CI-Travis Rice Interview

The old adage goes, "People shouldn't judge others until they walk a mile in their shoes." This is a pretty good thing to live by so long as you don't try to step into Travis Rice's DC boots at Superpark. If you did, odds are you'd shit yourself within the first two steps.





Whether he is raising the bar on the hill or opening the bar in the village, Travis knows how to step things up in style. It seems like only a year ago that he rode his way into Superpark history with the legendary 110-foot backside Rodeo of 2001. Now it is 2002 and Travis has since won events at both the U.S. Open and X-Games, as well as become a star of both film and print. Therefore it should come as no surprise to anyone that Travis handily earned himself another Superpark standout title and the $7,500 that accompanies it. With accomplishments like these, some might say that Travis should be looking to settle down and retire, of course those are just people who don't realize that Travis is only 20 and he hasn't even begun to show the snowboarding world what he is capable of.

How did you get into snowboarding?

Originally I got into snowboarding growing up in Jackson Hole. My dad was a ski patroller from the day I was born right there at our home resort in Jackson. So skiing to me...I don't really remember starting to ski, I just skied. Through the years I learned a lot about the mountains and backcountry safety. After so many years, skiing just got stale. Then I started seeing snowboarding coming onto the scene and I saw people having so much fun. At first I thought it was kinda wack; I wasn't sure what it was all about, seeing their styles. But finally one spring I gave snowboarding a try and had a blast catching my edge, hurting my wrists and ass. You know, just going through that whole learning process for me was fun. I rode by myself at first, but then hooked up with this kid Riz. I started following him around. He was the guy; I was like, "Whoa!" He was jibbing and he pushed me along. Back in the early days riding, Riz, our crew and I would go build jumps in the backcountry. We would go up to Teton Pass and drive past runs in a car to check it out. We would build these ghetto wedges that had like a five-foot landing and just huck. We would rock up there with VHS shoulder-mounted cameras and use that as our excuse for the big video class project. We still have some old tapes that are comical.

Who did you look up to in snowboarding?

Growing up I really looked up to Jackson's own Lance Pitman, Brodie Dowell, Willie Mcmillan and some of the younger guys like Jess Jetner, Blake Pitman. I also got inspiration from the Kingpin videos.

When did you start competing?

I never really planned on competing. My friends and I just decided to join the local team so we could ride more and get out of school on occasion. We would meet everyday and just dick around then get out of school early and ride all evening because we had night riding until eight. For two or three years I would spend every night up there, because after school what else are you gonna do, homework? I was just getting used to freeriding and riding natural terrain in Jackson. Troy Kandred and Dan "the bad ass" Adams were the coaches who planned out some competitions for us. We'd pack like nine kids in our classic ratty van with no heat. It was such a long ride in those vans and I have to give mad props to our coaches for just putting up with us. We would do anything to pass the time, like snort Pixie Sticks or toss objects out the window.

What was the first event that you entered?

It was part of our schedule to enter some events like the USASA at Breckenridge. I didn't know what to expect. We were going down to check out this halfpipe competition and I'd never ridden a real halfpipe before. Being from Jackson, I wasn't really sure what it was all about. I remember finally finding the freshly groomed park and pipe that first morning and hearing angelic voices in my head, "Aaaaaahhhhh." I was enlightened.

For complete interview and photos, check out Issue 15.3 of SNOWBOARDER Magazine.