Quiksilver Natural Selection
Photos by Andrew Miller, Jesse Brown, John Centi and Bill Bacon

The competition will finish on Tuesday February 5 at Casper Bowl

The 1st ever Quiksilver Natural Selection commenced today on Saturday February 2nd at Jackson Hole Wyoming.  The event has an all mountain freestyle criteria and this style of event is something brand new to the snowboard world.  You could describe it as the Mt Baker baked slalom on steroids.  Pro snowboarder and host Travis Rice was the brainchild of this event and invited 14 of the world’s best snowboarders to participate.

The rider list invited to compete:
Travis Rice, Nicolas Muller, DCP, Colin Langlois, Kyle Clancy, Gigi Ruf, David Benedek, Austin Smith, Romain Demarchi, Rob Kingwill, Hampus Mosesson, Brian Iguchi, Mark Landvik, JJ Thomas, Mark Carter, Wolle Nyvelt, Sammy Luebke

A high-pressure weather system moved into Jackson Hole a few days ago and has been dumping snow on the course everyday since.  Jackson has received 25 inches of snow in the last 72 hours.  Throughout the day the snow continued to fall and another 6 inches has fallen.  After his first run, DCP mentioned that he was going to fresh landings on his second run.  The increased level of snowfall made riding this type of terrain very difficult for the riders but they are the best in the world so they managed.

This event is not like your average freestyle snowboard event generally hosted on perfect manmade obstacles on groomed runs.  This was uniquely held on an area of Jackson Hole that is a large gully winding down the hill with walls on both sides of the run.  The run has been closed for weeks of natural preparation to let snow accumulate in the area. The Jackson Hole terrain staff dug out hip style kickers from the sides of the walls and side slipped the center of the runs.  This course offered a ton of creativity for the riders and they took full advantage of that.  The event has a laid back mentality and we are all hyped to be here.  This is the only contest that I haven't heard the riders speak about going soul shredding, thats because in this event they are already doing it.

The riders had plenty of speed dropping in but some encountered problems landing in such a large amount of snow.  They would land in chest deep powder.  As the day went on and the riders continued on to their second runs the landings seemed to pack down just enough to allow the riders to stomp more tricks.

TO SEE NATURAL SELECTION DAY: 2 AT CASPER BOWL CLICK HERE

Jackson Hole, Quiksilver and all the other sponsors have put together something amazing here.  Coolest contest ever.

For the spectators at the event you could only see one to three hits.  For all you viewers Rice requested a camera crane to follow the riders down their entire run.  The footage should look awesome.

Hampus Mosseson blasting off the Terje hit.  Blasting into pow looks like fun eh'.




Austin Smith, Fly straight from Vegas to Jackson.  You can travel like that when you win Transworld rookie of the year and video part of the year.  The kid is a 19 year old ripppperr.




Todd Richards and Willie McMillon were holding down the commentary end of the event.  These guys were super funny and were not afraid to tell it like it is.





Gigi Ruf and David Benedek stoked to be in Jackson.  Super stoked to have such easy access to such talented snowboarders.  Everyone is all smiles up here.




Can we say, Method...




This is what it looked like when the riders would land on their first runs.  Pooof, pow.  Looks fun.





Here they are again, the men on the mics.  Willie McMillon and Todd Richards.




The announcing tent and Dicks Ditch below.  Deep below.




The infamous syper camera crane.  The footage from this looks great.




Preparing to drop in to the storm.




Brian Iguchi took a pretty hard slam, we hope you are ok Guch.




The snow was so good all over the mountain.  These riders were so lucky to have premade kickers for them, you know they are thankful though.




Kyle Clancy was throwing down in the event.  He is now a Jackson local and I see why.




Booyaah.  Mark Landvik with a mega tweaked method off the Terje hit.

Nicolas Muller and Travis are good friends and he came out to see what was new in the world of shredding.  Lonnie told me that he thinks Nicolas Muller was a sorcerer in his past life.

Nicolas Muller has the stuff.




The other angle of Nicolas Muller in action.




Colin Langlois riding for Sims and killing it in Jackson.




Colin Langlois balsting off the hip right in front of the crowd.




Nothing but a Quik plug.




Know your surroundings.




The snow filled in this much since Jackson Hole had put the signs up.  Pow.




There was a good crowd of Jackson locals and weekend warriors that showed up to watch the show.



Romain De Marchi all the way from Dardagny Switzerland.




Kind of the Banked slalom on steroids.




Bjorn Leines with a fat stalefish for a fat crowd.




A quik natural jackson hole plug.




Boom TRice on home snow.  I wonder how long he has been riding the Ditch.




Travis Rice is an animal.




- JJ Thomas blasting off the cat track into Dicks Ditch.




Now go get yours in Jackson, its good out here.

Round 1 - Dick's Ditch

1. Travis Rice Jackson Hole, WY USA
1st Run: 431
2nd Run: 339
3rd Run: 326
Best Run: 431

2. Mark Landvik 28 Juneau, AK USA
1st Run: 303
2nd Run: 319
3rd Run: 394
Best Run: 394

3. Mark Carter Ten Sleep, WY USA
1st Run: 299
2nd Run: 344
3rd Run: 385
Best Run: 385

4. David Benedek Munich, GER
1st Run: 384
2nd Run: 315
3rd Run: 384
Best Run: 384

5. Samuel Luebke 18 Truckee, CA USA
1st Run: 378
2nd Run: 330
3rd Run: 305
Best Run: 378

6. David Carrier Porcheron 27 Squamish, BC CAN
1st Run: 368
2nd Run: 366
3rd Run: 298
Best Run: 368

7. J.J. Thomas Breckenridge, CO USA
1st Run: 355
2nd Run: 331
3rd Run: 365
Best Run: 365

8. Gigi Ruf 26 Austria
1st Run: 363
2nd Run: 332
3rd Run: 333
Best Run: 363

9. Rob Kingwill Jackson Hole, WY USA
1st Run: 320
2nd Run: 352
3rd Run: 338
Best Run: 352

10. Colin Langlois 28 Morrisville, VT USA
1st Run: 351
2nd Run: 337
3rd Run: 295
Best Run: 351

11. Nicolas Muller Zurich, SUI
1st Run: 348
2nd Run: 332
3rd Run: 306
Best Run: 348

12. Kyle Clancy Alpine, WY USA
1st Run: 338
2nd Run: 345
3rd Run: 306
Best Run: 345

13. Wolle Nyvelt , AUT
1st Run: 295
2nd Run: 306
3rd Run: 338
Best Run: 338

14. Austin Smith 19 Bend, OR USA
1st Run: 327
2nd Run: 293
3rd Run: 282
Best Run: 327

15. Hampus Mosesson 25 Froson, SWE
1st Run: 316
2nd Run: 324
3rd Run: 298
Best Run: 324

16. Bjorn Leines 30 Salt Lake City, UT USA
1st Run: 304
2nd Run: 316
3rd Run: 314
Best Run: 316

17. Romain De Marchi Dardagny, SUI
1st Run: 307
2nd Run: 293
3rd Run: 240
Best Run: 307

18. DNF Bryan Iguchi Jackson, WY USA

TO SEE NATURAL SELECTION DAY: 2 AT CASPER BOWL CLICK HERE

TO SEE VIDEO OF DAY TWO | CASPER BOWL CLICK BELOW

Sunday, February 03rd 2008 @ 02:08 PM.
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