Travis Rice Interview on Snowboard Mag

Interview: Nate Deschenes  | Photos: Scott Sullivan

Taking the progression of snowboarding to new heights each and every time he straps in, Travis Rice has resigned the rest of us to watch and wonder in total confusion. Blessed with unimaginable talent, Rice has evolved in to a beast of a man with skills that can only be described as disturbing. It’s really hard to convey just how talented he really is. I mean, I am supposed to be a writer, yet after witnessing him shred lines in AK this past April with Absinthe Films, I am simply stumped on how to relay his snowboarding in to terms we can all understand. What I can say, is that Travis bleeds confidence unlike any rider I have come across. How that translates to his riding is evident, you saw That’s It That’s All… you can’t justify that. What gives him the right to make everyone else suck? His riding speaks for itself, often in terms we cannot understand…I for one am done trying.

I saw Travis a while back in Juneau and caught his thoughts on what riding AK means to him, camping on a glacier for a month, as well as an update on his latest film project.

So when did you first start coming to Alaska?

The first time I came here was in the spring of 2001. The situation was, I graduated high school early that year and saved up some money working construction so I could travel and do some riding but nothing ended up coming of it until I went down to Superpark in Mammoth. I was with my buddy Rich Goodwin and he basically talked Justin (Hostynek) into filming me. After that little session Justin was stoked and asked me if I wanted to try and film a video part. I was like, “Ummm… OK!” I was so stoked but it was super deep into spring and I didn’t know what he had in mind. He told me I could go up to a place in Alaska called Haines Pass and try and get something, but it would just be me and Rich, no other riders. I was like “Yes Please!”

So I did end up going up there and getting some stuff well into June of that year, just snowmobiling around. It was crazy because that was my first real snowmobile mission too. That was for Transcendence, which I ended up getting the opening part for without even knowing it.

That is quite the first trip! Have you come up every year since?

Yeah. I missed one year in there but that’s it. The following year I rode in a helicopter for the first time and it’s been a priority ever since.

What strikes you most about Alaska that isn’t like the rest of snowboarding?

Well, to that effect, the sickest thing about it is that the terrain is available to anyone who wants to use it. It has been that was since they started using helicopters to access this stuff. The coolest thing about AK is that nothing really changes up here; it is this giant template for people to experiment with. It just shows how much views and perspectives and interpretations of the terrain has evolved over the last 25 years or so. I think that is the coolest aspect of it up here, that people will continue to progress with this terrain for eternity. Straight up!

Read the rest of the interview HERE