 and taking a second look at Travis's run. Backside 360 off the top of the course. Again, looking at Travis, he has that familiarity with it, but also this is how he's imagining the momentum of the event. I mean, what do you call Travis? Has it been said? I mean, he's the goat, he's the brainchild of this thing, but he's not just here to like play like welcome her. He wants to win. Being able to make it through qualification to get past Kevin Batstrom, which I did not set myself up for success with that choice, but being able to get to go up to Canada, compete at ball of face, and in part going up as well to compete on the new venue that we have up in Alaska this season. You know, this is like, this is the first level, but probably the hardest level to get to the final boss. And I want the final boss. Just like chills down my spine. I told you, and for even more context, this is the dude who drove to Utah and went and hit park jumps to train for this and then drove back specifically because he wanted to get dialed in and get to that spot. And just knowing what a powerhouse snowboarder Travis Rice is, and he's on his home turf right now. I don't know if there's a rider in the field more well equipped to handle snow conditions like this, starting things off with a huge cab five, but going down. That just points to the conditions right there, but because by all accounts, it looked like he had set that down solid. But as we saw in the previous two runs, these falls does not mean your run is over. So backside 360 from Trav, a little popper through the trees right there. And his line selection is really, really good on this run right here. Yeah, you're not seeing... You're not seeing any tracks in this zone right here, so that's home field advantage for Travis. But you just saw it right there, this new snake came up and got him. Trav's gonna finish out his run. Well, how hard is the course? You just saw it. Took the tiebreaker and moved on to the quarterfiles, eliminating Chris Rasmussen. Let's see if he can do it against Kevin Backstrom. Are we gonna get our first tiebreaker performance? Travis is gonna have to leave it all out. So T-Rice coming in switch, cab five, find some good snow, powers through, needles through the trees right there, and into some open terrain. Let's see where Travis goes. Back three, nose butter, and then coming off the side and clipping a tree. He's gonna put that tree back, environment first, like a true gentleman. Well, he deviated, took a unique line right there, not looking like it worked out the way he had hoped. Big old backflip. It is by no means over for Travis Rice though. He is gonna keep it going. That's the beauty of how this thing is judged, is even a consequential fall, you can still take this round. Backside 540, getting that last 180 around at the last second. He's like a cat, just always lands on his feet. Well, he has options. He knows this course better than anybody else. Other riders might have thought to go far, riders might have to get at that last hit. Influential, backcountry snowboarder, who has ever lived. He's so heavily associated with the backcountry, but as we all know, this needs an ex-games competitor. He's a US Open champion. He has a lot of competitive experience under his bibs. He actually beat Torstein Hartlow in the ex-games big app. All right, so Travis starting things off. Huge cab 5 with the poke. Frontside 360, scrubs a little bit of speed there. And Travis Rice is looking locked in. Backflip, nose grab, scrubs a little more speed. You can tell he's a little more controlled in these runouts. He kind of knows what he needs to do, knows where he needs to slow down. And Travis is putting together a burner of a run right now. Switch back 5. Wow. Sure looks like he landed that pretty clean. Don't poke the bear. You know, there's so much, but if I could try to pick one thing, you know, people could take away from watching this event. It's not easy going outdoors and having real experiences with friends, but it's often so rewarding, even when it goes sideways, even when all your plans don't go accordingly. Like just the act of putting in the time and effort to go do it is often incredibly rewarding, even when it doesn't work out. That's when you learn the most too, so. When you are a visionary like Travis, who believes like possible to enhance a mountain and spend thousands of hours building all summer for this to be a possibility. Just a testament to who he is. And as I said before questionable, this man had food poisoning that ruined him for the last 24 hours. He was still sick yesterday. We saw him in the evening ghostly white. Didn't know if he'd be able to run the day. He said, I'll take a couple of little setup runs to see how I feel. And from the start of that backflip, it looks like Travis is feeling good to go right into a front side three. He caught perfect transition on that landing. Travis is going to forego booster shot and go back side seven sniping the transition going down a little bit. He was headed straight into that tree. I thought he was tree bound there. He is tree bound purposefully tree bound back side 360 tree tap. Unbelievable. He's brought his third run approach to this. And you know what's just so interesting about Travis and Torstein is the generational influence that they have had on snowboarding. You look at, you know, someone like Travis and someone like Torstein. It's a direct reflection of someone like Ben Ferguson and someone like Sage Cotter. Trav, apparently you had food poisoning the last 24 hours. We got to hear how you feeling, buddy. You look good. Feeling a lot better than it was yesterday. And how good is that course for everybody watching? There's some nice, some nice deep landings. It's a little better than first day course. That's for sure. And the confidence he's got to have right now coming off a first run score of 78 as Travis Rice drops in switch for his second run. Let's see what Mr. Rice can do. What's in the world? That