First, I am *not* in the least bit knowledgeable about snowboarding or any of the related sports (surfing, skateboarding, skiing). And I was myself fearful that this movie would include so much "technical" or "advanced" material that a mere mortal wouldn't be able to follow it. "Documentaries" can be very specialized, after all.I need not have feared finding myself out of my depth and neither should *you* if you're not yourself in the center of the "scene" and yet are thinking about seeing this film.Because this is really in the spirit of The Lords of Dogtown and ... and ... well, there was a Surfing quasi-documentary from last summer, I can't think of the name ... but it had the same flavor. The flavor was a special sort of humanistic excitement that for me arises from combining both (a) great footage of the Action; and (b) great narrative and interviews with the People involved.I liked the sort of back and forth from Present (a sort of Reality Movie type expedition to Alaska with 5 top boarders) and Past (History of Snowboarding).The scenery from Alaska was simply breathtaking, the descents gripping and exciting and full of vicarious adrenalin rushes.The interviews with Terje and Shaun and Hannah and Farm and Shawn were wonderfully engaging: fresh and convincing and sincere enough that I as viewer felt like I got a real sense of who these fascinating and delightful persons were.The history painted the whole Snowboarding Phenomenon with a vivid and appealing personality as well.The way that the entire film built toward what truly was a blazing, satisfying completion, was just delightful. In fact the sort of sustained baseline of excitement was modulated by a kind of rhythm back and forth from whiteknuckling action back to a little narrative or interviewing to let me catch my breath.Great job everyone ... and *thanks* for giving a viewer like me a little glimpse into a gripping and exciting and wonderfully human world.

I gave this movie an excellent rating not because I'm just some snowboard loving freak ( though I might just be ) but I think that they deserve it, if you've seen the movie ( heres the spoiler )terje goes down a freaking huge mountain, and this isn't Hollywood stuff, these are real people doing real stuff that could easily kill them, especially that mountain he went down... that thing was HUGE. And there wasn't really any dull moment, I enjoyed the whole movie, and I hope it did a lot better in other places than it did in central Illinois because it was only me and 2 of my friends seeing it on opening night... it was fun just hanging out with them and talking about it as loud as we wanted, but that movies needs to been seen. were all now Seriously planning a road trip to Alaska this summer... all I can say is, watch the movie, what them go down those mountains, putting their lives on the line the whole time, realize that it isn't fake at all, and try to tell my they deserve anything less than at least a 9

From skate board to snowboard, the evolution of the latter into Olympic contender has been inspiring. The documentary about the history of snowboarding called "First Descent" is at times as breathtaking as the long Alaskan runs five of the world's best take in the film, which cuts in historical footage of the sport with modern helicopter shots that both magnify and reduce the colossal feats these young and not so young boarders perform.With only the limited vocabulary of voice overs of the snowboarders, repeating "gnarly" enough to make me forget arthritic joints, the film misses opportunities to describe technicals like acrobatics and boards in informative ways. I am not asking for inane commentary readily available for televised college and professional football; I just would like a deeper look at the details of the sport rather than repetitious exclamations of awe accompanied by sequences that begin to look alike from a birds-eye perspective.The film does capture the natural rhythms of descent and diction endemic to an uncomplicated sport—for that I am gratified and forever respect the brave souls who traverse Alaskan peaks rather than leisurely hike the lowlands as I did a few years ago. The feats of the very young Shaun White and very seasoned Terje Haakonsen give both a visual feast and a verifiable history of the sport embodied in the two famous boarders.In no way, however, could I see the pure white mountains as the helicopter does so many times giving an IMAX experience without IMAX. The cinematography is the major reason to see this slight documentary, unless, of course, you are a boardhead.

This movie was like going on vacation. Gorgeous mountains in Alaska, great rocking music, and a hell of a story about the birth and development of snowboarding. I found it very entertaining, and could look at the landscapes all night long. Plenty of things I didn't know about the development of the sport as it came along after my snow skiing days were over. Great athletes with wild attitudes - lots of old footage of competitions as well as X Games clips - the art of capturing this footage as if your were on the board yourself is a great rush for a middle-aged lady like me. I'll be taking some friends to see this one.