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words and photos: Mary T. Walsh
As Jess Kimura trust-falled into a crowd of eager and accepting hands, the first day of the first-ever Uninvited Invitational kicked off at Boreal Mountain. Jess and event co-founder/behind-the-scenes producer extraordinaire Sharalee Hazen have been putting their blood, sweat, and tears into this event and the collective dreams of all women street snowboarders was finally realized as the sun broke out over the Sierra and the set up opened (big thanks to the Woodward Tahoe park staff and Ben Bilocq, who BTS efforts make everything better).
The first two days of The Uninvited Invitational are a jam photo and video shoot that act as a qualifier for Saturday’s contest. About half the field will advance to Saturday’s finals to compete for the 40k prize purse (thank you to event sponsors like The North Face, Smith, Fat Tire, and Sun Bum for making this happen!).
Day 1 was no warm-ups as the riders started throwing down right from the bell. With Kennedi Deck, Egan Wint, Maria Thomsen, Grace Warner, Naima Antolin, Darrah Reid-McLean, Ivika Jürgenson, Emma Crosby, Jaylen Hansen, Madison Blackley, Lex Hernandez-Roland, Lolo Derminio, Jill Perkins, Brantley Mullins, Himari Takamori, Ari Morrone, Maggie Leon, and many more full-on destroyers setting the pace, the judges have their work cut out for them selecting the finals roster. This gallery is only a sneak peek at what’s been going on.
Stay tuned to @the__uninvited, @snowboardmag, and right here (and follow #uninvited2023 on Instagram)for more updates during The Uninvited Invitational.