# Riders you'd want to see at Natural Selection: Baldface/Alaska



## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

With round 2 at Baldface approaching, anyone know if they've posted the rider lineup?

Also wondering who else you'd like to see at these type of events? Torstein, a young Gerrard, etc... bigger than life Shaun White?


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## Nivek (Jan 24, 2008)

Forest Bailey. Have felt like the guys talent is wasted in the streets for years. Jake Blauvelt. Lago. Shin Biyajima. Taka Nakai. Kazu. Rene. Kevin Backstrom. Mark Carter.


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

Jess, Maddie, Annika, Halldor, Kazu, Fredi


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## Nivek (Jan 24, 2008)

Oh yeah forgot about the ladies. MFR


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

I'm assuming a majority Canadian riders at Baldface.

Sollors, Ockenden. Davis in Alaska??


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

Me.

Wanna see some timid straight airs and spectacular scorpions? I'd MAKE that contest.

In all honesty I'd love to see the street, slopestyle, and half pipe riders you never see in the backcountry compete in these.

Like Zeb Powell is so creative in knuckle huck, I'd love to see what he does. And Stale's "Lines" part makes me think he could hold his own.


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## smellysell (Oct 29, 2018)

I assumed it was the same lineup for all stops, had no idea it would be different. I can never see enough Taxwood. 

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## GregT943 (Apr 1, 2019)

Danny Davis and Lago

For women, Jess Kimura and Torah Bright


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## unsuspected (Oct 26, 2015)

Sven and Ylfa


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## Kevington (Feb 8, 2018)

Longo, Kazu, Halldor. People who probably wouldn't win but would likely do at least one beautiful thing.


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## AC93 (May 1, 2020)

Muller
Kazu
Longo


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## HarryHood (Feb 8, 2021)

Jake Blauvelt, he rides the mountain i work at and he has style for days


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## kimchijajonshim (Aug 19, 2007)

I think the original plan was to have the same line-up of riders at each stop, but they might need to make Baldface Canadian-only due to travel restrictions. I think only 4 of the riders (McMo, Rasman, Ben Ferg, and Robin van Gyn) are Canadian, so they're either going to have to invite more riders or change things up dramatically. On the JHMR broadcast I believe one of the announcers even mentioned they may turn it more into a filming trip. I imagine they're working furiously on the Canadian government to see if they can get exemption visas for the riders, so we'll see.

The whole rules of the game are super fuzzy. Website says the "top finishers" from Jackson and Baldface will meet in Alaska, but has no definition for what the hell is a "top finisher". I saw "Top 3 from each event" somewhere but am not finding that now. Not sure how you pick "top 3" in a head-to-head bracket style.

As far as the competition aspect goes, they're clearly just making this shit up as they go along. They had a people's vote, except the vote winners only got to be "alternates" (why John Jackson won the vote but didn't appear in the event). The scoring is mega fuzzy-- Mikkel Bang over Pat Moore is still puzzling, although the Mikkel's rock tap in the next round was totally worth it (and under scored). But whatever, the scoring isn't the reason I'm watching.


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## Nivek (Jan 24, 2008)

Yeah the scoring was definitely odd. You had Mikkel get rewarded for switching up his run, and apparently won solely on a switch method, then McFlippy wins basically doing the same run over a few times. I don't know. More than anything I'm hyped to get some non-public wide faces into the public. Stoked for riders like Sweetin (his amplitude was underscored), Pual, Haerty, and Beamen getting some spotlight they normally wouldn't.


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## Kevington (Feb 8, 2018)

The judging doesn't seem to be really taking on the 'spirit' of the event as they have marketed it. They claim its about creativity but the judging favours consistent, competition trained riders. Kind of a disappointment when its won by the reigning king of spin to win competitions.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

Watching it I didn't feel like winning or losing mattered that much to anyone, which is cool.


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## deagol (Mar 26, 2014)

is Terje too old for this ?

edit: to McMorris' credit, that double backflip was quite impressive


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

For the most part all the riders seemed to stick to a set line for each round with minor (if any) tweaks to tricks between the 2/3 runs. It would be awesome to see them ride different lines, but I guess stomping an entire run is hard enough so the riders just try and do the same thing twice.

Maybe a mandatory 2 different lines (ex: left, right or center start?) to help mix it up.

