Thursday night’s Snowboard Streetstyle practice, with the men and women riding the course at the same time, was a perfect illustration of just how high the level of women’s riding has come in 2024. When we asked Nate Haust––the defending 2023 Streetstyle gold medalist––and Dew Tour veteran Darcy Sharpe to share some practice standouts, they each started their lists with Mia Brookes, Iris Pham, Jaylen Hanson, Madison Blackley and Egan Wint before shouting out their peers in the men’s field.
It’s fitting that the first snowboard medals awarded at Dew Tour 2024 on Friday will be for Women’s Streetstyle, which happens to fall on International Women’s Day. In a year when so much attention has been showered on women’s sports, including snowboarding, and at a time when women’s streetstyle contests in particular have leveled up extraordinarily.
“It feels like a great moment where everything’s coming together,” said Egan Wint, who finished 2nd at Dew Tour in 2023 and has been on a tear ever since. In 2023 Wint won the best trick win at DIYX Street Jam 2023 in Innsbruck, Austria, and Heavy Metal Detroit, Heavy Metal Minneapolis last month, and X Games Aspen 2024 podiums in both Streetstyle and Knuckle Huck. “There’s this resurgence of rail jams happening and for the first time ever, especially in the rail jam scene, the women are right there next to the men having the exact same experience with the exact same payout and you can see the effect it has: the girls are going off! As that support has come in hot, it just builds and builds and builds.”
Wint will look to unseat twice-defending Dew Tour Streetstyle champion Lex Hernandez-Roland, whose appearance on Friday will be her first snowboard contest of 2024 after breaking her right collarbone, and says everyone else in the field is a legit contender for first place.
“Lex was out here for a couple laps and looked good, and Iris Pham is absolutely on a sick one right now,” Wint said after Thursday’s practice. “She’s been going off all day. Mia Brooks is looking so, so good out there. I’m seeing a lot of things that I didn’t expect. People are really hungry for it.”
If there’s any such thing as home snow advantage, Wint is claiming it: “I grew up riding at Copper so it’s really fun to come here and see it from a different perspective as a competitor. The park laps here are just so much fun.”
While the Men’s Streetstyle final isn’t until Saturday, it’s gearing up to be a good one, too. Alternate LJ Henriquez was among the standouts in practice, proof of the depth of the field (and the not-quite-in-the-field). Also winning practice were defending 2023 Streetstyle gold medalist Nate Haust, 2021 gold medalist Luke Winkelmann, and last year’s 2nd place finisher, Benny Milam.
“The first couple laps through this course I was really questioning my abilities,” Milam joked after Thursday’s practice. “It’s a really tight, quick course so you’ve gotta be ready. It’s impulse boarding at its finest! It feels like a slopestyle course but it’s all rails and it’s a lot more technical.”
Milam was the only rider hitting the big wallride feature at the bottom of the course during practice, transferring from the wall to the down rail. He thinks he’s going to need it. “Everybody’s killing it out here, and there are so many different line choices,” he said.
Milam took 2nd in 2023 and 3rd in 2021. Nowhere to go but up!
“It’s an event I grew up watching: The little kid version of myself would be really proud of myself if I won this one,” Milam said. “it’s definitely a dream every year, coming out to do Dew Tour.”
The best part of this year’s course, according to Darcy Sharpe: it’s bigger and better!
“It’s fun to see how this event has evolved,” Sharpe said. “I remember when it was all really little features out in the streets in Breckenridge, and now it’s all just scaled up so much. I love being able to focus on the rails like this, without having to worry about chucking 1620s at the bottom like we do in Slopestyle contests. And the best part is getting to ride with this crew. Dew Tour Streetstyle attracts a different mix of riders than I’m used to competing around the world with, and it’s fun to be out here with all my favorite street riders.”
Sound off in the comments below!