mid-air correction to slow down the way he was spinning on that cap five was unreal. Into the frontside 720. Into a deep tomahawk. Yeah, catches his nose in the landing. He didn't like coming up with that. A little method from Trav. This is a man who was physically unable to hold down any food for over 24 hours until yesterday evening. And it's somehow here performing at this level. This is going to be very interested. How this is judged, I think. Yeah, and Travis just kind of opened up a new feature, that little crosscourt that landing was all fresh right there. Boom, pounds are going down. A sitting in the reality of vision is Travis Rice and he is with Stan up at the top. That's right, Tilema joined by Travis Rice. Kind of like Godfather of Jackson, Godfather of this event. You must be feeling pretty swell after another successful day. I feel great, man. I mean, look, you know, we've had about six inches of snow in the past month to have riders lay it down like they did today. I mean, respect goes to everyone that rolls through the portal here, you know, is warrior, warrior shit out there today. Yes. And in true Travis Rice form, the drones are out and I understand he's actually just going to hit Coliseum into Master Blaster, which hasn't been hit yet. Any reason, comments for that? I don't know. I think the way that people's mindsets get focused, people get into their get into their runs, you know, they have exactly how they want to do it. And I think for me, I got to do it as a tribute to our build crew who can spend a lot of time putting in some pretty incredible features. And there's a virgin line still out there. So I'm going to clean it up. Incredible. Well, Travis, thank you for having us. And I look forward to, I don't know, maybe 900 more years of this, something like that. Close, close. There is no natural selection, if not for the vision of one of the greatest snowboarders of all time in Travis Rice. He believes in evolution and consistency and growth. And he's taken that approach to this base here at Scary Cherry. It feels awesome to be back on this venue, a venue that, you know, we put so much time, effort, love, passion into for the events in 2012 and 2013. You know, with the new format and the new approach that we're running this year, it's great to be back. It's such a dynamic venue. You know, Jeff Pinciero and the entire Bald Face family, you know, they were so supportive of the first two events that we did here and have continued to be, you know, really true partners to the Natural Selection Tour. And, you know, working back to getting here this year, it's been a long and awesome process. And I mean, yeah, Bald Face, it's a dream place to go riding. Everybody loves it up here. A Yeti ambassador, somehow still riding at this level at 39 years of age and still doing it with so much love for the sport, not just for himself, but for the entirety of snowboarding. I really think that that's the thing that people miss is that he's in it for the entirety of the sport. Oh, completely. Travis has always taken that into consideration from his movies to his events to his role in art and community. It's incredible. And big backside 360 on the top section. Oh, and a really nice back one right there. So now he's making some switch turns down the middle portion of the course. It's so hard to watch someone ride switch faster than I'll ever ride in real life. I feel you on that. Beautiful switch backside 540. It's so intriguing to watch Travis ride these courses that he was so obviously instrumental in creating and see how he interprets them and the creativity he brings. See that? The kind rice vest. Wouldn't you like to have your hands on one of those? Oh, big score. The highest score of the day so far in 88. Completely not plan that run. That creativity between features really utilizing the entirety of the course from top to bottom. In addition to like you were saying, the technical tricks, I think we're going to see that switch back 540 and up leveling of it. Beautiful method to start things off that first diving board feature. And as he navigates down to the second one, really poking out that frontside 360 as he opens up a new section of the course right now. Coming in hard left. It's exciting watching Travis rip down to the course because he has a tendency to open up new lines like with that very big cliff drop. Looked like he was going for the tail grab on that. And then... Big backside 360. Frontside 5. Massive as he careens to the guts of the course right now. And just, you know, throwing in a switch back one for good measure. We talk about the creativity. We also know that Travis is a showman and he knows the emotional impression the judges will get from him deciding to open up a whole new side of the course. Keep that in mind as these riders are navigating the course here in semi-final heat number one. To Travis Rice on course and getting pulled down by a little bit of a snow snake there up in that kind of more packed little bit of track zone. But finding his way and going backside 3 deep. And then looks like he's going to be heading over to that left side of the course that he pioneered during run number two of qualifiers and into that diving board feature. Frontside grab and really soft touch in that landing right there. I love the way Travis, you know, had that little setup for that backside 360 up at the top and as soon as he landed boom was in the air. Nice backside 540 signature. Sending that very deep there and a half cab into some very nice fresh snow into a back 3 but just not quite finding the landing on that. So we've seen Travis utilize the terrain and opening up new lines as a way to not only find fresh snow but increase the variety and amplify the score of his runs and it looks like he's going to be doing that again right now. Oh shooting the pier. Travis with some gorgeous turns through there. And going off the tip of that. That was amazing. Big backside 180. And into a half cab. The manner in which