NZsnowboard.com

8th February 2008

By: TTR Press Office

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 $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.

Being a Swatch TTR FOUR(4)STAR event, all the riders who participated in the Quiksilver Natural Selection have been awarded points toward the Swatch TTR Ranking List. 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.