As the list of competitors continues to roll out for the Natural Selection Tour’s stop in Revelstoke, Dustin Craven will be taking part after winning his “DUEL” with Werni Stock.
The Natural Selection Tour (NST) arrives in Revelstoke next week. Hosted by Revelstoke Mountain Resort and operating in Selkirk-Tangiers tenure, the competition is a big event for the area. The unique snowboarding event will run from Friday, Mar. 3 to Saturday, Mar. 11.
With the best riders from around the world, the competition is sure to attract a big audience for its impressive riders and challenging features. Unlike previous iterations of the NST, not every rider gets to take part in the main event this year. Instead, the contest took on a new form of challenge: DUELS.
The NST DUELS took place in private several weeks ago. Each returning rider from last year was paired up with a ‘challenger’ and went head-to-head for one spot in the Revelstoke and Valdez, Alaska competitions. The defending rider was given the advantage of picking the location of the DUEL, and then both riders took turns riding the section of terrain with a film crew capturing everything.
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The DUELS were cut and judged in post-production to determine the winner.
Over the past week, the results of the DUELS have been trickling in every day. In the first six days, Mikkel Bang, Blake Paul, Kimmy Fasani, Jared Elston, Ben Ferguson, and Elena Hight all punched their tickets to Revelstoke for the competition. Most recently, local rider, Dustin Craven, beat Austrian, Werni Stock in his DUEL.
Last year, Craven claimed first-place at the Baldface NST stop, making him a heavy-hitter in the tour this year. As the ‘defender,’ Craven got to pick the location for his and Stock’s DUEL. Craven, who was born in Calgary but rides in Revy (naturally) chose Revelstoke as his location for their session. Craven said he had fun riding with Stock.
“We enjoyed a bunch of runs together and tried to not take it too seriously, and just enjoy each other’s company,” said Craven.
Consistent landings on big features helped secure Craven the win in the battle.
With seven riders already confirmed, the tour still has five more riders to announce leading up to the event, including big names like Torstein Horgmo, Travis Rice, Mark McMorris (fresh off of a record-breaking X-Games gold medal), and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.
To watch each DUEL that has already been released, and the ones still to come, head to the RedBull TV website.
The Revelstoke stop of the NST will start with a small opening ceremony at the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre on Friday, Mar. 3 from 7–8 p.m. Tickets for the event will be available online.
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@ZacharyDelaney
zach.delaney@revelstokereview.com
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