Travis. Travis who? The distinctly depressing ‘post Brit-pop’ band (are they still around?)? The quiet, tattooed drummer from Blink 182? Nope, neither of those. To us snowboarders, those five letters beginning with T and ending in S will, for nine out of ten people, conjure up images of huge backside rodeos, massive doubles in Jackson’s Hole and one big ol’ personality. Thanks to two groundbreaking movies and a bag of tricks that really put him up there as one of the best jumpers in the world, Travis Rice is one of a select few snowboarders who is truly respected by both the mainstream public and his fellow riders.

Travis’ elusive career all started back in 2001 when he was recruited by Absinthe to film a part for the now classic movie Transcendence. Travis opened up the movie and put down the biggest backside rodeo (117ft to be precise) ever – one that has remained pretty much unrivalled to this day (check out the full part here). This spotlight by Absinthe Films features Scott Sullivan, Gigi Ruf, Cale Zima, Wolle Nyvelt, Dan Brisse, Bode Merrill, JP Solberg, and Nicolas Müller singing Travis’ praises and sharing some of their top moments and trips with the dude. As far as being a ‘face for snowboarding’ goes, we couldn’t agree more that Travis fits the job description perfectly. How many riders can say that they’ve survived overshooting Chad’s gap that badly?