Robin Van Gyn and Chris Rasman Win the Bronco Natural Selection at Baldface Valhalla

A one-of-a-kind snowboarding competition, Travis Rice’s Natural Selection Tour is a world-class event series that combines freestyle tricks with big-mountain freeriding across three North American locations. Earlier this winter, we watched history being made right here in Jackson Hole at the first stop of the Tour. Now, riders have moved to the second venue, deep in the powder-filled mountains of British Columbia at Baldface Valhalla. Six men and four women (Beau Bishop, Dustin Craven, Craig McMorris, Spencer O’Brien, Leanne Pelosi, Chris Rasman, Mikey Rencz, Marie-France Roy, Mark Sollors and Robin Van Gyn) were invited to throw down. The format for this stop was a little different, focusing on a combination of creating a video part and riding a fluid line. These two components were considered with 70/30 weight by the Natural Selection judges.

In the end, the two winners were clear: Chris Rasman and Sierra Nevada team athlete Robin Van Gyn.

Rasman cleanly landed his first run through the zone starting with a cab 5 step-down into a chute, followed by a stylish Miller flip and back-to-back backside and frontside 360s, topped off with a laid-out backflip at the bottom. Paired with his video part, this standout line locked in his win. “Winning any of the Natural Selection stops would be an insane feeling, especially for someone like myself who has no history or experience with contests or podiums. All of the snowboarding I do is in the privacy of the backcountry, with the small crew that I'm documenting it with,” said Rasman, “When you dedicate your entire life to something, it's hard to properly articulate the feelings you get when things work out for you.”

The other twice-invited rider on the Natural Selection Tour, Van Gyn, smoothly made her way through a pillow line at the top, nailed a handful of straight airs off cliffs and added a frontside 360 in her second run to secure enough of a lead to take the women’s side of the contest. “It feels awesome to sneak away with a win on my home turf surrounded by close friends. This experience was totally different from Jackson. Here we had to do more than just snowboard, we also had to think about filming and navigating the fully natural, varied terrain. There were so many things at play, you really had to be on it,” said Van Gyn.