I agree, McMorris pretty much rode the same line the whole comp, and since he won, we had to watch that for 4 rounds. However, he did progress his trick selection subtilly throughout the comp which was great. But I feel the majority of the riders would have done the same if they moved on.

With all this in consideration, it was still a pretty great comp to watch!


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## kimchijajonshim (Aug 19, 2007)

I can't say I blame anyone for sticking to what they know. Every person here has had the experience of wiping out on an unfamiliar feature, whether it's a 20 ft cliff drop or some box. When do you have the benefit of gauging speed or testing out a course, you mitigate however you can.

Also I feel like McMo is getting shat on unfairly. Busting out the double backy in the final round was pretty nuts.



Nivek said:


> Stoked for riders like Sweetin (his amplitude was underscored), Pual, Haerty, and Beamen getting some spotlight they normally wouldn't.


I'm with you except on Haerty. She basically got to the final by... straight airling things and not falling down and beating underwhelming competition. Don't get me wrong, she can rip and straight airing features is plenty impressive on FWT courses... but that wasn't a championship round rider for NST. Thank god Zoi fucking sent it proper on her last run and made herself a no doubt winner and not a default winner.


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## Nivek (Jan 24, 2008)

Yeah I don't disagree. I think she was getting rewarding for being able to figure out the course and just ride it successfully. Zoi defintely deserved that in my head as well. I was more speaking to Haerty just getting some primetime airtime. Sure she is on the FWT but how many people watch that vs a RedBull T.Rice offering? That's what I'm hyped on. I actually don't care much at all who wins Natural Selection. I just like seeing riders you normally have to know and seek out.


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

FWT now has coaches, so the shit show is on.


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

drblast said:


> Watching it I didn't feel like winning or losing mattered that much to anyone, which is cool.





Nivek said:


> I actually don't care much at all who wins Natural Selection. I just like seeing riders you normally have to know and seek out.


Sounds like everyone is kinda on the same page.

Just let all he riders go 4 rounds, or do a round robin match up so we can see all of them ride more! Tally up the points in the end.


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## Phedder (Sep 13, 2014)

More experienced guys like Blauvelt, Danny Davis, Kazu, John Jackson, Austin Smith, Torstein, Alek Oestreng.

Newer energy and contest riders like Staale, Torgeir, Yuki Kadono, Red Gerard, Rene Rinnekangas.

So many good ones I'd love to watch on a course like that.


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

The rider list for Baldface, as well as the filming/scoring format.









Natural Selection Tour is bringing its snowboarding progression to Canada


Get the inside track on the innovative format, the rider list and the venue as snowboarding's new favourite experience hits the resort of Baldface Valhalla.




www.redbull.com


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## kimchijajonshim (Aug 19, 2007)

drblast said:


> Watching it I didn't feel like winning or losing mattered that much to anyone, which is cool.


I think McMo definitely wanted to win. I thought his lines were sick, but he definitely approached the course with a slope style mentality.

But I think a lot of the others were just going for it. After Ferguson fell in 2nd run against Bode, Bode could have just taken a pretty mellow line and stayed on his feet to force a tie breaker... instead he just went for it. Maybe not smart but definitely entertaining haha.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

Oh Boris Mouton is one of my favorite riders to watch. He'd do at least one beautiful thing.


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## Kevington (Feb 8, 2018)

drblast said:


> Oh Boris Mouton is one of my favorite riders to watch. He'd do at least one beautiful thing.


He’s great. Definitely got that Longo style.


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## Kevington (Feb 8, 2018)

kimchijajonshim said:


> I think McMo definitely wanted to win. I thought his lines were sick, but he definitely approached the course with a slope style mentality.


No doubt he, and lots of others, wanted it. I watched the Bombhole interview with Sage Kotsenberg, he is super-competitive and focused and has been since he was a kid. Those people are not showing up to an event like this to meet up with friends and have fun. The win for Zoi will have a big impact on her career and legacy as a snowboarder. She absolutely sent it way beyond her comfort zone, risking getting wrecked because she really wanted it. Her landing a huge 360 was maybe the most exciting part of the competition for me. That and Gigi Ruf’s 720 in bad visibility on the first run. 

I think the definitive ‘900 is better than 720’ slopestyle mentality was my problem with it. The competition guys can do 1800s these days so 900 is like a set up trick for them. 

