Wintersports
Snowboarding
Travis Rice and the Natural Selection Tour: Riders, dates and locations
World’s top riders kick off in the Tour’s 2021 debut at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, which will be aired live on Red Bull TV.
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Anticipation can be an incredible thing, and in our culture, hype can be heightened by it. In a day and age where information is so readily available, the news last winter that the Natural Selection was coming back as a three-stop tour in 2021 shocked the snowboard world and thus, the anticipation officially set in. Since then, there have been many updates, Instagram Stories, web posts and interviews about the Natural Selection Tour, but today, Travis Rice and company have officially announced the detailed itinerary of the Tour and released the first batch of invited riders in the men’s and women’s field. Holy cow, here we go.
From February 3rd to the 9th, Rice’s home mountain of Jackson Hole, Wyoming will host the first official stop at The Yeti Natural Selection with a custom-built course that included input from some of the world’s best backcountry freestyle snowboarders. The Natural Selection team hosted a “rider’s build week” during the course build, ensuring that expert opinions were heavily considered when making all the final tweaks to the Jackson course. Liam Griffin, co-founder and COO of the Natural Selection Tour says, “Our team has been in communication with professional riders of all generations in order to ensure that their voices are woven into the fabric of the Tour.” This is something that snowboard events need to pride themselves on; gathering intel from those who will be riding what they are building, and this team has certainly done it right with this new event.
Travis Rice rides in the Kootenay Valley of British Columbia, Canada
© Tim Zimmerman/Red Bull Content Pool
Jackson just so happens to be the first Natural Selection host venue ever, when, in 2008, Travis invited some of the world’s best freeriders for a two-day event that forever changed the course of backcountry freestyle snowboarding. “Jackson Hole and I have worked closely for years,” said Travis, “It is such a fun mountain to ride and I am really proud that after we pulled off such a unique event over a decade ago, we now stand together, ready to bring such a paradigm shifting event to life here that emulates the uniqueness of the local community that has had my back through it all.”
Harking back to the heritage of the Natural Selection’s evolution, the second stop of the Tour will land in the iconic snowboard hub of Baldface Lodge, a beautiful snowcat lodge nestled high in the hills above Nelson, British Columbia, while adhering to all current province-wide Covid-19 restrictions. In 2012 and 2013, Travis took the event up to Canada and partnered up with Baldface founder and co-owner Jeff Pensiero to ride a custom-built course with over 80 hand-built features called “Scary Cherry” to battle it out for thousands of dollars in prize money and bragging rights for being the best backcountry rider on earth. To say the event was a smashing success is the understatement of the century, and so it’s only natural that Travis and the Natural Selection crew is planning on taking the second stop of the tour back to Baldface, a harbinger of deep, light snow and world-class terrain. “Baldface celebrates everything that the Natural Selection Tour embraces, such as community and a passion for the outdoors,” said Baldface’s Jeff Pensiero. “Baldface is thrilled to continue its role in snowboard progression and to offer some of the most dynamic terrain to challenge the Tour’s riders.”
The final stop will take place in Alaska at the world-renowned Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, where the World Champion of Tour will be crowned for the first time ever. Travis spent quite a bit of time exploring this tenure while filming his 2019 epic Dark Matter and the terrain is some of the most technical and hair-raising that the contest world will ever see. Tordrillo Mountain Lodge owner Mike Overcast had this to say about the selection of TML for the final stop of the Natural Selection Tour. “For snowboarders and skiers, Alaska represents the ultimate venue for freeriding, it’s only appropriate that the Natural Selection Tour crowns its world champion in Alaska.”
Robin Van Gyn at Red Bull Natural Selection test event course in WY
© T. Bird / Red Bull Content Pool
With this announcement comes the first batch of invited riders for the Natural Selection Tour and the list is as full of heavy hitters as any, featuring:
Elena Hight at the Red Bull Natural Selection test event course in WY
© T. Bird / Red Bull Content Pool
For those of you fiending for more info on how these events can be watched, know that the Natural Selection Tour will be broadcasting in Jackson live exclusively on Red Bull TV while the Baldface and Alaska stops will air as on-demand highlight shows on Red Bull TV. If you know anything about Travis and his films, you should know that the utmost emphasis is being put on high-quality production levels through innovation and experience. “With the advancement of production technology such as drones, high-definition camera systems, and live-stream distribution infrastructure, the Natural Selection Tour will establish a new standard for how snowboarding and live sports, in general, will be captured and delivered. The Tour’s live and original content promises to be immersive, engaging and inspiring to a broad demographic of snowboarders, sports and outdoor enthusiasts,” says co-founder and CEO of the Natural Selection Tour, Carter Westfall.
Stay tuned for more information that’s set to come out about the Natural Selection Tour. In true Travis fashion, this is going to be epic!
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