Video parts don’t get much more iconic than this. At the turn of the millennium, Romain de Marchi was at the height of his powers. A rising superstar with a string of contest wins to his name and a spot on the Burton Snowboards global team, he also had a reputation as the sport’s wild child: Hard-drinking, hard-partying, and a total loose cannon.
Justin Hostynek and Patrick Armbruster of Absinthe Films channeled all these influences into this section, with its cutaways suggesting raining money and ultra-violence, all set to one of the greatest rock songs of all time.
For anyone else, those cut scenes might look a bit out of place but somehow they’re totally in keeping with Romain’s riding. He rode his board like he lived off it – always on the edge of control, always sending it harder and going that much more mental than anyone else. And while his flappy style might look a bit loose to fans of say, Torstein, you can’t argue with the size of these tricks even today.
I mean that kicker they built for him in Hemsedal? Just ridiculous.