I don’t have the answer but would like to see a different approach to judging so it doesn’t just become slopestyle on pow.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

Easy fix... Anything more than two rotations doesn't count


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## Kevington (Feb 8, 2018)

drblast said:


> Easy fix... Anything more than two rotations doesn't count


I like it. Instant disqualification.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

Check this out. Simple but incredible.

Boris Mouton


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## WigMar (Mar 17, 2019)

Incredible, yes!


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

Baldface coverage goes live today, on Redbull.


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## MassSnowboarder (Mar 3, 2015)

Anyone else having trouble watching the Baldface livestream? There's a red box that stating the webcast is "Live Now", but I'm not getting a video image so far. It was supposed to start "16:00 EDT" (4 PM), and now it's 4:34--no livestream yet.


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

The Baldface coverage definitely had a different feel to it. 

I wish they showed each riders entire first and second run without any footage cuts. I'm hoping they post up the riders entire runs going forward, as well as the trick clips from the additional filming days.

The wrap up at the end echoed my thoughts as well (I'll try not to include spoilers). The men's winner was obvious. I had second and third reversed, however I havn't had a good look at the additional clips from each rider.

The women's seemed a lot closer, would have been tough to choose a winner.


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

Just checked out the Jackson 2022 last night, man these are fun to watch.

Looks like quite a few riders people mentioned here were invited this year.

I could watch these riders all day, but I gotta say, Backstrom was probably my favorite… but Longo’s gap was pretty awesome!


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## Pablo$ (Oct 10, 2020)

I'd like to see a legends division at one of these... Terje was claiming a few days ago he missed the invite from NST. But he's turning into the "old man yells at cloud" parody. It'd be cool to see peeps like Guch, Lynn, Devun, nate cole, the Basichs,, downing, Hatchett.... umm Mark Fawcett.


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## F1EA (Oct 25, 2013)

Backstrom
Longo
Terje
Nico Muller
Kazu
Mark Sollors

Even if they lose... i'd rather watch those guys over almost everyone else. Except maybe Blake Paul and Ben Ferguson.

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## F1EA (Oct 25, 2013)

Also, disqualify everyone who spins over 7 and/or mute grabs.

Mute 7 = instant disqualification.

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## kieloa (Sep 20, 2019)

Iikka Bäckström
Terje
Waji Wazy
Rene


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## Pablo$ (Oct 10, 2020)

Nate Cole
Devun
Yuki K.
Downing


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## Eivind så klart (Aug 30, 2020)

Pablo$ said:


> I'd like to see a legends division at one of these... Terje was claiming a few days ago he missed the invite from NST. But he's turning into the "old man yells at cloud" parody. It'd be cool to see peeps like Guch, Lynn, Devun, nate cole, the Basichs,, downing, Hatchett.... umm Mark Fawcett.


Terje got invited, did’nt work out as he was/is in Japan, he is hoping to get another chance next year.


Terje
Iguchi
Devun
Bjorn Leines


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## GregT943 (Apr 1, 2019)

Danny Davis got robbed, he clearly won the second round and it should have gone to a 3rd run. Overall it was an awesome event. I hope they do the baldface round like they did Jackson and Alaska, and skip the stupid video making aspect they did in Baldface last year. 

I also assume they will have to advance another female, because right now they have 4 that qualified in Jackson but then Zoey is joining the tour at Baldface. So to make it even for head to heads they would need to chose a 6th female rider to join at Baldface, so I wonder who that will be.


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## Eivind så klart (Aug 30, 2020)

GregT943 said:


> I also assume they will have to advance another female, because right now they have 4 that qualified in Jackson but then Zoey is joining the tour at Baldface. So to make it even for head to heads they would need to chose a 6th female rider to join at Baldface, so I wonder who that will be.


Zoey ❤ She rocked last year.


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## unsuspected (Oct 26, 2015)

Zoi


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

I guess a problem with getting people who are competitive in slopestyle today, is that they would crush a course like the Jackson one, but they have a FIS schedule, and it wouldn't be the same without these legends they get hold of now. So maybe it's not about the best of the best, but the best of who's there, and then a few different divisions wouldn't hurt. But there's a limit to how tracked out it can be, and the TV show must go on, it's enjoyable, but long enough. The other divisions might have to be held another day/week without all the production.


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## fraxmental (Jun 25, 2011)

Zo-Oui


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