Natural Selection Tour

[2Harsh]

Did the final round in Valdez happen? The contest window was 3/24 - 4/1. Nothing up yet online?

[2Harsh]

TRice just updated on IG - it did go down last week. The vid will air on 4/26 on NST.com

[powdork]

It's on now, sort of. Not sure when the BS will end and the riding will start

[twat]

Travis went done. Was close.

[crankplank]

This was a good watch imo. I hope they can keep the series running.

I think rice should step back, I want to see others gun for #1 and not have the spectre of another one of his narrow wins over the results. We get it, hes the best, but younger guys like Elston could use the winnings, considering how the industry is now. It feels like there will never be another Rice in part cause no one will ever get the heli time again- hes an animal regardless but hes in a different class too. I wish we could have seen this go down in the mid 2000's.

[MattK]

Really good event. Without the helis doing the filming the venue was much quieter and realistic to a "backcountry" venue. Power to the drones and fuel savings. Save our snows, or what's left of it....

I witnessed the first couple WESC and WESB Events in Valdez. I was amazed at this venue and the riders. That's the ticket. Excellent all the away around. Every line basically untracked steeps. Variable conditions. The backdrop!!! I thought Revelstoke was the most epic steep trees boarding I've seen in a competition. Just wow. A+ to Natural Selection Tour 2023.

[JayPowHound]

Just finishing watching this. Overall thoroughly enjoyed it, so many fun options for the riders on those faces.

Travis' crash, super scary.. another foot or two to the right into those rocks and it would have been a whole different story.

Comparing to the FWT, definitely appreciated the drone work here.. although a couple weeks to edit obviously helped vs the live stream show.

I know AK makes big stuff seem small, but thought the one thing that was missing was a big scary hero cliff ala La Bomba on the Bec.

[toast2266]

Sounds like there's a natural selection ski tour, as well as bike and surf (in addition to the snowboard tour). Seems like it has the potential to be pretty cool.

https://snowbrains.com/the-next-chap...ide-snowboard/

[BmillsSkier]

Sounds like there's a natural selection ski tour, as well as bike and surf (in addition to the snowboard tour). Seems like it has the potential to be pretty cool.

https://snowbrains.com/the-next-chap...ide-snowboard/

And Candide posted it to his page so hopefully that means we get to see him quietly show up, dominate the competition, then go back to dropping incredible edits with no announcements every few months.

[bobinch]

And Candide posted it to his page so hopefully that means we get to see him quietly show up, dominate the competition, then go back to dropping incredible edits with no announcements every few months.

I mean Candide may be the GOAT but if a 41 year old wins this thing they didn’t have a strong lineup. He won the FWT 14 years ago and the skiing is on a different level now. He would get smoked by any of the current FWT riders. Even Markus Eder can no longer match Hitzig, Goguen, Palm etc.

But if they want to make it an old timers comp you could put out a great lineup with Jeremie Heitz, Yu Sasaki, Aymar Navarro, Craig Murray, Leo Slemett, Tanner Hall etc

[JRainey]

The people that dominate FWT won't necessarily dominate NST. The Euro destroyers lose their advantage if you move to dreamy snow conditions. It takes a special type of psycho throw down like Goguen on FWT snow. But there are tons of talented people who are used to landing in BC, Utah, Wyoming, Japan Powder.

Also the judging is completely different. FWT heavily penalizes any mistake so it's risky to experiment or try something beyond 3's, Backflips (now the 7s are coming in).

NST you could crash twice and land an amazing 900 and you might beat your opponent who played it straight. Risk is rewarded. Creativity and style tip the scales heavily. But most of all they don't have a strict grading rubric, but there's none of that "points adding" that happens in FWT.

NST favors film riders: Candide, Kye, Tanner Hall, Sammy Carlson, Markus Eder, Chris Bentchetler, dare I say Hoji. They could all compete. NST is natural slopestyle, so freestyle riders will probably dominate. The hardest part for the FWT guys will be getting an invite.
=
Then there's the qualifier to final venue difference. If it's sub alpine qualifier with built features, then Max Hitzig might have a hard time getting passed Sammy Carlson. But if he could, he could easily win the alpine finals. The head to head heats have plenty of curveballs.

I think we're gonna be looking at the biggest names in the sport, but I'm interested to see what the format is. This last season was a little less great than the two prior, but with skiers they might have more money to make great things happen.

TR is a savvy guy, but I didn't see him letting skiers do it.

[bearcub69]

I mean Candide may be the GOAT but if a 41 year old wins this thing they didn’t have a strong lineup. He won the FWT 14 years ago and the skiing is on a different level now. He would get smoked by any of the current FWT riders. Even Markus Eder can no longer match Hitzig, Goguen, Palm etc.

But if they want to make it an old timers comp you could put out a great lineup with Jeremie Heitz, Yu Sasaki, Aymar Navarro, Craig Murray, Leo Slemett, Tanner Hall etc

if Candide wins it means nothing about the lineup but everything about Candide.
he has recent clips that show he is just as good as any other BC freestyle skier
He might not have the trick selection of Sammy C right now, but in a contest like this he can hold his own and podium no doubt

[teamdirt]

I mean Candide may be the GOAT but if a 41 year old wins this thing they didn’t have a strong lineup. He won the FWT 14 years ago and the skiing is on a different level now. He would get smoked by any of the current FWT riders. Even Markus Eder can no longer match Hitzig, Goguen, Palm etc.

But if they want to make it an old timers comp you could put out a great lineup with Jeremie Heitz, Yu Sasaki, Aymar Navarro, Craig Murray, Leo Slemett, Tanner Hall etc

Same can be said about T.Rice smoking those young’ns!

[NBABUCKS1]

live stream just started at 1 mountain time for skihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6pIYw6iDZU

[babybear]

Thank you for the reminder that it is now streaming.
I’ve been anxious to watch. Evening plans set [emoji1]

[twat]

Natural connections!


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[twat]

Free ride comps are cursed with bad conditions!


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[gaijin]

That was one of the sickest comps I have ever seen.


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[NBABUCKS1]

hell yeah gaijin. Honestly love the format of do it all, not live broadcasted, then make all riders sign nda's. Edit all the footage together, (no live stream drones that look like shit) , then air it "live" to anouncers who are in the dark. Great format.Great competition too. (side note I worked a weir just below the tordillo lodge out there like 20 years ago now lol. The 'kings and corn' crew hated us cuz we blocked their river. )

[gaijin]

Yeah, NBA. I absolutely loved the distribution format.

I love live streams ala FWT— but let’s all take a bow at how well this was put together.

Travis has been producing events for a minute and he deserves all the accolades right now.

That watch was straight up first class.

It was comps and films converging. And I am an absolute fan.


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