Sports

Mendota Heights Family's 'Winch Fest' Hits Terminal Velocity With Successful 2011 Event

Last weekend's event was likely the last snowboarding event to be held in the Rogers Lake neighborhood. Next year, Winch Fest could expand to more national locations.

The Miller family on Wagon Wheel Drive has a few things to boast about these days, including the invention of an sport, the successful launch of an event called Winch Fest, and a really big front yard.

The front yard, well, that was always there. The home where George, 23, and Alex Miller, 25, grew up sits on a 3.5-acre property across from Rogers Lake.

Their parents, Scott and Phyllis, used the safety and size of their property to encourage their two sons and their friends to get outdoors, get active and get creative while growing up. 

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Those are lessons the brothers took to heart.

About four years ago, George said he was exploring more urban-friendly forms of wakeboarding (think ponds), when a power winch apparatus was designed to pull the wakeboards in tight spaces where a boat could not drive.

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In short, a handlebar is hooked up to a 1,000-foot cable. An engine attached to the cable’s spindle can then crank back the cable, and a rider holding on to the handlebar can accelerate from 0-30mph in the blink of an eye.

Action sport lovers like the Millers and energy drink company Red Bull, which sponsors a number of action sport events, championed the idea of "winchboarding."

But in the hands of the Miller brothers, the concept was swiftly translated into snowboarding, and the winter Winch Fest was born.  

George, who graduated from Simley High School in ’05 and his brother Alex, who graduated from Sibley in ’03, built a course on their parent’s property that would allow the winch to pull riders over jumps, boxes and rails.

It was a gathering of friends the first year, maybe 30, said George.

In the subsequent years, the sporting event gained sponsors, spectators and complexity. Red Bull supplies a power winch for the Miller’s event.

Last week’s event took over 200 man-hours to construct, said George. The brothers worked tirelessly in the below-zero temperatures moving and packing snow.

In return for their efforts, over 300 people came to the event to watch registered pro and semi-pro snowboarders tackle the course. Sponsors provided beer, food and music to round out the festivities.

Each snowboarder was given a few chances to put together a great run to win the contest, which was determined by the judges and the crowd's reaction. 

“I think we really came up with something new and creative, and something that people are interested in,” said George.

As for the front yard, Scott said it’s time for a little R&R.

The amount of work that went into moving snow and building the course this year, in the bitter cold no less, was enough for the brothers, who both live in Minneapolis and work full-time jobs.

Now that promoters are working to expand the event into 10 cities around the country, it’s time for the event to move to a local ski hill. “As much as I wish (it could stay),” said George, “That was the last hurrah for my parents front yard there.”


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