The Art of Flight: an Adrenaline Filled Ride throughout the Best Backcountry in the World

“We dedicate this film to the ones we have lost doing what they love.” This message is literally the first thing that you see when you start to watch Red Bull Snowboarding’s The Art of Flight. Craig Kelly and Sara Burke are among the pro snowboarders and skiers who have lost their lives doing what they loved. It is awesome how Red Bull dedicated this incredible film to everybody who has come to a tragic end while riding down a mountain; it really shows that they care about the action sports community. That being said, The Art of Flight is INCREDIBLE; my mouth was gaping the whole time I was watching it. Even the intro credits to the movie are dope; it takes you on a journey through space. Through the clusters of comets and meteors you can see the movie’s sponsor logos floating millions of feet in the atmosphere. Why did Red Bull do this? The answer is because they really wanted to make the best snowboard movie out there, and they succeeded monumentally.

This movie was shot with 1080 pixel high definition video cameras, the most high definition resolution a camera can shoot in. The snow looks like it is right in front of your face, you can see every little snow pile that the boarders kick up when they stop, every scar on the riders seasoned faces, and every rock peeking its head out of the deep powder. The high visual quality of this movie makes it twice as enjoyable. Some of the scenes in this movie just make your jaw drop. I can’t count the number of frames that you see the Red Bull helicopter surrounded by pure white snow, it looks so cool.  The first scene of the movie depicts pro rider Travis Rice going through his morning routine. He waxes his snowboard, which looks sick in high definition, and then he goes to the airport to go fly to Alaska to ride untouched powder. How awesome is it that his morning routine was to casually go to another state to ride with his friends?  This scene is shot cinematically perfectly, I could find no flaws in the filming or angles, it just looks so aesthetically pleasing. The shot of the plane taxiing down the runway shows that this is not just a snowboard movie, it is a story.

Travis Rice narrates over the epic journeys that he and his fellow riders went on. The first words he says are very inspirational, “We will never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it”. This is what every single snowboarder who is in this film does, they push themselves to their limits for the sport that they love, and the end result is awesome. The first scene with actual snowboarding in it is insane. Three riders step off of the helicopter on a ridge that is approximately ten feet wide and covered in waist deep powder.

They are all smiles and you can tell how excited they are to ride down the untouched mountain. Literally, nobody has ever been where they went. It must be cool to say, “yeah I snowboarded somewhere where no human beings have ever been before”. To put the danger of what these men are getting into in perspective, the helicopter has to fly down the mountain vertically because the incline is so steep. I didn’t even know that it was possible to have a helicopter go vertical!

After the helicopter leaves the scene all three riders drop into the mountain at once, they shred it together, dodging avalanches, until they reach the bottom. It is crazy to see how fast they are going, I think they go faster than highway speed.

 Every rider in this movie is extremely talented; they are also the biggest adrenaline junkies in the world. Think of the rush they must feel while tearing down a mountain face being chased by a large avalanche. Pro rider Travis Rice takes the mountain on alone in one part of the video. He is sitting at the top of a mountain by himself and all of a sudden he takes off barreling down the mountain at top speed. He decides to throw in a few spins for extra flare; spins in general are difficult so doing them down a mountain must be very challenging. This run really shows how fearless Rice is, if you have the cojones throw down a 360 while going over 60 miles per hour then you deserve the ultimate respect.

 This movie also uses helmet cameras to capture what the riders are seeing, and what they see is mind blowing. One rider was riding on top of a huge snow ridge, in order to carve down the mountain he has to switch sides on the ridge repeatedly. It must have been really hard and nerve racking to ride over a snow ridge and then go back onto the other side constantly.  The helmet camera gives viewers an idea into what these pros are seeing; I know that I will never be a good enough rider to see some of the terrain that these guys saw on their trip.

The movie is structured like a documentary, not only do you get to see sick riding but you get an insight into what the lives of these snowboarders are like. From what I can see, they live the most fun lives ever.  At one point the riders traveled to South America and the cameras covered all of the beautiful land from an aerial view. South America is so scenic, where there isn’t snow rocks jut out from the green ground and it just looks so peaceful.  The locals of the town they visited were all smiling; I did not see one without a grin on their face. This echoes the happy vibe that this movie instills in its viewers.

One scene of the film contained no snowboarding at all but it was one of my favorite montages in the movie. This scene chronicled the adventures of the snowboarders in their Alaskan cabin, and the guys are hilarious. It shows what they do when they are not out riding. If I had to choose any people to spend an afternoon with, it would be them. One guy tries to skim across a long pond with a weird skateboard thing and he falls in and it is really funny. One rider sits down for an interview, he turns his head and gives the camera a funny looking smile and then a gun goes off in the background and he jumps and screams, “son of a motherless goat!”; hands down the funniest line in the movie. Another person randomly grabs onto a snowmobile and gets dragged through a snow bank face first. After that the guys take out the shotguns and shoot skeet with beer cans and then they shoot trees down with their guns. After they finish with the shotguns they take out the sniper rifle (complete with bi pod) and shoot some propane tanks, which blow up. I honestly have no clue where they got all of these guns and ammo, but it makes for an entertaining movie segment. These guys are like the Jackass crew, but with more brain cells.

This is the best snowboard film that I have ever seen. It shows everything that a snowboarder could want. It shows breathtaking scenery, awesome riding, and hysterical mountainside shenanigans. If there is one thing that you take away from this movie it should be this: snowboarders know how to have a good time.