Riders hate the word ‘x-treme’. It’s a cringe-worthy term used by people who don’t really understand the sport to describe their apparently mad stunts. And it’s been hijacked by everything from ‘extreme ironing’ to the ‘X-Games’ to the ‘X-Factor’. Proper cheese, in other words. If a rider actually says he’s “getting extreme”, you can be pretty sure he’s taking the piss.

But to be fair, snowboard films have to be extreme. That’s the whole point. You don’t sit down to watch a few guys putting in some mellow turns, do you? You watch them for those rewind moments – the riding so mental it’s made the cover of the DVD. Jim Rippey back flipping off an 80 foot cliff in TB4, or Travis Rice boosting over Chad’s Gap in Pop.

‘X-treme’ is self-perpetuating, too. What was pushing the limits last year can’t be repeated the next or audiences would get bored, so riders and filmers are constantly working to get more radical. Like it or loathe it, progression means being ‘X-treme’.