By Bruce Karnick

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Discussing snowboarding in the middle of sum

mer may seem odd to many, but for Jaylen Han

son, it’s a normal thing. You could never tell by her demeanor when talking with her. Hanson is a calm, quiet kid for the most part. She has fun with her friends and does the typical teenager stuff, but the likeliness of you guessing that she is a cham pion snowboarder right after you meet her is, well, let’s just say, slim to none.

Hanson is in fact, a snowboarding champion but not as a sanctioned Minnesota State High School sport. She competes in various invites and most recently won the Upper Midwest Snow Se

ries Rail Jam for age 15

22. She also has numer ous other top five finishes including dozens of

See CHAMPION, Page 11

Jaylen Hanson flies off a pipe grind and a major drop executing a grab during her first time participating in the Red Bull Heavy Metal tour in Duluth, MN. at right, Jaylen Hanson with her G Team coach Ryan Conway after winning Nationals. Photos submitted wins dating back to 2016.

“I compete with USASA throughout most of the season, but that's any age level, any skill level type of competitions. It changes depending on the event that you're in, you go in specific age groups,” explained Hanson. “But you win just medals for that, you don't win any money. But, for a couple of the other events that I have done, like the Red Bull event, that was an open class event. It's any age level and it was invite only. They invite specific people to come and compete against each other for prize money.”

Hanson is part of ‘The G Team’, the Midwest’s number one team that states on their website, “several X Games Wins, an Olympic medal and countless National titles, the G Team has risen to the top as one of the leading teams in the country.”

Hanson’s first listed competition with USASA was in December of 2016 where she placed fourth, at 10 years old, since then, Hanson has earned at least 25 first place finishes at USASA events.

“I originally started skiing because both my parents and my older brother ski. Then my aunt and uncle both snowboarded. When I was younger, I really looked up to my aunt, so I decided that I wanted to try that one day, and then I just never went back to skiing,” added Hanson.

Snowboarding came naturally to Hanson but that just made practices that much more fun.

“I practice pretty much every single day of the week, as much as I can. I feel like it's doesn't always feel like practice because it's so fun for me. It's a lot of leaning new tricks, as much as I can or as quick as I can. I also build on old tricks that I already know. I usually ride like almost every day of the week at least four hours per practice, if not more,” explained Hanson.

During the offseason for snowboarding, Hanson also skateboards, wakeboards and does a little work on the trampoline to keep her snowboarding skills sharp. She is also on the Hastings Raiders varsity soccer roster in the fall and a runner for track in the spring.

Snowboarding has multiple disciplines, half pipe, rail jam, slopestyle and boardercross. Rail jam is a street style course where riders use various objects to grind on and do tricks off. Boardercross is a race, slopestyle is an Olympic discipline that involves tricks in a freestyle area. Halfpipe is like slopestyle, but the entire competition takes place in a halfpipe and is likely the most widely known discipline. At 16, what is Hanson looking to accomplish on the snowboard scene?

“I'm honestly just trying to go as far as I can in the sport, and I'm not 100 percent sure what that looks like yet for me. The main kind of events that I continue in right now are not super mainstream Olympics events. It's more towards X Games, or some of the Dew Tour kinds of competitions. I think I'm definitely trying to get into those bigger contests. I'd also eventually like to get into filming,” said Hanson.

Hanson has participated in four straight national snowboarding championships. One of those was a virtual event due to COVID and three were in person. The most recent win at Nationals was this past winter where she competed against girls that could be as much as six years older than her, and she beat them all to take first place.

In some cases, there could be only 2040 competitors in the event bracket for the age and type of event, and in others there could be thousands of entrants. In January of this year, Hanson was invited to Duluth to participate in the Red Bull Heavy Metal Tour where she placed second. Last August, she was one of 16 females and one of two teenagers invited to The Big Snow Event in New Jersey.

“I would definitely say the Red Bull heavy metal event was one of the craziest days and events that I've ever done so far. I got to compete with people that I've been looking up to and I ended up placing second, which is really insane to me. I don't think it really set in until a week after. Just being there with so many people that have been supporting me forever was awesome. Friends and family, and people in the snowboard world that were able to be there live or watching it online and stuff, which is just really crazy to have that exposure for me too,” said Hanson.

The interesting part of the rail jam, Hanson’s strongest event, is the flow of the tricks. Competitors get several runs for the competition along with many practice runs. They partially plan their tricks out during practice but leave options for adjustments during the competition.

With all of her successes before turning 16, Jaylen Hanson is a snowboarder to watch for in future X Games, which would be a very cool thing to see for Hanson and Hastings. For now, you’ll have to cheer for her on the soccer pitch in the fall or the track in the spring and live streams from the slopes.

Jaylen Hanson after winning the 15-22 age group at the National Championship. Photo submitted

Jaylen Hanson takes air at the Red Bull Heavy Metal tour in Duluth, MN. Photo submitted.