Travis Rice Crowned Quiksilver Natural Selection Champion

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.

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