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  • “The Crack” looks like an insanely intimidating and alluring feature when you think about riding it. Pro skier Cody Townsend rode The Crack and ended up winning Powder Magazine’s ‘Line Of The Year’ award and ‘Best Male Performance‘, it was said that his ski line was the ‘most insane ever.’<br />
However, it was actually Travis Rice who made the first descent on a couloir feature he and Eric Jackson dubbed “The Crack” in the spring of 2014.
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  • Statues in town during the filming of the Unrideables in Chamonix, France on May 22nd, 2014.
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  • A snowboarders paradise. This face in Alaska has been dubbed "So Far Gone" due to its extreme pillows of snow and fresh powder.
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  • John Jackson is chased by a helicopter while snowboarding down a spine in the Alaska backcountry during the making of the film The Art of Flight.
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  • The film crew flys back to the lodge and leaves us to play a bit longer.
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  • The end of the day in the Alaska mountain range is the best time to be there. A quick stop to evaluate the snow conditions before heading back to the lodge.
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  • Andy Farington jumps off a large glaricer cliff while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 29th, 2014.
    20140429_serfas_127901.jpg
  • Didier Lafond poses for a portrait during the filming of the Unrideables in Chamonix, France on May 23rd, 2014.
    20140523_serfas_128769.jpg
  • The Aiguille du Midi as seen during the filming of The Unrideables in Chamonix, France on May 24th, 2014.
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  • The Tordrillo Mountains are a small range in the south central region of Alaska. They lie approximately 120 km northwest of Anchorage and are primarily volcanic, which may be what makes them so perfect for snowboarding. On a recent trip there, accompanied by two of the best riders in the world, I was able to photograph the best, most progressive backcountry snowboarding to date. John Jackson blew my mind with his ability to ride such large descents and land obnoxious, oversized airs.<br />
<br />
This photo was taken on a large facing wall, known as Avocado. Half of it gets morning light, while the other half gets evening light. It was late in the day when John spotted a line just about to be blessed with light. The helicopter set me down on an adjacent peak and then dropped him in place to initiate this opportunity. John dropped in, having only seen this line from the air for a few second, and made a few turns before heading right to this cruise-ship sized pillow.<br />
<br />
I remember thinking to myself, "Oh God, does he know what he is headed for?" It's very easy to lose track of where you are, when amazingly huge mountains are all that surround you. One wrong turn can be deadly. Turns out he knew exactly what he was doing and where he was going.
    20100424_serfas_65878_1.jpg
  • Two massive bolts of lightning strike the Pacific Ocean in Nicaragua during the night.
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  • Glory Day<br />
<br />
2014 was an especially poor season in Alaska. It hadn’t snowed much at all that year and most of the terrain we are used to riding was bare. After about ten days of waiting patiently in a backcountry cabin, our spirits at an all time low, a freak storm showed up on the radar and dropped enough snow to save our trip. This image of Travis Rice celebrating the new snow was shot at the top of our first run, when the sun broke out from the clouds creating the most beautiful light.
    20140317_serfas_122879.jpg
  • Layback Snow Hack<br />
<br />
To some snowboarers the feeling of riding powder snow is very similar to riding waves on a surfboard. Jake Blauvelt is one of those rides and chooses to ride only natural terrain, preferably untracked. During a helicopter trip to northern British Columbia, Canada Jake spotted this frontside wall and laid down his best interpretation of a surf style slash.
