Pro snowboarder, Shawn Sterken, was offered the role as Jeff Ryker, but had to decline after sustaining a massive snowboarding injury where he broke multiple ribs, 3 back bones, and had an internal organ removed from massive trauma after hitting a tree. The tree had grown sideways and he collided with it catching his midsection at top speed on a descent. He had to be medivac airlifted out and given 6 hours to live due to the severity of the injury and blood loss. The film had to start without him in the role (and one year later Shawn was riding again).
The owner of the Buick Skylark convertible was Bailey Smith, who plays the bouncer in the bar scene. He also stunt drives the car in the film during the burnout and fish tail scenes. At the time, he was restoring the convertible, and it was shot in various states to correspond with Ryker restoring the car in the film. The car engine was blown during the the burnout scenes, which had to be filmed a second time for audio recording, as the gear was not there on the first session and was shot MOS. The second time overburdened the motor and it had to be replaced.
The cave scene was shot in 3 different locations. Two exteriors were shot, one in Wendover, Utah at Danger Cave, and one at Doane Rock on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The interior of the cave scene was shot in Vermont at the 'ice cave' which has snow and inside it year round. Ice was present (although not visible) in the background when this scene was shot mid summer. One cast and one crew member were fearful of the ice cave's reputation as a witchcraft location, they decided not to continue the trek into the mountains to get to the cave. Only 3 members made it into the cave, and Jason's girlfriend had to film the two shot scenes as a result.
During the docks scene near the start of the film, the boom pole was blown off the docks and into the ocean next to it. Russ quickly removed the mic from the ocean, and saved the Sennheiser, but a power adapter was destroyed in his haste. The result was that the entire scene was shot MOS on the Fourth of July 2000, and had to be not only ADR-ed later, but during post, the 3 actors had to be lip read by an editor Natasha and she timed and recorded her female voice for looping during the ADR process.
Director Russ Jaquith drove a rental Ford 'Laser' car into a new river on the way to a heli scene. This occurred with the effort to cross the flooded area to get to the heli launch after being goaded on by many locals who crossed just prior in heavily modified 4x4 vehicles. The car was towed out by a massive passing grader not long after, a new road was plowed through the river, and the journey continued on in the Ford rental with the other two actors Kirk and Jason.