The 2025 X Games Aspen wrapped up Saturday night with Chloe Kim winning yet another gold medal in snowboard superpipe.
It was a symbolic year of the contest, a kind of beginning of the future. ESPN sold the rights of the X Games to MSP Capital, and with that, things are going to look different. The use of artificial intelligence, broadcasting for free via the Roku app, and more.
At its core though, snowboarders kept ripping, and the progression surely isn’t stagnant. Here are five takeaways I had from this year’s X Games.
1. Spin to win is fine, but not for knuckle huck
Ziyang Wang of China competes in the Men’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck during Day Two of the X Games Aspen 2025.
Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
When X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom spoke with Snowboarder earlier in January, he said that knuckle huck was more of an art form than a contest.
“I don’t even know if it should be judged,” he said.
Well, for now, it is judged. And for now, those who spin the most still have a leg up on those who do not. That cannot be the case if we want knuckle huck to survive.
In the women’s competition, Mia Brookes, who took home a big air medal earlier that week, popped up the knuckle and threw a 1080. It was stylish, it was executed with ease, and it was the most impressive trick she had landed thus far. It was not, however, what we should want more of out of this particular contest.
We cannot blend big air and knuckle huck. Ziyang Wang deserved to be on the podium on the men’s side, especially after throwing down a triple tame dog on his final run. But the trick that landed him in the top three spots was a nollie 1440. Was it impressive? Sure. Was it stylish? Maybe. Was it podium worthy? No.
That’s why I am proposing spin limits in the knuckle huck: 1080, 900, 720. I’m not sure of the number, but I am sure that we need to separate knuckle huck from big air before every single podium winner is an airbag devotee.
2. The drone follow cams were bad
Scotty James of Australia celebrates on the podium after winning the Men’s Snowboard Superpipe during Day One of the X Games Aspen 2025 at Buttermilk Ski Resort on January 23, 2025 in Aspen, Colorado.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
In theory, this is something that should have worked great: every film we watch as of late has a drone follow cam. Some movies are shot exclusively with drone footage. But for one reason or another, it simply didn’t work.
During superpipe, the riders constantly were disappearing from the view of the drone’s camera. In big air, the footage was dizzying.
I’m not saying this was a bad idea, but I am saying that it wasn’t executed well.
3. I’m Out on Owl AI
Look, it will probably get better, but it’s one thing to use artificial intelligence to judge a rider’s run. It’s another thing to use the weird AI voice to tell us all about that run. And it is an entirely different thing to interrupt Yuto Totsuka’s run to tell us what an AI module thinks of his previous runs.
Here’s the thing: Craig McMorris and Brandon Graham are two of the best in the business at what they do. They can carry the X Games broadcast perfectly fine by themselves, and do so while balancing humor, jubilation and heartbreak.
We. Don’t. Need. A. Creepy. Robot.
4. Creativity wasn’t properly rewarded
When we watch video parts, the films that stick out are those in which riders hit a spot or execute a trick that we would never even imagine someone trying. It is not quite the execution of the trick, but rather the imagination, that impressed us.
Knuckle huck right now is the only place where that creativity is rewarded.
Both Patrick Hofmann and LJ Henriquez took unique approaches to their Street Style lines. For that matter, so did Craig McMorris, who was a last-minute addition to the competition and had to step away from the announcer’s booth, and Egan Wint, who said before the contest that if she landed a frontside 360 into the wall, she could leave X Games happy. But none of them came even close to making the final.
We need more nose presses. We need more wall rides. We need more straight airs. And we need more judges to reward riders for that.
5. The kids? Yeah, they’re alright.
Lily Dhawornvej of the United States during the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Practice as part of the Laax Open, FIS Snowboard World Cup 2025, on January 16, 2025 in Laax, Switzerland.
(Photo: Sam Mellish/Getty Images)
Henriquez and 15-year-old Lily Dhawornvej were the youngest snowboarders in the field, the they rode with the confidence of someone twice their age (cough, Nate Haust, cough).
Dhawornvej relied on her signature tame dog in street style to get an invitation to Aspen. She unleashed it in the Big Air contest, and brought home a medal with it.
Henriquez didn’t make the final, but he looked like he was having more fun than anyone, even standing amongst the crowd during the big air skiing contest, just soaking it all in.
The future is bright, and the future is now.
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