Travis Rice’s Natural Selection Tour is finally here, along with some fresh snow.
A lineup of 24 pro and rising-star snowboarders arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyo., this week for the inaugural Natural Selection Snowboarding Tour.
Created by snowboarder Travis Rice, the tour is an international backcountry-based competition. Snowboarders will compete head-to-head in a bracket-style event at three different locations across North America. At Jackson Hole today, the riders will compete on 16 acres of dedicated, rugged terrain featuring enhanced and natural features.
The Natural Selection Tour premiered February 4. Watch it on Red Bull TV.
Watch the Natural Selection Tour on Red Bull TVNatural Selection Tour: Exclusive Coverage
Given the hype of this event, GearJunkie has a boots-on-the-ground reporter in Jackson Hole to keep an eye on the competition and provide exclusive coverage.
This snowboard competition has been hyped to the moon. Red Bull hopes it could do for snowboarding what Rampage has done for mountain biking.
The format will be unlike any major snowboard competition thus far. Much like WSL surf contests, 16 men and eight women will compete head-to-head, with one rider from each heat advancing to the next stage. Today marks the first stage, with four heats of men, four heats of women, then four more heats of men.
Finals day will occur between tomorrow and the last day of the competition window, Feb. 9.
And you can tune in live today to see it all. Our reporter says the weather is fairly clear and the snow is primo (he sampled it yesterday).