The Uninvited: How Jess Kimura Built A Platform For Women Snowboarders
Jess Kimura has already etched her name among the most influential women snowboarders of all time. Her arduous road into the sport meant that she didn't turn pro until she was 25, but once she had the opportunity and the backing of big-name sponsors like Capita, The North Face and Nike, she squeezed every lemon life had ever given her dry.
But it's the rare action sports athlete who can create a legacy beyond their film parts and awards, to be remembered for what they've done to improve the sport for those who will follow them. And Kimura, whose event The Uninvited Invitational just wrapped its third year, is heading for that rarefied air.
The Uninvited is Kimura's brainchild—and, these days, her full-time job. She nurtured it from its origin in 2017 as a self-funded film series challenging the gender disparity in action sports to an annual contest.
Kimura grew up skiing at SilverStar Mountain Resort, about 15 minutes outside her hometown of Vernon, British Columbia. In grade eight, she switched to snowboarding and quickly discovered that her skills honed by childhood gymnastics translated to backflips and other tricks on her snowboard.
Without access to a park setup, Kimura entered halfpipe and boardercross events, even making it to a World Cup race in Switzerland. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she belonged in a different, more elusive side of the industry: filming.
By 2010, Kimura was 25 years old and doggedly hanging onto her pro snowboarding career even as it seemed like everywhere she turned, she hit a wall. She emulated the career fellow Canadian Marie-France Roy had carved out for herself, but the message—sometimes subtle and sometimes explicit—was that the industry didn't have room for more than one woman filming parts in the street or the backcountry.
But chance encounters with some of the industry's key players brought together Kimura and Capita founder Blue Montgomery. With the brand's support, she doubled down on getting her filming career off the ground, and in late 2010, she was given the opportunity that changed everything: a breakout part in Think Tank's film Right Brain Left Brain.
Once Kimura had accomplished what many had told her was impossible—going pro at 25—the accolades and achievements piled up. She earned three TransWorld Women's Video Part of the Year nods, two TransWorld Women's Rider of the Year awards, five TransWorld Women's Reader's Choice selections and came in third in Snowboarder's 2017 Rider of the Year awards.
In 2013, the same year she took silver in X Games' Real Snow video contest, Capita gave Kimura a pro model board.
Kimura had reached the mountaintop. But when she took a moment to catch her breath and look around, she realized her peak—the peak reserved for women snowboarders, especially in street and filming—was dwarfed by those that surrounded it. Those peaks were for male snowboarders, and they were so much higher because they commanded the majority of the resources and opportunities in the industry.
At that time, many brands only had one spot on their team for a female rider. Films, if they included women at all, typically only included one. And it fostered an environment of reluctant competition among women riders, who wanted to support and prop up one another but were forced to compete for limited resources and opportunities.
'I always wanted to break that system,' Kimura told me. 'The Uninvited is about creating space for everyone who wants to do this at a high level. Opportunity creates opportunity. We have to have an abundance mindset.'
The very first Uninvited Invitational in 2023, held at Boreal Mountain/Woodward Tahoe, featured 65 riders and a 40,000 prize purse. It was presented by The North Face, one of Kimura's biggest sponsors.
Fast-forward to 2025 and the third iteration of the event, held at Woodward Park City on a custom course built out by head builder Ben Bilocq, featured 75 women-identifying and non-binary snowboarders from 20 countries competing for a share of a $60,000 prize purse.
It was the biggest iteration of the event yet, with tens of thousands tuning in online and a dense and enthusiastic crowd wielding face paint and cowbells gathering at Woodward Park City.
Fifteen-year-old Jess Perlmutter, a wild-card entry last year, took the top spot on the podium as well as the 15,000 first-place prize.
Japan's Himari Takamori took second and $11,000; Veda Hallen, fresh off a win in this year's Red Bull Heavy Metal St. Paul in early February, took third and $8,000. Devi Gupta took fourth and $6,000, and Annika Morgan took fifth and $4,000.
The remaining $16,000 was divided among the winners of individual awards such as Best Trick, Best Air on Course and Best Slam.
