This photo was taken on the second trip during the making of the “Art of FLIGHT” snowboarding film. We had been in Alaska for a month and I knew the trip was ending very soon. I really wanted to shoot a photo from the helicopter, right above Travis Rice as he was riding a line, but it was very difficult to coordinate because there was another heli in the air shooting with a Cineflex camera.
We worked out that if our helicopter hovered above the line Travis was going to ride, then the other Cineflex heli could maneuver around us without a collision.
So as Travis mentally prepared himself to ride the line, I rose up about 30 meters above him and waited. The other helicopter practiced their move around us, making sure they could still get the shot they needed. The sun was setting fast so the director Curt Morgan called for Travis to drop into the line and as he made his second turn down the mountain I snapped this shot.
This turned out to be the last photo I took during what was the best snowboarding trip of my life!