A high-energy NST Dream Ticket qualifier went down this weekend in the hills above Queenstown, with five riders earning the final Dream Ticket invitations into the 27-rider roster for Natural Selection Bike 2026. In total, five riders-four international competitors and one New Zealand local-punched their tickets in front of a packed crowd, closing the door on last-chance qualification and setting the final puzzle pieces for competition on Mt. Dewar.
We arrived just before the gondola started loading and crammed in. Not all the lifts were open right away, so we skied deep lower mountain powder until the Cote Chevalier lift opened for business around 9:30 am. We happened to arrive just as ski patrol was dropping a rope into a huge zone. We dropped first and this run gave us a sense of the day ahead. Very deep, fluffy, incredible snow that had fallen straight down with no wind.
Freeride Fiesta has marked its return for 2026, and with a little more than three weeks until showtime, the biggest freeride event in Latin America is set to come back in all-time fashion. With a newly renovated course, an all-new lineup of riders, and the same culture-forward format we know and love, this year's event is shaping up to be a good one.
At its core, the Freeride Academy is about learning - just not in a classroom sense. Instead, it brings world-class athletes, certified mountain guides and a bunch of properly motivated snowboarders together for four days of hands-on clinics, shared laps and off-mountain sessions, all built around real terrain, real conditions and real decisions. The Academy's programme covers snowboarding, splitboarding, avalanche safety and photography, with options for all experience levels.
What was supposed to be a straightforward trip to Prince George lasted about fifteen minutes past the town line for Kona team rider Caleb Holonko. The moment Caleb rolled into Williams Lake and linked up with local legend "Coco," the plans changed. Before the truck had even cooled off, a quick pitstop had become time to unload and post up for the making of his latest project Scratching the Surface II in the supposed Shangri-La of freeride.
Jill Kintner is more than just an exceptional athlete - she's a force of nature in the mountain biking world. Her career has gone on longer than many riders have been alive. Jill is a multi-disciplined rider whose career has spanned from BMX to downhill racing and reads like a dream for any professional rider. She has won 25 elite U.S. National Championships across six disciplines, holds 43 Crankworx gold medals, and has earned five "Queen of Crankworx" titles.
Few riders embody mountain biking's evolving blend of competition, freeride, and style quite like Thomas Genon. From slopestyle podiums to Rampage lines, the Belgian has built a career on doing things his own way-and his new short film, Paradigm, is an exploration of his multidisciplinary approach as he transitions away from the contest spotlight and gets back to his roots of riding.
Paul Couderc's hometown and his spot in Bannes, France, played host to the third of five events this past summer, and the newly revamped course delivered some big hang time on even bigger features. Couderc's vision for 2025 was "chaos by design." And when you invite nearly 40 of the sport's heavy hitters over for a multi-day jam, you can bet that chaos was had.
"Projects like this are a great reminder that it takes time to build great trails and long-term partnerships with land managers. It's a behind-the-scenes level of work that is underappreciated. Chances are, if you want new and exciting trails, so does the managing trail organization."
