First Descent (2005)
MD Films

Description

Follow five snowboarding icons (Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Terje Haakonsen, Shawn Farmer and Nick Perata) on this epic Alaskan journey as they ride the most challenging and dangerous mountains on the planet. Featuring some of the most jaw-dropping snowboard footage ever caught on film, this incredible motion picture tracks the rebellious, inspiring and sometimes controversial evolution of snowboarding from an underground American movement to a full-fledged global phenomenon.

Collected reviews and ratings

9.2 Entertainment Weekly | Gregory Kirschling

First Descent is not as eloquent, and thus not as electrifying, as Stacy Peralta's Dogtown and Z-Boys or Riding Giants, the two jock docs it's clearly modeled after. No matter: Visually, MD Films offers up a sugar rush.
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9.0 Amazon user reviews

This is a great documentary and thrilling movie. Being able to see two Olympic gold medalists and snowboarding pioneers at the same time is a treat.
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8.0 DVD Verdict | Eric Profancik

Welcome to the first mainstream attempt at bringing snowboarding movies to the masses. Anyone interested in the sport will find the movie appealing and entertaining.
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7.0 Los Angeles Times | Kevin Thomas

Harrison and Curley seem needlessly driven to hard-sell snowboarding, which the film surveys from its roots in skateboarding to its emergence as an Olympic sport, as if their jaw-dropping footage and the very likable and engaging snowboarders weren't more than enticing.
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6.3 TV Guide | Maitland McDonagh

While snowboarding enthusiasts will eat up every minute of its two-hour running time, it's thin stuff for the unconverted.
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6.0 DVD Talk | Scott Weinberg

First Descent will certainly give you a solid history lesson and dazzle you with some amazing boarding ... but the flick starts to feel like an advertisement after about 40 minutes, and unfortunately the doco still has an hour to roll.
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5.0 New York Times | Nathan Lee

Every underdog cliché gets its day: more than once the soul of snowboarding is at stake, and there is awed talk of a "revolution."
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4.0 Variety | Robert Koehler

Pic displays filmmakers Kevin Harrison's and Kemp Curley's love of snowboarding, but suffers from an unjustifiably long running time, considerable repetition and a generally awkward structure.
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3.8 Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

The action footage is repetitive and underwhelming, no match for the best docs about surfing, for example. The powerful surfing film "Riding Giants" (2004), directed by Stacy Peralta, does everything right that "First Descent" does wrong.
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3.0 Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

The stars of First Descent aren't particularly memorable, or even likable. At their worst, they come off as cocky, self-absorbed Peter Pans; at their best, they're sweet but shallow.
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