Hundreds of skaters, snowboarders and fans made the pilgrimage Wednesday to Boone’s Recess Skate and Snow to see X Games gold medalist and snowboarding icon Zeb Powell.
With him was a panel of several other figures in the snowboarding scene including host of the snowboarding show “Last Resort” Justin
“Stan” Leveille, internet content creator Alex Caccamo and snowboarder Holden Barth, just to name a few.
“Zeb’s here because they’re doing like a cool little pitstop across the mountains in Boone,” said Roscoe Luce, a Recess Skate and Snow staff member and snowboarder. “We hit Cat, Beech a couple days, and App’s tonight. It’s just a fun little pitstop, showing some NC love.”
Snowboarder Powell, the event’s main guest, first caught attention around 2016 with his success at Red Bull’s All Snow event. Powell placed first at the event, landing him attention in “Snowboarder” magazine.
He went on to compete in the X Games Aspen 2020 Snowboard Knuckle Huck, where he would once again place first out of eight riders and become the first Black man to ever win gold in X Games history. Powell reached the Knuckle Huck podium a second time in 2024, placing second. For a great number of snowboarding fans, Powell is not just a rider, but a legend.
“This is the Superman of snowboarding,” Luce said. “He’s an awesome dude. It’s like 2025 Shaun White as an equivalent. He’s a really really big deal.”
Hailing from Charlotte, Powell does not come from an area known as a snowboarding hotspot. Being both a Black snowboarder and a snowboarder from the southeast makes him someone new in the sport, someone who represents so many riders who aspire to the heights of professional snowboarding even from places that seem unconventional.
“I have Zeb’s posters scattered all over my room at home and my dorm room,” ETSU student Tristan Swank said. “He’s definitely one of my bigger inspirations snowboarding, so this is awesome.”
At the event in addition to the meet and greet was a distribution of this month’s issue of “Slush” magazine and a celebration over the professional debut of Barth, one of Powell’s associates. The group signed autographs for nearly four hours before finally retiring to the upstairs section of Recess with plans to spend the night doing what they do best: hitting the snow.
