The Mountain and Wave

As the X Games come to life this week in Aspen, CO, look for Travis Rice to try to defend his Big Air gold and take to the slopestyle course with a handful of new tricks. Rice will be joined in slopestyle by 16-year-old Quiksilver rookie Sage Kotsenburg, who is also in the qualifiers for a place in the Big Air contest.

Last year, with the help of tens of thousands of fans Rice took the Big Air win in text message voting with a double-cork 1080. This year tune in to ESPN, January 30th starting at 9:00EST/6:00PST Rice, as he lays down the heaviest tricks in snowboarding.

The next afternoon both Rice and Kotsenburg will be hitting the booters and rails of Buttermilk’s slopestyle course for another shot at a medal. Rice climbed the podium for X Games slopestyle in 2005 and won the U.S. Open for slopestyle in 2007.

Kotsenburg is packing a pocketful of progressive tricks to pull out on both the slopestyle course and possibly also in big air the night before. Look for his cab double-cork 1260, which he’s been stomping regularly in practice. Currently, the Park City local is in second place for the Dew Tour Cup for slopestyle having taken 2nd place in Breckenridge and 3rd at Snowbasin. The final event of the Dew Tour takes place February 4th-7th at Mt. Snow, VT.

Todd follows Travis Rice to Paris for the big Tony Hawk Quiksilver 40th Anniversary show.

Check out Hometown Hoodies starring Travis Rice, Dane Reynolds and David Clark.

Highlights of the special holiday multimedia online feature exclusive to Quiksilver.com:

Travis Rice heads home to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and gives us a tour of his mountain town.

Independent minded surfer Dane Reynolds tells why growing up in Ventura helped make him who he is today.

David Clark skates deep down south in a look at his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.

Todd’s wild product testing adventure with Jackson Hole’s favorite son, Travis Rice.

Mike Parillo is a fine artist, based out of Jackson, Wyoming, who has become a household name in the snowboarding industry. His work has been exhibited all over the world, and can be found on t shirts, on the cover of snowboarding videos and on countless Libtech boards, including Quik rider Travis Rice’s current board. (More on that in Behind the Graphic) Check out the recent portrait he did of Trice.

Parillo putting final touches on his artwork before a show in Austria

Portrait of Travis Rice titled “The Wizard”

Check out a time lapse video of Parillo painting.

*****Click here for more on Parillo******