The concept of Natural Selection, according to Charles Darwin, is about the survival of the fittest. Those who are able to adapt, are going to survive and therefore win. This was the exact theory snowboarder Travis Rice had when he started his Natural Selection Tour. The idea was birthed in 2021 when Rice, one of the world’s most influential snowboarders, decided to start a contest which was a little more off-piste. He’d had enough of man made snow parks and decided to take things off terrain by gathering some of the world’s gnarliest snowboarders, dropping them in the middle of nowhere and allow them to prove their worth by essentially dodging death. Following its huge success, Natural Selection expanded to Mountain Biking and now it’s coming to Surfing and Skiing.

For their debut in surfing, Natural Selection have gone above and beyond to ensure that make a bold statement. Airing live on their YouTube channel this week, they’ve put together a crew of 12 surfers, made up of some of the most exciting talent in the game, and taken them to Micronesia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to score dreamy uncrowded waves.

Those competing are: Soli Bailey, Al Cleland Jr, Harry Bryant, Eithan Osborne, Noah Beschen, Kauli Vaast, Victor Bernardo, Mikey February, Coco Ho, Milla Brown, Kirra Pinkerton and Anne Dos Santos.

The first round of sessions will air at 7am on Wednesday 19 Feb (AEDT) and the final will be shown at 7am on Friday 21 Feb (AEDT).

The format

Competing in one hour sessions, two brackets of four men and the four women surf together. The surfer in each opening session that judges select as having the best overall session moves straight to finals day. Then in a second round of sessions, acting as a repocharge for the women and a semi for the men, the six men break into two sessions and the women into another, with again the best overall surfer moving into the final.

NST’s judging system does away with traditional scores and embraces a more organic approach. ‘CREDO’, a judging framework first designed for Natural Selection’s snowboarding events, has been adjusted to surfing and will be used to assess the athletes’ performances based on Creativity, Risk, Execution, Difficulty, and Overall impression. The panel of judges is made up of Brad Gerlach, Pam Burridge and Ian Crane.

“When a surfer pulls something off that’s insane, I want them to know that I saw it. It’s not about the numbers; it’s about recognising greatness when we see it,” said Brad.

The contest has been captured by the crew at Aether Films, who were the masterminds that helped put together the cinematic masterpiece that is Billabong’s latest Trilogy film.

While on the face of it, this may seem like an extremely risky and expensive venture into surfing, the costs of getting 12 surfers and a bunch of film crew and their equipment to Micronesia is no cheap or easy task. It sounds like the team scored world class waves and we will no doubt be eagerly tuning in when it airs later this week.