First Descent

By Christina VanGinkel

First Descent, The Story of the Snowboarding Revolution is one of those films that only come around once in a lifetime. The cover of the DVD case is stamped with the words "Hair-Raising Thrills and Spills" by Nathan Lee of the New York Times, and that just scrapes the surface of what you will be treated to when you sit down to watch this show. It is a conglomeration of some of the most breathtaking, out of this world snowboarding you are ever likely to see anywhere.

With snowboarders Shaun White, Shawn Farmer, Hannah Teter, Nick Perata, and Terje Haakonsen, you get a front row view of these excellent snowboarders as they go off to the wilds of Alaska to challenge and take on the most awe-inspiring mountains in the world that any snowboarder would ever dare.

The movie opens with a helicopter ride bringing the five boarders to the top of one of the highest peaks in Alaska. It lands just long enough for them to exit the helicopter and you are treated to seeing them at the top of this magnificent peak. The movie then switches gear and you are introduced to the five members of a very elite group of freestyle snowboarders, both young and old, each a pioneer in their own right. Pioneers to a sport called snowboarding that originated in the wild 1970's, when skiing was wildly popular, but anything as out of the ordinary as snowboarding, was definitely not, and not only not popular, but also looked upon almost as a pariah of sorts.

We first meet Terje Haakonsen, a three-time world champion at the age of thirty. Next, Hanna Teter, a member of the USA snowboarding team, only eighteen years old, and the only female member of the group. After Hannah, you will be introduced to Shawn Farmer, forty years old, and considered one of the snowboard pioneers that have made the sport of freestyle snowboarding everything that it is today. Shaun White is next. My son is a novice snowboard enthusiast who competes at the amateur level doing such stunts as riding rails and attempting flips over jumps. Shaun White is one of the professionals that my son holds at the highest level of adoration, with hopes that he would like to someday, be able to do even one thousandth of what Shaun White does. When the X Games were recently held, this same young professional, Shaun White, showed all the other snowboarding athletes what is was all about, winning Slope Style and Half Pipe, and commandeering the title of Jeep's Outstanding Athlete at the X Games. When we saw that he was a part of this DVD, we knew we had to have it. Shaun White might only have been 18 years old himself when this movie was filmed, but he was already a five times X Games Gold Medalist. Rounding out the group, you will get to meet none other than Nick Perata, thirty-nine years old, and one of the top snowboarding pioneers of all time.

After the round of introductions are made, the group assembles at a rustic cabin in the foothills of the Alaskan mountain range that is to be their home away from home for the trip of a lifetime that they are all about to embark on. While the older members of the group have snowboarded Alaska before, for the two youngest members of the group, Shaun White and Hannah Teter, it is their first foray into the wilds of what has got to be not only the most breathtaking mountains ever snowboarded, but also the most dangerous.

When one of the older members of the group sums it up by proclaiming that he is a bit in awe that someone worth as much money as Shaun White would be allowed to tackle mountains that have literally killed others who have attempted what they are about to attempt, it gives the viewer the perspective that even though the members of this group snowboard for the fun of it, they also snowboard for the sheer love of the sport.

Throughout this movie, from clips from the days when snowboarding was in its infancy, to the final descent that some members of the group make, you will be spellbound to your seat if you are even a tiny bit fascinated by this heart stopping, thrill ride of a sport that it is about.