If you consider snowboarding’s largest names, North Carolina most likely isn’t the primary place that involves thoughts. However that’s the place Zeb Powell’s story begins—a child with a skateboard, a dream, and a pure means to show something with wheels or edges into artwork.
“I skated a bit of earlier than snowboarding,” he informed BET’s Subsequent Up host Tamara Brown. “My pal gave me a skateboard, and I went to the skate park. My dad needed to drag me out of that place. I used to be throwing matches as a result of I didn’t wish to go away.”
When his native skate park shut down, destiny intervened. “All my pals began snowboarding within the winter,” he stated. “So I figured I’d strive it out. Throughout the first few runs, I acquired it.”
From Small Hills to Massive Air
Rising up on smaller Southern slopes meant Powell needed to get inventive. “We had a reasonably small mountain in comparison with the remainder of the snowboard world,” he stated. “It’s type of like being a karate child—you learn to trip all the things once you don’t have a lot to trip.”
That DIY strategy paid off. His ingenious fashion—equal elements steadiness, rhythm, and fearlessness—set him aside early on. “When there aren’t huge jumps, you get inventive,” he defined. “You’re all the time attempting to go quick, go huge, and begin flying by way of the air.”
Making Historical past on the X Video games
In 2020, Powell turned the primary Black snowboarder to win an X Video games gold medal. For him, the expertise felt surreal.
“It felt like a online game second,” he recalled. “You do all of the missions, meet all of the individuals, full all of the challenges, and then you definitely get to the most important competitors below the lights. That’s what it felt like. Seeing all the professionals—it was like Hollywood for snowboarding.”
However the win was larger than only a medal. It was a second that modified how he noticed his place within the sport. “Being me in that house—it was liberating. It was dope.”
“I Simply Need to Make the Mountains Extra Colourful.”
Powell’s victory additionally sparked a motion. “After I gained gold, I went on a PR tour, and I keep in mind saying, ‘I simply wish to make the mountains extra colourful.’” That phrase turned his mission assertion.
Quickly after, he co-created Tradition Shifters, a snowboarding occasion designed to diversify the slopes by inviting Black and brown athletes, artists, and creators to share house on the mountain.
“I by no means even considered snowboarding as not various,” Powell stated. “However as soon as I began stepping into these areas, I noticed what was lacking.”
The inspiration struck throughout a Burton Snowboards journey with A$AP Ferg in Aspen. “They introduced such a lovely gentle,” he stated. “They didn’t even know snowboarding, however the best way they approached the mountain was pure power. I used to be like, this is what we’d like.”
Constructing a Motion, Not Only a Model
Powell says essentially the most highly effective Tradition Shifters second got here when everybody—riders, musicians, DJs, and creatives—dropped in collectively for the primary run. “I regarded round and noticed a lot pleasure, a lot shade,” he stated. “I’d by no means seen that earlier than. You can simply really feel the power.”
Now, the 24-year-old athlete is targeted on increasing Tradition Shifters, creating new collaborations, and redefining what it means to be a snowboarder.
“I’m with Jordan now,” he stated. “I wish to create with them, and I’ve made so many connections within the music and artistic group. Snowboarding’s not nearly being the very best—it’s about doing what I really like and creating one thing larger.”
From a child on a skateboard in North Carolina to a worldwide image of innovation and inclusion, Zeb Powell is proving that greatness doesn’t come from the place you begin—it comes from the way you trip.