The Quiksilver Natural Selection, a Swatch TTR FOUR(4)STAR event, came to a close on Tuesday, February 5th in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The event included two days of competition in two separate areas on the mountain known as Dick’s Ditch and Casper Bowl. Hometown hero, Travis Rice (USA) was crowned champion with the best overall score from the two days of competition with Wyoming local, Mark Carter (USA) taking second place and DCP (CAN) rounding out the top three.

Travis Rice. Photo: Tim Zimmerman. 

The event had a seven-day holding period to ensure optimal snow and weather conditions for the event. The first day of competition was held on Saturday in Dick’s Ditch, which is a 2500-foot long natural halfpipe with 18 natural hits for riders to choose from. It was a snowy day, which made for difficult visibility for the riders, but the snow was deep and all the landings were powder. Each rider had three runs to impress the judges. Travis Rice came out on top in the Dick’s Ditch contest with huge airs and dialed spins, Mark Landvik (USA) took second and Mark Carter took the third spot.

The second day of competition went down on Tuesday and riders were finally greeted with bluebird, sunny skies in Casper Bowl. The bowl had everything a rider could look for in a run including cliff drops, boulders, pillows, chutes, hip jumps and, of course, deep powder. Wolle Nyvelt (AUT) rose to the top with a powerful run through the bowl throwing huge airs and stomping all his landings in the powder. Nicolas Mueller (SUI) grabbed second place with his signature flowing style and Travis rounded out the top three with some massive airs.

After all the scores from both days were totaled, it was Travis Rice who was victorious at the Quiksilver Natural Selection winning $18,000, Mark Carter took the second spot and $15,000, and DCP claimed third leaving Jackson Hole with an extra $9,000 in his pocket.

Travis Rice. Photo: Tim Zimmerman. 

Being a Swatch TTR FOUR(4)STAR event, all the riders who participated in the Quiksilver Natural Selection have been awarded points toward the TTR Ranking List presented by Swatch. Travis Rice, after his first place finish, has climbed from 55th position in the TTR Tour into the top forty. Its only Travis’ 3rd TTR result of the season, but with 2 of those results being victories he has amassed enough points to take 33rd spot. Nicolas Mueller, after another solid performance, has moved into the Top 15, up from No. 21. Other results of note include David Benedek (GER) breaking into the Top 50 at World No. 44, and Gigi Ruef (AUT) jumping 15 places from 73rd position to 58th on the Tour.

The Quiksilver Natural Selection was a very unique competition bringing a fresh concept to the Swatch TTR World Tour. It brings back the roots of snowboarding, allowing riders to get creative with their runs alongside good friends, and puts all the best aspects of the sport into a contest format. It doesn’t get any better than this.

You can check out TTR’s event coverage on the TTR Blog, and video footage from Jackson hole on the TTR Video Player. Also, be sure to check out the official Quiksilver Natural Selection event website: at www.quiksilver.com/naturalselection for more details, plus webcasts from the entire week.

Final Result List Quiksilver Natural Selection:
1. Travis Rice (USA)
2. Mark Carter (USA)
3. David-Carrier Porcheron (CAN)
4. Nicolas Mueller (SUI)
5. David Benedek (GER)
6. Samuel Luebke (USA)
7. Wolle Nyvelt (AUT)
8. J.J. Thomas (USA)
9. Mark Landvik (USA)
10. Gigi Ruef (SUI)
11. Rob Kingwell (USA)
12. Kyle Clancy (USA)
13. Colin Langlois (USA)
14. Bjorn Leines (USA)
15. Romain De Marchi (SUI)
16. Bryan Iguchi (USA)
17. Austin Smith (USA)
18. Hampus Mosesson (SWE)

Points Allocation FOUR(4)STAR QUIKSILVER NATURAL SELECTION
1st 700, 2nd 659.61, 3rd 630, 4th 607.64, 5th 589.68 6th 574, 7th 559.15, 8th 546, 9th 534.85, 10th 522,82

ABOUT TTR:
Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the SWATCH Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organization representing the progression of snowboarding. The SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour is based on global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations. Events are rated via a 1-through-6STAR system, with points allocated accordingly, a SIX(6) STAR event holds the highest. Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the SWATCH TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider based on an average of their best six results of the season is crowned SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.