Travis can always have that one piece of creative you haven't seen this yet from me in his pocket. It's one of the special things watching him in competition here. I agree. I think it's partially that he's always thinking so many steps ahead. Oh my gosh. This guy. That was right there exactly what you were talking about. This guy who's 39 here. This red dad has a big cart backside 720. Travis Rice, the man whose concept has become reality in the shape of natural selection. He wasn't here last year. Let's find out what he makes of Alaska this year. Man up here with the rider field that is doing this event. I mean it would be incredible because that means that I would have ridden well. And I think that's everyone's goal coming up here is at the end of the day it's like we all just want to ride well. We all want to ride to our best ability. It would mean a lot especially with the field of riders that are up here. So Travis Rice dropping in for his second and final run in the quarter finals. Huge first turn. Beautiful hack right there from the man from Jackson. Detonating a couple of turns up top crossing that spine. Winding his way up onto the front of this nose. He's carrying speed isn't he? Little drop. Back five and reverts out of it. He had to switch that round pretty quickly. But that will be clean. The judges may take a little off in that combination linking sense but the trick itself was immaculate. And heading cross court to the second spine and backside 360 into the spine just the left of that. And you saw on the landing there how much composure Travis has got. He wasn't even thinking about the landing. He was already looking at the next feature. Exactly. And that's so important when as you said before you lose so much vertical so quickly that really maximizing every place that you are in is so important. Cap seven! What was he thinking? So he linked it. We've seen that beautiful front one again. Effortless switch turns to a cab seven. Wow. I mean that was him ratcheting things up. Oh my goodness a glimpse of what Travis Rice his ambitions for natural selection are. It's going to be interesting. So we've got a 90 point score from Travis on run one. I don't think I mean the backside five with the front one and the cab. This run is huge. I mean he's surely feeling good. He's got that 92 to sit on but of course knowing Travis he's not one to lay back on anything. Oh that was a flat landing. He really had to judge his speed carefully there not to overshoot that. So he's got one drop up at the top there. Cheeky backside 180 setting up for that same hit that we saw Torstein on. Oh on the cab five. Yeah. Yeah solid, solid strategy from Rice right there and he's feeling good. It should have been toe heavy for him. He had to kind of lay light off his heels there to get into that super technical takeoff. What? Oh man. Frontside 540 off that diving board so he's riding switch now through the bottom of this face. Just opening up a whole news zone. Cab three. And just a little hot butter out. Okay Travis Rice is on one right now. I don't know what to say this is just these words sort of start running out at this point because we're in uncharted territory. No one's ever laid this kind of consistency down over a face this side with this intensity of tricks. Everything that comes to mind just feels inadequate. Madness. Crazy. Ridiculous. It's beyond that. This is genius. I mean look at him. They're ripping the banners out. The crowd is frothing right now. But I think you know looking at this diligently that was a great run from Travis on its own that would have been fantastic but it's not his first run. And now finally they meet head to head. It's a Travis heading off riders right over this big bowling ball. Looking confident as ever. You know it's exactly where he is doesn't it. Lovely turn up there. He's got great snow on this side. Backside 180. And then he's riding this better than most people can ride it forward. So what's he setting up for? Cab five. Cab five. Holds on to it. That's that T-Rice golden orca tail working for him. The lightest touchdown on a lofty backflip. He knows exactly where he is and he's measured his features perfectly hasn't he. He knows the scale. Great method right there. I mean that's a fantastic trilogy of tricks right now to start this off. Right really chundry there. You can see there's been a lot of heat radiation off that rock face that had melted that snow. So he's dealing with that looks like he's anticipated it and he's looking for the shaded side of this spine now to pop that back three and two. Very very tidy again. You get the feeling I mean we've talked about this. Travis Rice didn't get to come to Alaska in 2021 and it's almost like he's been plotting like some kind of bond villain for the last year on how to get back here and what he's going to do when he gets here. No completely. I mean he is such an analytical rider. I mean Tora is also but you can't help but think that he has spent a lot of time playing this in his mind's eye leading up to this date. Okay so Travis Rice a very very strong first run score. Oh that hits so many. And you can see now even up at top those that cloud covered flat light is really really coming in. I mean we can barely see the terrain nuances right now. Yeah and you can see it in Travis's body language too. Little butter along the top of the spine there. Very little definition to play with here. And that roll just came up on you didn't it? Still Travis almost holding his hands up like oh where am I going? I mean this is a massive challenge especially for Torstein. Oh really having no issues with that back three. Oh but there you go that's where not be able to see the definition of the of the terrain. Yeah that came out of nowhere. We had no idea I couldn't see that there's no way that Travis can see that. It's like frickin ping pong ball. And then in true fashion our champion literally did exactly what he does best. The one the only the AK champion Mr. Travis Rice.