Travis Rice isn’t so much rewriting the snowboarding rule book as covering it in petrol, setting it ablaze and pissing on the ashes. Born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming Travis spent his early years out on the mountain with his father who worked for ski patrol. This mountain experience rubbed off on young Travis who is now considered one of the best all round snowboarders ever. He’s won over thirty titles in over 12 years of competition experience, made two of the biggest snowboard movies ever in his own image (That’s It, That’s All and The Art of Flight) and released consistently insane parts in other people’s films year after year. Oh and he’s also on a mission to redefine what competitive snowboarding means with his ‘natural’ series, of backcountry freestyle comps.   We don’t have to justify why Travis is in our Top 50.

In fact many of you will probably be surprised to see he’s not in the top 10 of this list. In any other recent year he would have been. But for the first time in ages, we’re not sure if there’s going to be a big Travis “project” this winter. We’re not even sure if there’s going to be another edition of the ‘natural’ series. If anyone can think of the next step after ‘super’ then ‘ultra’ natural we’d love to hear it! But while he may be more quiet than normal this year, he’s still the man. Here’s his breakout part in Absinthe’s Transcendence for proof. It’s from 2001, so he was 18 when he filmed this. 18 ffs!

http://mpora.com/videos/UTnghb8k4