Travis Rice is looking to change the game. Photo: Lukas Pilz//Red Bull Content Pool
It’s hard to believe that in just a few decades the first generation of professional snowboarders has gone from a crew of binding-less renegades trespassing on local hills to Olympic podiums. Widely regarded as an abomination to the norm, a sport that once lay on the periphery now has multiple competitive disciplines, massive endorsement deals, and celebrity-status figures at its forefront. To say it’s been a smooth ride would be a glazed-over explanation— snowboarding has gone through a rapid evolution. Ever-evolving since its inception and the only true constant has been progression.
If we’re talking about progression, there’s no one more synonymous with that in the world of sliding sideways than Travis Rice. A pioneer in backcountry riding and often years ahead of most everyone else in terms of ideating and executing, when Rice drops a project (or even an Instagram clip for that matter), the proverbial needle of the snowboard industry follows.
Rice is looking to move the needle again, announcing the Natural Selection this week, a new three-stop competition tour set to kick off in Jackson Hole, February 3-9, followed by stops at Baldface Lodge, British Columbia February 28-March 7, and Todrillo Mountain Lodge, Alaska March 20-27 – essentially an extension of Rice’s Supernatural competition held at Baldface at the beginning of this decade. In all its iterations, other than the Olympics (and the Freeride World Tour which is more about steep lines than it is about freestyle), snowboarding has failed to crown a world champion each year. Once the tour hits Todrillo Mountain Lodge, the top four men’s and two women’s finishers will go up against one another at a fantastic big mountain freestyle venue to crown what will essentially be a world title.
With the announcement, Rice is effectively stepping back from filming for the moment with a full-fledged dive into event planning. When I sat down to talk with him, the inner snowboard fan in me wanted to dive into details but I started with this: Why does the world need Natural Selection with the Freeride World Tour already entrenched as a world-class showcase of freeriding? And why would Rice, who seemingly lives the dream hunting pillow lines all winter, decide to get into planning a three-stop event that has undeniably complicated logistics?
The answer wasn’t simple. “(Why we’re doing this) is inevitably the question we’ve had to ask putting time and effort into creating this for the past 15 years,” he said.
It’s no mistake that introspection was very much at the center — Rice’s career path follows a strikingly similar one to that of competitive snowboarding itself. But, what separates him from other riders — and perhaps his body of work itself — is always being a step ahead.
For snowboarding, perhaps the biggest shift in the sport’s trajectory came in the late 1990s with its Olympic debut. Post-Nagano, snowboarding made a noticeable jump from counterculture to the mainstream with the debut of halfpipe riding, and the next Olympics were sure to be a big leap progression-wise with more funding and terrain parks and pipes popping up at resorts around the world. Sure enough, when Kelly Clark and Shaun White took home medals in the 2002 and 2006 Olympics, respectively, they became household names. After that, all bets were off — White appeared on a pack of gum a few years later and the spin-to-win generation was here. Somewhere in the middle of all that was Travis Rice.
“I come from the freestyle side — US Open, Air and Style, and X-Games,” he said. “I rode USSA Nationals as a kid and I worked my way up through the competitive circuit and I’m a huge fan of the current state of freestyle.”
If you’ve watched any of his movies, Rice’s riding is obviously anchored in a strong park foundation — but he’s taken that and applied it to the backcountry like plenty of other riders before him. But as he looked in at the competitive landscape he left long ago from the outside, with its highly publicized and multi-faceted competition circuit, he felt there was something missing.
“Our hypothesis is that there needs to be a premier league within snowboarding. It’s highly diverse, it’s very international, and there are dozens of countries that have a full base of riders,” he said.
While the Olympics and X-Games represent the highest level of competition for freestyle riding, the apex of backcountry riding lies in movies, where endorsement deals are scarce and the stories told are largely left out of the mainstream media, save for a near-death situation that earns a coveted spot on morning talk shows.
In snowboarding, the Freeride World Tour represents the highest level of freeride snowboarding. But for a powder connoisseur like Rice, there needs to be more that’s specific to snowboarding, and it doesn’t take an expert to understand that.
“I have a lot of respect and admiration for the 12 years that the Freeride World Tour has worked diligently to showcase freeriding as best as they can,” says Rice. “But frankly, I don’t think that it’s good enough and I don’t think that it goes far enough in showcasing the skills and talents that a lot of these riders have.”
Just like Rice isn’t alone in his appreciation for the Freeride World Tour, he’s not alone in his desire for something that better represents the progression of snowboarding specifically. “This isn’t just one man’s attempt to bring forth this new event, this is a lot of people across the board in the top brands, part of the industry and some of the best, most influential riders in the world, all wanting and wishing something like this could exist,” he continued.
Pat Moore at the Jackson Hole test site last winter. Photo: Gavelda via Natural Selection
An event like Natural Selection is something the snowboard industry is begging for, and it’s not like the jury’s still out — at the test event in Jackson Hole last year, Rice managed to wrangle riders from every corner of the industry to attend, and plenty have shown interest beyond the test event.
Why is Natural Selection such a coveted event? Pre-built features in radical terrain that allow for precise tricks with good landings and transitions, world-class riders, and a unique combination of drone and first-person POV footage that any dedicated winter sports enthusiast is immediately drawn to. But in that recipe, Rice sees the opportunity for something bigger: he wants to take the level of riding in films and translate that onto the competitive stage.
Another aspect that makes the Natural Selection Tour so enticing is the venues. Very few have scoured the planet looking for perfect riding terrain to the extent that Travis Rice has and it shows in his films. Now, he’s bringing that skill to the competition world. Rice has picked out three venues he’s already shown will provide limitless potential for freestyle progression.
Beyond the terrain, the Natural Selection tour will feature riders who are truly at the top of their sport — those who’ve proven it year after year through award-winning films and high-level competition.
View this post on Instagram
To start, eight men and four women have been announced including Olympic gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg, freeride legend Gigi Ruf, and of course, Rice himself. On the women’s side, freeride stalwart Robin Van Gyn will compete along with another Olympic gold medalist in Jamie Anderson. Riders like Anderson and Kotsenburg represent the transition from freestyle to freeride that defines the event, and watching them ride will be a testament to the entertainment value of Natural Selection.
The final aspect that Rice and the Natural Selection team believe they’ll bring to the forefront is the filming and how the event is presented. With Rice’s long career in video production and a team of proven filmers and producers, Natural Selection will certainly draw people in. It will be broadcast on Red Bull TV, as well, which won’t hurt.
“We’re bringing a much more immersive experience,” says Rice. “We’re trying to deliver something that not only speaks to the battle-hardened snowboarder, but something that someone who’s seeing this type of riding, or even alpine snowsports like this for the first time, can actually grasp.”
For Rice, it’s an opportunity to bring his brand of snowboarding to the masses — and like always, when the stakes are highest, he seems to be the one stepping up to the plate.
