Snowboarding
Travis Rice breaks down 2025's Natural Selection Tour and his top 5 moments
With a new qualifying day format in place, Travis Rice predicts riders will “literally have to put down the run of their life to make it into finals day."
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Oh, it’s on – it’s the return of the Natural Selection Tour 2025. The fifth year of the NST has already kicked off with the YETI Natural Selection Duels. Twelve riders, ranging from Olympians to icons of the sport to hungry up-and-coming talent, have met to literally duel it out in venues worldwide – Switzerland, Colorado, California, Wyoming, British Columbia and Japan. Twelve riders enter, and only six advance – Natural Selection at its finest.
We caught up with NST co-founder Travis Rice in Revelstoke, Canada. The two-time NST Champion was in his event production era, still in his snowboard boots, fresh back from the first of many full days of prepping the competition arena.
“Every year we’re tweaking the model,” says Rice about the fifth year of the Natural Selection Tour.
Duels, which were established in 2022 and have been tweaked repeatedly since, are now firmly established as a lead-up to qualifications to round out the field. Rice says, “The Duels have been fantastic in allowing the riding to decide on who gets the invites.” “It allows us to give more riders opportunities and step away from being purely invitation only.” This year, an additional entryway has been added, with one yet-to-be-named female rider gaining entry through the Research & Development contest created by 2021 NST Champion Robin Van Gyn.
Women's Natural Selection Tour champion Robin Van Gyn
© Dean Blotto Gray/Natural Selection Tour/Red Bull Content Pool
These six advancing Duels riders will join the 18 returning pre-qualified, invited wildcards and RND-winning riders at Canada’s Revelstoke Mountain Resort during the window of March 10-17, 2025. With this level of mind-blowing talent and an all-time proven and now expanded venue, anything can happen – and the best part is we get to witness it all unfold live.
Qualifying day: A legendary venue, a bold new competition format
It’s time to enter the Thunderdome – or, in this case, Montana Bowl. This rugged arena, just beyond Revelstoke Mountain Resort boundary, hosted the 2024 qualifiers and returns as a proving ground once more. Montana Bowl consists of two side-by-side venues with natural and naturally enhanced features, including over 40 platforms leading to sheer cliffs, spines and chutes. On this battleground, the edge of progression is waiting to be found.
And that progression gets a push for 2025. The NST crew has completely reimagined the qualifying format. Instead of head-to-head brackets, the 24 riders (16 men and eight women) will compete in heats. Rice says, “We've loved the direct head to heads in the years prior, however, like any format, there's pros and cons. Our inspiration [for the change] being that we want to make sure the best riders make it to finals day.”
The sheer steepness that the riders faced at Revelstoke
© Sean Aaron/Natural Selection
Rice explains that with this new format, “You literally have to put down the run of your life to make it into finals.” Rice adds, “There’s no opportunity for safe runs.”
To clarify, where a rider could previously opt to play it a little safer after having sized up their opponent, not so anymore. Riders will have three opportunities on qualifying day to advance into finals. The first round will feature three heats of eight athletes each, with only the top two riders advancing. Round two will see the three heats slimmed down to six riders each, with only one advancing. And finally, the third round is what Rice is referring to as “the Hail Mary round” – the final chance for one more rider to advance from each heat.
Travis Rice during the Natural Selection Tour in Revelstoke, Canada
© Chad Chomlack/Red Bull Content Pool
Rice says this format “better ensures that the most deserving make it to finals – you cannot take a safety run, so you’ve got to put down a heater.”
This translates to a full day of high-stakes snowboarding as the field is cut in half to twelve riders (eight men and four women) advancing into finals.
In a Natural Selection first, a live audience is invited to trek over from Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Fans are invited to fill out the finish area complete with a Jumbotron. Rice says, “If you're within a thousand-mile radius, come up and see this thing in person, it's gonna be nuts.” He graciously adds, “It'll be in the afternoon, so no one has to get up early.”
Finals day: Head-to-head showdown for the 2025 Natural Selection title
After a brief pause to let the adrenaline subside and heart rates drop, it's on to finals. The weather will determine the finals day call, which will see 16 riders put it all on the line for the Natural Selection title. We return to Montana Bowl with plenty of options for running, either in the same location as qualifiers if the snow has reset or moved to the adjacent slopes – Rice shares that the snow and avalanche conditions will determine the exact bullseye location within the bowl. "We're locked into our plan," says Rice. "We normally run with a lot of backups venues, but this year we've done a lot of work to this venue, and we feel pretty damn good about it."
The classic NST head-to-head knockout format returns with a full day of drama as the field is meticulously and skillfully cut down with each heat. Once again, it’s all broadcast live in real-time, with fans once again invited onsite to witness the action.
A snowboard contest like no other
© Tim Zimmerman
And just like in years past, it's anyone's game. Rice will undoubtedly be looking for redemption after failing to defend his title in 2024, falling to a worthy opponent, Nils Mindnich, in the semi-finals. This season, Rice has loaded his production plate even more as the NST has expanded to include mountain biking, surfing and skiing (coming in April), adding even more excitement leading up to NST Snow and more work for Rice leading into NST Snow. Rice reflects, "It's been a lot of work on the surf and bike events, which has been great, but I've had less time on the board than usual. Still, I'm optimistic." When asked about his confidence heading into the event, he adds, "Confidence is kind of a state of mind, right?"
