Have you seen it yet? If not, read this review. Looking for the soundtrack? It’s at the bottom. Here’s the review…

The riding is sick

First up, the snowboarding. With riders like Travis Rice, Nicholas Muller, Jake Blauvelt, and John Jackson, to name some of them, you’d expect the level of riding to be high. And it is.

As you’ll read further down, Travis Rice does display awesome snowboarding, but he’s not the only one. For example, there are a couple of really good sections with John Jackson – he didn’t get Rider of the Year for nothing.

Favourites parts? Hard to pick… I really like the opening section, “So Far Gone” and there are some awesome lines in “Revelstoked”. But my favourite is probably “The Wizard”. Good tune (“No Way”), great locations and build-up, with excellent riding mixed in.

The filming is very high quality

Breath taking locations. Wow factor. It really does contribute to the overall impressiveness of the film. You can get a good indication from the trailer below…

OK, there might be a few too many slow-mo shots of helicopters for my liking, but as far as criticisms go, that’s not a bad one.

Brain Farm – The Art of Flight Trailer.

The Travis Rice show?

Since watching That’s It, That’s All, and things in-between, I was worried that this film would have an annoying, macho element. In the build up to The Art of Flight, you can’t escape the fact that it’s Travis Rice’s snowboard movie…

But it didn’t. Not for me. If it was there at all, it was slight enough that it didn’t put me off.

Documentary style parts?

They’re there. After all, it is an hour and twenty minutes long. You get a look at down days, chasing winter down to South America, the trip to Patagonia, what it’s like to ride in places like Alaska and the risks that come with it…

Personally I think it adds to the movie. This isn’t supposed to be your regular, banger-filled, rider by rider, snowboard film. The journey, the environment, nature and great snowboarding. All mixed together.

Travis Rice is an excellent snowboarder

One of the absolute truths about this film is that Travis Rice is an awesome snowboarder. If you want to see insane snowboarding, in great locations, filmed at a precedent-setting quality, you should watch this film.

Consider this quote from Jeremy Jones in the closing scene:

“Get out of town… you have gotta be kidding me. That is the future and the future is now. Ridiculous.”

Travis just dropped a backside 180 melon in gnarly terrain. It’s not even the most impressive line in the film – but it’s a great example of how other riders view his ability.

Bottom line, you don’t have to be a Travis Rice fan to appreciate the riding in The Art of Flight. It’s unquestionable.

Where to buy?

It’s not hard to find the DVD or Blu-Ray version of The Art of Flight. A quick google search will reveal loads of options. If you want you can also probably find it on youtube!

Soundtrack to The Art of Flight

The soundtrack worked for me, which is always a plus. These days, having watched so many snowboard movies, along with the free and easy availability of good quality, fresh snowboard footage, you have to like the soundtrack. It’s not worth watching something with a sound you don’t like. Some of my favourites: Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff | No Way | Young Blood.

If you want the song listing, here it is. I’ve added most of them to our list of the best songs to listen to when snowboarding. There’s also a spotify playlist in that post if you need iy.

• Defrag: “Element L1”
• M83: “Outro”
• Hendrickson/Dick/Harry: “Before the Storm”
• Deadmau5: “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff (Nero Remix)”
• Oswin Mackintosh: “Passion Victim”
• The Naked and Famous: “No Way”
• Apparat: “Ash/Black Veil”
• Klaus Badelt: “Nowhere to Run”
• Blockhead: “Sunday Seance”
• The Album Leaf: “Another Day”
• The Naked and Famous: “Young Blood”
• Mel Wesson: “Motional Rescue_Pulse”
• Mel Wesson: “Stark Light”
• Sigur Rós: “Untitled 6 (E-bow)”
• M83: “Intro”
• Hum: “Iron Clad Lou”
• The Black Angels: “Young Men Dead”
• M83: “My Tears Are Becoming A Sea”
• Okkervil River: “Westfall”
• We Are Augustines: “Chapel Song”

This song is awesome:

The Naked and Famous: “Young Blood”