By now, you have probably seen our latest cover for issue 20.1 with Travis Rice mid-run on a first descent where he named the face Velvet Castle during the filming of Quiksilver’s new movie, Sequencer. If you are a close follower, you probably also know that he found the area while on a helicopter ride proposing to his soon-to-be wife. Hell, you might have already even seen the cover up close and personal with the print mag, but I guarantee you didn’t know that the photographer, Chad Chomlack, took the photo on a neighboring ridge over three miles away. This is the first place we are publishing the kilometer conversion (other than a few social media comments, and if you saw that…good on ya). The run took Travis around four minutes of leg-burning pillow navigation while Chad and company sat back and watched almost the entire thing through the lens. Learn a bit about the cover from behind the camera below! Thanks again for the photo, Chad! Get a copy of the magazine right here! – Mark Clavin

What’s it like to get a call from Travis Rice to go on a trip to take photos with him?
I think it’s both always very nerve-wracking and really fun. I kind of just check myself. Alright, can I hang with this guy right now? depending on what it is. It’s obviously such an honor because it usually means we’re going to get into some aesthetically pleasing things. The guy’s an amazing shredder, but he’s also got a creative mind, so it’s fun to be able to shoot with someone like that.

And you guys scoped this zone when you shot his engagement photos?
Yeah, that’s right. We had gone up with Brook and Travis, she didn’t know a thing… went for a flight to take some “scoping photos” for Natural Selection. Then we actually came across this area and it was just fucked, haha. What did we end up calling it again? Did they call it White Castle or something?

Hahaha. I think it was Velvet Castle.
Oh, that’s it, Velvet Castle.

Did they end up getting married yet, or no?
No, not yet. I think soon, spring or something.

Would you consider your cover a good wedding gift if you are to get the invite?
That would be, yeah, that would be…I wouldn’t have to check the registry! Haha.

On the technical side, how far? Were you in a helicopter or no?
I wish we were. We were across the valley, I think. Lucey would know this better, but I think we figured it was almost like six kilometers or something like that, which is like three miles or something.

I was about to say, this is an American mag. We need miles.
Yeah. I wish I knew exactly. It was at least three miles, for sure. It was so long away. So long. We didn’t know if we could fly the drone that they were using to film across in time. 

What lens did you use?
This was 600mm. The 200-600mm. It was on a Sony A1. Tripod, yeah, the whole thing. I had my whole lunch pitch set up there, Sean Lucey and I. It would have been absolutely mental to do that with doors off on the helicopter. And then we tried to do a static drone, but there were just too many things going on.

You just watched his run that far away for like four minutes, right?
Yeah, I could barely feel my arm. I had a tripod, but we were in position, right? So it was just holding, and I remember, maybe halfway down the thing what blew me most away was thinking I’ve never shot a consecutive line that long–and he didn’t stop. It was just fucking insane to watch top to bottom and running out at the bottom to the LZ. No one said anything for, I don’t know, a couple minutes. We just witnessed snowboard history. I don’t think there’s ever been a consecutive pillow line that was for some minutes.

And could see maybe 80% of the whole entire line?
Yeah, pretty much. Just the bottom part was cut off.

How long were you waiting up in your positions?
We watched from across and they flew it a whole bunch of times, up and down, kind of got their bearings. It was a long day, probably a good six hours or so. We were out there.

Did you think you had a cover when you shot it?
No. It was so bright out, it was hard to review everything. And then it’s always hard shooting pillows thinking that they’re gonna be cover shots. I knew it would be used somewhere at some level. I actually first didn’t think–until we got back and could trust how sharp they were. I just purchased that A1 a week before, and I was really surprised at how sharp it was in just some of the test stuff and so I didn’t have the confidence like I usually have with my Nikon shit. Whereas this was like, Ah fuck, I think? And I had so much fear of fucking it up because it’s Travis. Everyone was in the kind of same boat, I think.

Worried about anything at that distance, as well?
The biggest thing was there was mist in the air when we first showed up. Everything was a bit soft and faded. But luckily it fully cleared out by the time we were all ready and I was pretty confident with the set up. The camera focus from that distance is insane. Just the subtle differences you can see in the Sony A1, it was wild.

What time of day?
That shot actually was at 11:30am. We all sat while they looked at other stuff and had lunch.

Do you remember what you had for lunch?
Yeah. Me and Shaaron have been really big on these whole charcuterie boards. So I’ve been bringing some nice cheeses and some meats.

Sounds nice. Might do that right now. Congrats again and thanks for the shot!

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