Don’t be fooled by Rice’s modesty. This fierce competitor will lean on more than just confidence and optimism – his signature mix of raw power, technical mastery, effortless style and unmatched situational awareness sets him apart. Honed over decades, this finely tuned skill set has carried him through past NST battles, and there’s no reason to think he won’t pick up right where he left off as NST 2025 kicks off.
Tune in to see how it all unfolds.
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Travis Rice’s top 5 Natural Selection highlights – off the top of his head
1. The flawless running of the Jackson event year one: “This was the first fully live event that we did in Jackson. I mean, that was a nuts benchmark.”
Mark McMorris competes in NST
© Mark Clavin/Natural Selection Tour/Red Bull Content Pool
February 9, 2021, was a day that has gone down in snowboarding competition history as viewers worldwide watched the live inaugural NST competition on Red Bull TV. It was the manifestation of Rice’s wildest dreams, with incredible custom-built racing drone angles and fixed high-definition cameras beaming straight from the mountainside venue, establishing a new standard for online event broadcasts. With four feet of fresh snow settling onto the course, Mark McMorris and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott took the wins as fans followed with social media participation through the roof.
2. Chris Rasman dropping into Alaska first tracks, first year of the Tour: “I mean, that was a huge moment that I really, really remember.”
Few would believe a snowboard contest could go down in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountain range – a remote location of 40-degree fluted slopes. But the running of the 2021 NST finals saw just that, with Chris Rasman opening up the infamous “DFC” course versus Mark McMorris – a 3,000-foot vertical run to the valley floor. Rice put on his commentator hat as part of the show, helping to provide context and a deeper understanding for viewers.
Rasman shared that this experience was “Something I will never forget being a part of, and will now set my eyes on returning to every year possible.”
3. Watching Zoi Sadowski-Synnott ride in Alaska in her rookie year: “It was a huge standout moment.”
Kiwi rider Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claimed top honours
© Tom Monterosso/Natural Selection Tour
Sadowski-Synnott came into the 2021 Natural Selection event as a Wildcard and then outright won the opening event at Jackson. She followed with a competition run in Alaska’s Tordrillo Range, which marked her first time riding these sheer Alaskan slopes. The then 19-year-old had already proven herself with podium performances in Olympic Big Air and X Games Slopestyle. Still, at NST, she showed her innate ability to put down big mountain runs that link up natural features. Sadowski-Synnott took second behind overall winner Robin Van Gyn. In 2023, she went on to become the overall tour champion.
Rice added a nod to Van Gyn’s 2021 win in Alaska, which Van Gyn has credited as the highlight of her career. And another nod to Elena Hight’s most memorable method over a massive gap at event one at Jackson Hole.
4. Running independent events since 2008 and evolving a one-off competition into a full-fledged tour – also pushing venue progression.
The Natural Selection Tour has been a vision of Rice’s since its first iteration at Jackson Hole in 2008. That first event in Jackson was rogue and raw, but it laid the foundation for future events. Rice and crew continued to evolve the contest format as the Red Bull Ultranatural, held in 2012 and 2013 at Baldface Lodge on a steep backcountry face dubbed “Scary Cherry.” These “beta” events led to the 2021 launch of the Natural Selection Tour. Rice says, “We’ve taken this, from a one-off event, into a tour. You know, into league territory [laughing].”
Rice highlights how NST has redefined contest terrain: "Each year there's such rad progression of the venues." He points to the first year at Revelstoke in Boulder Park, which he describes as a "crazy pillow venue." Rice says, "Competing on that beast of a venue had a lot of people going, 'Whoa!'"
5. When prodded, Rice shared his personal highlights as an athlete: “I've definitely had some great moments.”
Travis Rice is still pushing boundaries the wrong side of 40
© Tim Zimmerman/Natural Selection Tour/Red Bull Content Pool
Rice has remarked in the past that he makes the switch from event producer to pro snowboarder “probably five minutes before I drop in.” This approach has served him well, with two overall championships across the four tours.
It's no surprise that Rice’s personal standouts include two of the rowdiest NST venues to date. His first, the 2023 NST Alaska super finals held in Alaska’s Chugach Mountain Range, “For me, it was the qualification and semi-finals days. I was doing the riding I wanted to do. It felt amazing.” Rice successfully defended his title and put down an iconic semi-final run, expertly picking apart a spine line to sheer pillow drops, in a contest run with all the makings of a timeless video part.
His other favourite was earlier in that same 2023 Tour, during the second stage held in Selkirk Tangier's tenure at the extremely technical Boulder Park venue. This wild, some might say, untamed venue tested every competitor to its limit and had viewers absolutely gripped.
Rice says, “Ending with a super aggressive pillow line was an amazing way to finish that event. Those are definitely standout moments for me.”
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