Jess Kimura released The Uninvited in 2018. It was a passion project the British Columbia, Canada native had spent the past two seasons creating, putting up-and-coming, and in some cases relatively unknown female snowboarding talent in front of the camera. She probably had no idea how revolutionary the film and the series it would soon birth was about to become but like a lot of corners of the action sports world, women haven’t often been in the spotlight. Any platform that elevates them has the potential to change the game. Five years and three films later, The Uninvited (2018), The Uninvited II (2020), and The Uninvited III (2021) have accomplished just that. The award-winning film series is reportedly responsible for the career breakthroughs of about 90 percent of snowboarding’s top 20 female riders in the street snowboarding scene now.
“The irony of the name, The Uninvited, wasn’t lost on the riders who were used to being pushed aside and left out of team shoots, marketing plans, and film projects. The riders wasted no time seizing the opportunity to shine in a space they hadn’t previously had access to,” reads a press release for the event. “The talent has been here all along; the films were simply the platform to show it.”
The entire Uninvited movement is evolving now from a revolutionary film concept to an all female live event with a $40,000 prize purse on the line — an unprecedented purse, event organizers say. They also say it will be the biggest womens-specifc snowboard contest ever. So on April 15, 60 women will descend on Tahoe’s Boreal Mountain to bring the Uninvited movement to life in realtime. With riders from more than a dozen states across the U.S. as well as international athletes from Finland, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Estonia, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, and Canada, it’s safe to say the concept Kimura started back in 2017 has come a long way.
