For almost a decade, Krush Kulesza and his company have been hosting one of the world’s best rail events in different cities across the country. Starting in Seattle, then San Francisco, and now, the Downtown Throwdown came to Minneapolis/St. Paul. By offering up $20,000 in prize money and providing a three-tiered scaffolding setup this event became a season’s standout once again.

On October 19th 2013, all invited and uninvited riders gathered up in Minneapolis to show the people how the throwdown is done. The judging panel, which included Sean Genovese, and Minnesota living legends Jake OE, Joe Sexton, Zac Marben, and Ethan Deiss whittled down the am contestants to three, and they were then given a chance to shred alongside the likes of Andrew Brewer, Brandon Hobush, Dylan Alito, Forest Bailey, Jason Robinson, Ted Borland, Tyler Lynch, Mike Casanova, Johnny Lazzareschi, Ryan Paul, Justin Fronius, Yusaku Hoori, Jaeger Bailey, Brendan Gerard, Jonas Michilot, Mitch Richmond, Jesse Paul, Nial Romanek, and more. The three chosen riders were Aidan Flanagan, Shane Ruprecht, and Drew Poganski, and there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind after watching them drop in that they aren’t well on their way to snowboarding vip club.

Setup

The crew constructed an epic monstrosity in downtown Minneapolis consisting of three separate levels. The first level hosted a down rail and a down-flat-down box side-by-side with a pole jam option as well, and just below that were two jersey barriers with an A-frame pole jam in the middle of them while the bottom of the course redirected the riders back toward the barriers with a quarterpipe and two banked walls.

Results

When all was said and done, it was Ryan Paul who became the third rider (joining only Jed Anderson and Brandon Hobush) to take back-to-back Downtown Throwdown titles. Second place went to Nial Romanek and third to Aidan Flanagan, the young Feeder who earned his keep and reaped the rewards. But that’s not all. One of the coolest things about the DTTD is that they pay out up to fifth place, and rounding out the last two spots were Ted Borland in fourth and young Jaeger Bailey in fifth.

1. Ryan Paul, $8,000.00

2. Nial Romanek, $5,000.00

3. Aidan Flanagan, $3,000.00

4. Ted Borland, $2,000.00

5. Jaeger Bailey, $1,000.00

Monster Moment Best Trick
Jesse Paul – pole jam backflip to 50-50 on the A-frame!

Thanks Crab! Quarterpipe Award
Mitch Richmond – backflipped six feet above the deck and came down flat and rode away clean!