Since she captured the attention of the snowboarding world at last year's The Uninvited, Perlmutter has been on a tear. She competed in the inaugural X Games Street Style Pro at Copper Mountain in December. And she just took the win at Red Bull Heavy Metal Boston in late February.
Rail jams are once again receiving widespread industry support. There's even a chance that street skiing and snowboarding could one day join slopestyle, big air and halfpipe in the Olympics. It's a good time to be a street rider who's interested in the contest side of the sport.
But The Uninvited 'is like no other event I have been part of,' Perlmutter said. 'It was an insane experience and a defining moment in my career.'
Perlmutter is the perfect encapsulation of what Kimura has been working toward. At 15, Perlmutter has an array of opportunities before her. Her career can take any shape she chooses.
Even the riders who don't land on the podium at The Uninvited can find that it changes their careers forever.
'There are so many facets to the purpose of this event,' Kimura said. 'It's not just the prize money, it's a chance for the girls who have never had a chance to ride in front of people from the industry to make an impression. Girls have walked away from this event with big contracts, and they're making connections so they can go on a street filming trip or split a hotel with someone at the next rail contest.'
The Uninvited is structured as a contest because then the riders can earn prize money. But it goes so far beyond the competition aspect, Kimura says. The weekend's two qualifying days ahead of the final allow women plenty of chances to stand out and turn heads. And a Sunday Community Ride Day hosted by Beyond the Boundaries ends the event with an emphasis on coming together.
By cultivating a collaborative atmosphere at The Uninvited, Kimura is helping the current generation of women snowboarders eradicate that scarcity mindset and competitive tension. There is something for everybody to take from this event.
'The women that you are competing with are so nice and supportive,' Perlmutter said. 'Everyone is cheering for everyone else, supporting and lifting each other up.'
Gupta, who identifies as a trans woman, contrasted the aggressive atmosphere of competitions she's been in previously with the supportive environment of The Uninvited.
'I'm just like, nope, that's not me anymore, and I'm a totally different person,' Gupta said. 'I'm just all about uplifting other people, cheering them on, and I'm always the one at the top to be like, 'No, you go ahead; I'm still contemplating what I'm doing.''
This year, for the first time, the contest featured sled tows, provided by Utah's Weller Recreation, to whisk riders to the top of the course faster, limiting wait times and increasing runs.
For Kimura, these amenities—sled tows; oversized novelty checks; a literal red carpet rolled out at the welcome dinner—serve a deeper purpose.
'I can stand there all day and tell them how great and capable they are, but that's just lip service to some degree,' Kimura said. 'They've been living their whole lives in doubt of themselves. They need everything possible to fast-track them to believing what they can do.'
Kimura's attention to details like this didn't go unnoticed by the riders.
'In most rail jams you are rushed to do all of your tricks in a 15-minute to one-hour time span, but with The Uninvited you get so much more time to land your tricks and properly display your talent,' Perlmutter said. 'From the welcome dinner, to the gift bags, to water at the top of the course, the people at Uninvited truly care about the women because we are the main event.'
The emotional podium ceremony was a public-facing confirmation of how much this event means to the community. But privately, Kimura received feedback from people spanning the entire industry, from Woodward executives to ski patrol to course builders to snowcat drivers, all saying the same thing: this event is different.
'It's unreal. The level of riding, the amount of women who are showing up here and just to be on a hill that is probably 99, 98 percent women blows my mind,' said spectator Emory Grace Orlando. 'It's inspiring and it just makes me want to get on my board, but I'm also having such a fun time watching.'
Putting on The Uninvited each year requires about 350 days of work for Kimura. And it's expanding, with a Southern Hemisphere event on the horizon.
She took some time to process and celebrate the success of this year's event. And then she got back to work.
'Maybe two nights after the event ended, I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. I stayed up for hours writing four pages of notes of things that could be different, things to improve,' Kimura said. One example: next year, she may try out a heat-based format so riders get even more runs.
She also did some goal-setting. She'd like the next Uninvited Invitational to offer a $100,000 prize purse, as well as give away a car and a snowmobile.
Women's sports are big money right now, with ad spend and sponsorship revenue increasing across the board. Why shouldn't the same be true in snowboarding? With The Uninvited, Kimura has provided the platform she wished was available in her own career.
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