    20130401_serfas_111983.jpg
  • The Tordrillo Mountains are a small range in the south central region of Alaska. They lie approximately 120 km northwest of Anchorage and are primarily volcanic, which may be what makes them so perfect for snowboarding. On a recent trip there, accompanied by two of the best riders in the world, I was able to photograph the best, most progressive backcountry snowboarding to date. John Jackson blew my mind with his ability to ride such large descents and land obnoxious, oversized airs.<br />
<br />
This photo was taken on a large facing wall, known as Avocado. Half of it gets morning light, while the other half gets evening light. It was late in the day when John spotted a line just about to be blessed with light. The helicopter set me down on an adjacent peak and then dropped him in place to initiate this opportunity. John dropped in, having only seen this line from the air for a few second, and made a few turns before heading right to this cruise-ship sized pillow.<br />
<br />
I remember thinking to myself, "Oh God, does he know what he is headed for?" It's very easy to lose track of where you are, when amazingly huge mountains are all that surround you. One wrong turn can be deadly. Turns out he knew exactly what he was doing and where he was going.
    20100424_serfas_65878_1.jpg
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  • Tails Up<br />
<br />
It’s Alaska that the best snowboarders in the world travel to with hopes to ride the world’s most extreme and challenging lines. After spending so many years flying these athletes around, and watching them perform all that that do, some of the helicopter pilots start to perform extreme maneuvers themselves.
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  • Our cabins at night with a clear sky.
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  • I shot this image of the moon rising over the Tordrillo Mountains during the making of The Art of Flight movie. As we lifted off in the helicopter and climbed to about 300 feet, I asked the pilot to slow down for a minute so that I could open the door and take this photo. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Early morning moon rise over some spectacular lines just minutes from our lodge.
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  • Curt Morgan said he found an ice cave perfect for playing hockey in. I thought he was kidding. Before we knew it hockey gear was flown in from Anchorage and it was game on.
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  • Jon Devore jumps off a large glacier while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 29th, 2014.
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  • Jon Devore, Filippo Fabbi and Andy Farington fly through the middle of a glacier field while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 29th, 2014.
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  • Jon Devore speed rides through a glacier field while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 24th, 2014.
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  • Filippo Fabbi jumps off a large glacier while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 21th, 2014.
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  • Jon Devore poses for a portrait while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 22th, 2014.
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  • Jon Devore poses for a portrait while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 22th, 2014.
    20140422_serfas_127063.jpg
  • Filippo Fabbi jumps off a large glacier while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 24th, 2014.
    20140424_serfas_127283.jpg
  • Jon Devore, Filippo Fabbi and Andy Farington fly through the middle of a glacier field while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 24th, 2014.
    20140424_serfas_127337.jpg
  • Jon Devore poses for a portrait while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 22th, 2014.
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  • Filippo Fabbi speed rides while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 27th, 2014.
    20140427_serfas_127491.jpg
  • Jon Devore jumps off a large cliff into a spiraling barrel roll while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 27th, 2014.
    20140427_serfas_127681.jpg
  • Jon Devore, Filippo Fabbi and Andy Farington fly through the middle of a glacier field while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 29th, 2014.
    20140429_serfas_128197.jpg
  • Jon Devore, Filippo Fabbi and Andy Farington fly through the middle of a glacier field while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 29th, 2014.
    20140429_serfas_128221.jpg
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  • (athlete does what, where and when) ex: Travis Rice performs a 360 off the Mystery Booter in Haines, Alaska on August 1st, 2020.
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  • Filippo Fabbi and Jon Devore meet each other at the Chamonix train station in Chamonix, France on May 23rd, 2014.
    20140523_serfas_128707.jpg
  • Filippo Fabbi jumps off a large cliff into a spiraling barrel roll while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 29th, 2014.
    20140429_serfas_128410.jpg
  • Jon Devore jumps off a large glacier while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 24th, 2014.
    20140424_serfas_127308.jpg
  • Jon Devore jumps off a large glacier while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 21th, 2014.
