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The Best Snowboard Movie Ever?

Best: /bɛst/ (noun) that which is the most excellent, outstanding, or desirable.

UPDATE: That’s it, that’s all, it’s over and done with. The winner of the snowboard movie world cup is The Art Of Flight. AOF received the most votes of any film throughout the whole competition, hats off to ya Travis. 

It’s day whothefuckevenknowsanymore of lockdown and everyone’s been spending their time in different ways. Here at Whitelines we’ve been falling down the rabbit hole investigating increasingly obscure genres of pornography, staring directly at the sun, and running the Snowboard Movie World Cup. 32 shred movies donned their gloves and stepped into the ring to square up and be in with the chance of being crowned ‘The Best Snowboard Movie of All-Time’. Films from all era’s of snowboarding were submitted, and the bracket was drawn up. We left the voting to you, the people, the community, the beating heart of the  industry and your voices were heard. The final comes down to a battle of the titan. Yep, it’s your boy Travis vs …Travis. That’s It, That’s All goes toe to toe with The Art Of Flight.

Come on old sport, gloves up.

Before any of you keyboard warriors start foaming at the mouth because you don’t agree with this, remember that these are all opinions, and you’re allowed to have different ones. You won’t get a one way ticket to a North Korean ‘holiday camp’ through your letterbox if you disagree. We’re not throwing down the gauntlet and saying that we’re completely, utterly and incontestably correct in our choices, but also… we’re totally saying that. We’re not some hippy mother telling all of her 14 weird children that they’re special in their own way. Some things are better than others, capiche?

“But has your Auntie Pat heard of it? Probably not, unless your Auntie Pat is actually a cross-dressing Pat Bridges”

We know we haven’t included every snowboard movie ever made, we went with the ones you overwhelmingly nominated before the draw was made. And anyway, who gives a fuck? If you prefer a different shred film, then that’s the best one ever, too. There are so many more important things to be stressing about right now… like the fact that ‘the leader of the free world’ wants people to shoot up cleaning products.

That these two movies were the ones making the biggest waves, and getting the most audience engagement wasn’t surprising. Travis’ insane success in this competition and the production value of his/Curt’s films highlights the man’s ability to transcend a core snowboarding audience and appeal to the masses. Something snowboarding maybe needs for its survival. Yes, a clean switch frontboard pretzel in the streets is cool as fuck, but watching Travis jump out of a helicopter onto a teetering precipice appeals to anyone and everyone.

And on the seventh day, The Lord said…

‘The Art of Flight’ was a fucking masterpiece, man. Travis Rice and Curt Morgan are like Michelangelo,  painstakingly brushing stroke after exquisite stroke on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  “bUT iT’s jUst a mOviE” Yes, it’s just a movie. The same way Micheal Jordan is just a guy who plays basketball. The Art of Flight brought snowboard media to the masses on a scale that had never been done before. Yes, (insert your favourite snowboard movie here) was a banger, but has your Auntie Pat heard of it? Probably not, unless your Auntie Pat is actually a cross-dressing Pat Bridges.

“We like to think of Travis Rice like eating a curry”

That’s It, That’s All was the absolute dream team. The cast list reads like a who’s who of snowboarding royalty- Jones, Müller, Iguchi, Håkonsen… the list goes on. It also has quite possibly the best intro ever (vieing for first place with The Resistance) “Shut your open mouth when you’re talking to me, ‘cuz this is gonna be a darn good movie”. Travis poking fun at himself whilst calling out all the basement-dwelling-panty-sniffers talking shit about him is A+ work. Travis doesn’t have to be your favourite rider for you to acknowledge that he’s one of the best to ever do it, and he’s consistently been pushing boundaries since that Superpark backside rodeo. The man is a goddam institution with an entire fleet of best selling pro model snowboards. We like to think of Travis Rice like eating a curry. The rice itself might not be your favourite part of the dish, you might prefer a popadom with mango chutney, but it certainly wouldn’t be a meal without it.

“We hate to break it to you buddy, but snowboarding isn’t an anti-establishment subculture anymore”

To all the nostalgia arsehonkers who spend their free time jizzing into piles of old VHS tapes, we hate to break it to you buddy, but snowboarding isn’t an anti-establishment subculture anymore. You can sit there and bitch at us the most obscure snowboard movie you can think of all you want. We’re shivering in anticipation of the inevitable comment from ‘shredhead420’: “how could you not include that video of Stevie Bell brushing his teeth from 2008. Fuckin kooks”. This isn’t about forgetting the roots of snowboarding and ignoring the past, this is more so about looking to the future and shifting the paradigm of what’s possible.

A preview of the backlash we’ll undoubtedly receive

Thanks to everyone who got involved in the Snowboard Movie World Cup, our aim was to bring a little excitement and distraction into the mix and of course, to finally get to the bottom it. The final vote is going live at 16:00 GMT 29/4/2020, you can cast your vote via our Instagram and Facebook pages, or just say ‘Whitelines’ three times in the mirror and then speak your choice clearly.

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