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Snowboarding superstar Travis Rice chases the weather without fear

Travis Rice is the greatest rider of his generation, arguably of all time. He is also a movie star.

More than 6000 people turned out for the premiere of the most highly-anticipated movie in snowboarding history, Rice’s The Fourth Phase, in LA last week.

Renowned Japanese producer and musician, Kishi Bashi, who scored the film, played live on stage during the showing. This doesn’t happen in the world of action sports. Except for Rice.

The Jackson, Wyoming native has been making movies for over a decade. The Community Project and That’s It That’s All were huge hits.

Travis Rice, always pushing boundaries. Pic: Red Bull
Travis Rice, always pushing boundaries. Pic: Red Bull

But it was the breakout success of the game-changing Art Of Flight that thrust Rice into the mainstream.

He was already regarded as the greatest freerider in the world but this film gave him world-wide attention and serious chops to be able to do what he pleased.

You don’t get the kind of backing you need to make something like The Fourth Phase without this kind of star quality and dedication to craft.

Rice and the cast of riders at the LA premiere. Pic: Red Bull
Rice and the cast of riders at the LA premiere. Pic: Red Bull

In Australia to promote the release of the movie, which premieres tonight at The Star, Rice explained just how different this project was to those before. To any snowboarding movie before really.

His ambition was huge, the idea almost preposterous. They set about trying to understand and follow the weather patterns that bring about the storms and the snow these guys chase.

But it sounds better when Rice himself explains it in the movie.

“A system of ocean currents called The North Pacific Gyre moves in a clockwise direction, driven by wind and the rotation of the earth, distributing this heat energy around the planet,” he says.

“This helps fuel the storms that drive our winters. I realized by combining my love of the ocean with my love of the mountains it might be possible to actually follow the flow around the north Pacific, travel with the water that melts down from the Continental Divide, sail with it as it sweeps across the ocean and turns into the snow that blankets Japan.

“The cycle swings up and tears past the Kamchatka Peninsula and then finally banks into the catcher’s mitt that forms the Gulf of Alaska.

“These charged weather systems coming off the ocean hit these coastal mountains which ring out precipitation like a sponge, creating some of the most incredible snow formations on the planet.”

No, this is not your average, section-based snowboard film.

To top it off it was all shot with brilliant 4-6K camera equipment bringing to life this travel-based, personal journey that is receiving extraordinary reviews already.

As you would expect the riding is phenomenal all over the globe.

Rice is joined by luminaries and peers. Anyone who is even close to rivaling his prowess on the slopes makes an appearance at some stage.

Pat Moore, Eric Jackson, Bode Merrill, Jeremy Jones, Ben Ferguson, Cam Fitzpatrick, and Victor De Le Rue all take part in the film and each and every one of them shred.

Eric Jackson with Rice and the search for the best lines. Pic: Red Bull
Eric Jackson with Rice and the search for the best lines. Pic: Red Bull

With the kind of boarding these guys do, in the kind of country they do it there are bound to be some bumps and bruises.

But there is one fall Rice has in the Alaskan section of the film that had everyone at the LA premiere holding their breath and fearing the worst, even though they knew they had just seen Travis address them on stage 30 minutes earlier.

How does a rider overcome fear and survive these kind of situations? According to the rider himself, fear plays no part in it.

“Its funny, moments like that, close calls in the mountains, I find that from the outside it appears as a scary moment but when you are in it you are not scared,” he said.

AFter all is said and done it is still about the riding. Pic: Red Bull
AFter all is said and done it is still about the riding. Pic: Red Bull

“You don’t feel fear, you are dealing with the task at hand, it’s not until afterwards when things settle down that the severity of the situation sets in.

“But when you are in it you are just dealing, there is no fear to it.

“I think the simple fact of the 10000 hours or more people with expertise in their field have doing this and what you really gain beyond getting better at what you do is things become second nature.”

Rice says the move was a hugely personal journey. He was closer to this film than any before.

But what did he get out of it. Did he get as much as we did?

"I think we set out in the begining to make a film to trace these weather patterns but I think in the end the film's focus really changed to more of an interpersonal exploration into why we do what we do," he said.

And why does he commit so much to snowboarding?

"What I found too is that for a long time snowboarding for me was almost more of an escape, dealing with the day to day hurdles that we all have to deal with, the emails, the chores," he said.

"It's so much easier to go out and escape. And I kind of wanted to turn that around into something I was consciously and willinglgy going into instead of using it as an escape."

As long as Rice keeps putting in the hours and taking on mountains the way he does the adoring boarding public will lap up every moment.

The Fourth Phase will be in cinemas from September 15 and available to watch for free on Red Bull TV on 2nd October.