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  • Ever since I first bought my water housing to photograph surfing, I had been looking for ways to use it for snowboarding. To create the shot I wanted I needed two key components, legit snowboard action and clear water.<br />
<br />
I started to get jobs working with Red Bull, and they would come up with these crazy ideas and then build what they wanted. This is when I realized that I could just build the components that I needed and shoot it in a semi controlled environment. <br />
<br />
I had my housing equipped with a 20 foot custom sync cord so that I could fire the strobes from under the water using a Pocket Wizard remote. When it came to lighting the scene, I knew that I would need at least one strobe to light the fish and rocks. For this, I set up a Profoto Acute 600 at full power and directed it down, right in front of me. The idea of having waterproof lights in the water was consided but I didn’t think it would make much of a difference when considering the extra cost involved. This shot was going to be backlit so I was going to need all the fill light I could get. For this, I set up a Profoto 7b, able to fire 2 strobes. I used one with a narrow beam reflector on the left side as fill light and the other head on the right side just to help eliminate motion blur.<br />
<br />
Finally it was time to have the fish swim into the frame. I thought this was going to be easier than it was. Eventually Clayton Shoemaker jumped into the water with me to help wrangle them into position. Fish food didn’t work. I would yell up to Lauri every time a fish was in the frame and he would drop in. After about 25 attempts we had the shot.
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  • Illumination<br />
<br />
Travis Rice slashes a snow wave near the end of the day in the Tordrillo Mountains of Alaska while filming for the Art of Flight movie. This was the last image I took after more then 4 weeks of shooting and sleeping in the mountains. This photo won the illumination category in the Red Bull Illume photo contest. <br />
<br />
<br />
For info on this photograph:<br />
<br />
I had been in the Tordrillo Mountains for 4 weeks with the Brain Farm Cinema crew documenting the making of the Art of Flight movie. From day one I had it in my mind that I wouldn’t leave without shooting a photo from a hovering helicopter looking straight down on a rider. Unfortunately setting up this kind of shot was much more complicated then I originally thought. We had 2 helicopters on this trip. The first was the film ship, fitted with a Cineflex aerial camera to the nose. It’s important for this ship to be as light as possible so that it could manoeuvre quickly so I wasn't allowed to shoot from that one. The second helicopter was the riders ship. It would shuttle the riders around getting them on top of the lines they wanted to ride and would pick them up at the bottom. As a photographer I would use this ship to move myself around when it wasn't possible to snowboard there. So when I found the right terrain to shoot my aerial photo, I had to coordinate the move I wanted to make with the film ship as it would generally fly all over the place to get the best shot of the entire line. In the end we decided I would just hover above the line, hang out the side and shoot while the film ship would do its thing around us. This was the best way to keep both helicopters from crashing into each other.<br />
<br />
Once I was harnessed in and hanging out of the helicopter, we lifted up and hovered a few 100 feet above the line. Travis was called in to drop and made this single turn before disappearing over the edge. It would have been nice to follow him down the whole line but that just wasn't going to be safe.<br />
<br />
It was around
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  • Rusty Ockenden working on his computer during some down time in Haines, Alaska filming for the new Absinthe movie.
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  • This photo was taken late in the day during the making of the acclaimed Art of Flight movie. John Jackson called in his line over the radio before dropping into this one of a kind spine/pillow line and launched an air larger then any of us had ever seen before.
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  • The mountains of Alaska.
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  • Jon Devore jumps off a large cliff into a spiraling barrel roll while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 27th, 2014.
    20140427_serfas_127681.jpg
  • Professional snowboarder Jake Blauvelt performs a backside rodeo on his snowboard while filming for his movie titled Jake Blauvelt Naturally.
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  • Professional snowboarder Bryan Fox slashes a ridge on his snowboard while heli-boarding in Alaska close to sunset.
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  • Late night review of the days footage back at our home away from home.
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  • An evening flight home after a good day of filming. These views never get old.
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  • (athlete does what, where and when) ex: Travis Rice performs a 360 off the Mystery Booter in Haines, Alaska on August 1st, 2020.
    20140523_serfas_128720-2.jpg
  • Jon Devore speed rides while filming for the Unrideables in the Tordrillo Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska on April 24th, 2014.
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