Local Minnesota snowboarder, Benny Milam, will be competing in the Red Bull Heavy Metal event this weekend for his third time.

The competition was created in 2002 to showcase a unique form of snowboarding which takes riders onto the streets and features some of the “most progressive rail riding in the world.” This year the streets are meeting the steps of the Capitol Building in St. Paul to create an extreme snowboarding course.

Milam, a Chisago City native, said he was first introduced to snowboarding by two older brothers and another legend in the snowboarding community, professional snowboarder Micah McGinnity. Milam says his snowboarding journey began at a big sledding hill near his house, but it was McGinnity’s presence that motivated him to keep hitting the slopes.

Throughout high school, he did online school in order to make it possible for him to travel for competitions such as the Burton Rail Days contest in Tokyo and other U.S.-based tours with Red Bull.

“It’s just been a dream of mine since I was a little kid to be a professional snowboarder,” said Milam. Snowboarding isn’t just a hobby or sport for the 25-year-old, it’s become his day job and sole income.

The success of young riders like Milam may also be indicative of the boom of the sport and industry as a whole. As Milam puts it, “normally you’d have to be really sneaky around the Capitol Building, but now we have full permission, I think it really shows the direction snowboarding is going in.”

While shredding the powder may sound like all fun and games, Milam says he often has to create and find his own training environments, “I spend five to six hours shoveling and creating jumps to then only spend 30 minutes snowboarding on them and creating video content.”

But Milam says as long as he inspires another kid out there, it’s all worth it.

Those interested in the events this weekend can attend for free.

The Last Chance Qualifier event is being at 6 p.m. Friday at Buck Hill in Burnsville. This qualifier will allow two riders spots in the main Red Bull Heavy Metal competition from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Capitol Building in St. Paul.

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