Travis Rice Talks Charity

We recently caught up with Travis Rice at an event for his hometown (and home mountain), Jackson Hole. He posed for us by this totally awesome, 40-pound trophy that will be awarded this February at the Quiksilver Natural Selection snowboarding competition.

We got to talking about the charities he's working with to help keep action sports sustainable -- you know, like, keep them from totally destroying the planet.

First of all, the Natural Selection competition doesn't do anything to mother nature other than surf on it.

"The contest is called The Natural Selection for a reason. If you've ever seen a snowboarding contest before, for the most part they're man-made, they blow snow for them, they build up all the features, make jumps. This contest, however, is actually held on natural terrain. We let God do all the work. And, you know, we live in Jackson Hole, so the insane snowfall that we get there allows us to hold a contest of this type of scale," says Rice.

We prodded him further about his involvement in saving the planet.

"I work with a charity called ASEC, it's the Action Sports Environmental Coalition, they've been working on sustainable design elements within action sports," says Rice. "I'm also working with POW, Protect Our Winters, it's a foundation that [snowboarding star] Jeremy Jones put together. they help companies and projects do business in an environmentally responsible manner."

But Rice isn't just into saving the landscape, he's also into falconry. "I love birds," he says. "I was a falconer for a little while." There's a brand new Raptor Center in Jackson Hole now, and Rice also works with The Peregrine Fund. "They're out of Boise. They actually pretty much saved the peregrine falcon back in the late 60's from DDT. It's an activist group that, basically, armed with science, they're able to create reserves and protect birds of prey around the world."

Just like a smart fighter respects his or her opponent, it's nice to meet someone in the action sports world who respects the environment he routinely conquers.