Winter Sports Watching Revolutionized by High Speed Drones

In the world of snowboarding, there’s a long-standing conflict between competition and style. In the middle of Sports and entertainment. Between man-made snowpark slopes and off-piste backcountry lines, there’s plenty to do. Legendary large mountain freerider Travis Rice believes he’s finally brought both worlds together with his star-studded new series, the Natural Selection Tour.

The series takes place in three big terrain locations around North America over three weeks, bringing competitive freeriding to broad open natural terrain. The manner it’s being filmed, however, is the essential novelty, blending Sports drama with cinematographic creativity. The first time this degree of technology has been employed in live broadcast, custom-built high-speed racing drones put a dynamic lens on the riders.

Drone filming is not only aesthetically pleasing but also logistically necessary due to the scale of the sites. Static cameras installed at strategic locations on a course, follow-riders Sports portable GoPros behind the participants, or cable systems strung high above the hillside all fall short of the range and adaptability given by racing drones. The 39-year-old, who has worked on over 20 snowboarding films, sees this new series as an opportunity to provide “an immersive experience” that is more akin to a video game than a regular Sports broadcast.

Gabriel Kocher, a Swiss aerial filmmaker who also doubles as a professional drone racer and has twice finished second in the World Drone Racing Championships, was the man who helped actualize that idea. Kocher explained the difficulties they would confront when Rice first approached him.