarder Darrell Mathes, 2024 Heavy Metal winner Luke Winkelmann, and former Snowboarder editor Mary Walsh served as judges for the contest.
“The level of rail riders today is exceptional,” said Mathes. “There are no warm-up tricks in competition; all the athletes dive straight into their most challenging tricks, which showcases the continuous improvement in the level of riding. It’s incredibly impressive to witness! Since this is the second year at the Capitol in MN, the riders clearly understand the need to bring new tricks to the table, making it all the more exciting to watch!”
Photo: Mark Clavin/Red Bull Content Pool
Minnesotan Sam Anderson took home a Zone 2 victory with precision rail riding. Fresh off of an X Games street style gold medal, Iris Pham rode a boardslide the length of a kink rail to win Zone 3.
“I think it’s important to have these events,” Winklemann said. “Because it continues to help grow the sport and showcase these amazing riders to people who maybe have never seen something like this in the city—or ever. I was so impressed by everyone today. The resilience and adaptability shown by the riders was crazy.”
The event will be broadcast on ESPN2 on February 16, 2025 at 10:30 p.m. EST. Red Bull will also release video content to recap and support the event on the Red Bull Snow YouTube channel.
Next up: Boston. Red Bull Heavy Metal will head to City Hall Plaza for its debut in the northeast on February 22, 2025. Zeb Powell is leading the charge.
Here are the complete results for Red Bull Heavy Metal St. Paul 2025:
Overall Winners:
Veda Hallen and Austin Visintainer
Zone 1
Winners – Veda Hallen and Beck Loben
Runners-Up – Iris Pham and Joey Fava
Zone 2
Winners – Veda Hallen and Sam Anderson
Runners-Up – Jess Perlmutter and Austin Visintainer
Zone 3
Winners – Iris Pham and Austin Visintainer
Runners-Up – Jess Perlmutter and Quin Elul