Coco Ho, in fine form. Photo: Ryan Miller//NST
First off, with the confirmed athletes and broadcast crews already in place at an undisclosed Micronesian location, we know that the Natural Selection Tour’s take on competitive surfing will happen sometime in the very near future. And we know that the action — edited after the fact — will air on both Red Bull TV and NST’s YouTube channel on February 18, with the finals airing on February 20.
In other words, we don’t have to wait very long to see if the NST crew is able to redefine surf competition the same way they have with snowboarding. It’s a bummer the broadcast won’t be live, but with Aether Films — the crew that recently brought us Trilogy — being tapped to help document the event, the ingredients are there for one helluva show.
And with an eclectic selection of some of the more popular surfers outside of the WSL’s Championship Tour, the list of competitors doesn’t hurt either:
Men
– Mikey February (South Africa)
– Victor Bernardo (Brazil)
– Kauli Vaast (Tahiti)
– Noah Beschen (Hawaii)
+ Eithan Osborne (USA)
– Harry Bryant (Australia)
– Al Cleland (Mexico)
– Soli Bailey (Australia)
Confirmed Surfer Lineup:
Women
– Coco Ho (Hawaii)
– Milla Brown (Australia)
– Anne Dos Santos (Brazil)
– Kirra Pinkerton (USA)
Natural Selection Surf’s social channels has tipped its hand a little as well, revealing that there are a couple other legends in the mix, possibly to act as contest director and/or judges. Either way, it’s always a good sign when Brad Gerlach and Nathan Fletcher are on the scene.
Details about both the judging and competitive format have yet to be released. But with eight men and four women, the numbers are there for a heat-based system, possibly head-to-head like NST does with snowboarding. Who knows though. Maybe they’ve got something special up their sleeve.
“It’s a new format that none of us know much about and we’re in paradise. It doesn’t feel like a contest yet, and that’s why it’s so special and different,” explained Olympic gold medalist Kauli Vaast in the press release. “I’m excited to have a couple of sessions with all these legends because they’re my friends. Surfing is a small word, and we all know each other and just to be in the water with them is something special for me. And then especially because there are good waves on the way.”
That’s a heavy crew. Photo: Ryan Miller//NST
Now whether or not there was a holding period to guarantee good waves, it sounds like it doesn’t matter because the guys and gals are already getting shacked and busting boards, true to the “waves of consequence” that organizers promised for the event. And we’re not yet sure where in Micronesia the contest will take place. Palikir Pass, or P-Pass, is the area’s most well-known, premier wave: a dreamy, critical right hander that has notes of a mirrored Cloudbreak. But the event is mobile, and the archipelago offers up all sorts of world-class reef breaks that can accommodate different swell and wind directions, so we’ll have to wait and see where the action unfolds.
In a to-camera update explaining everything going on in the NST Universe (there’s A LOT happening, including the mountain bike event in New Zealand on February 15), Travis Rice said the surf event is “probably gonna run this week,” which means they’re getting closer to turning their ambitious, multisport vision into reality.
When the NST announced earlier this year that it was expanding beyond snowboarding into mountain biking, skiing and surfing, the surf element seemed like it might be tough to pull off. But with a small crew of competitors and the alleviated pressure of not streaming the contest live, the crew is set up to deliver something special. We’ll see on February 18 whether or not they shake up the competitive surfing paradigm, or just put out a more-interesting-than-normal web edit. Either way, the pressure has certainly been ratcheted up.
