Natural Selection Taps Uncle Toad’s Media Group for Three-Stop Tour

Uncle Toad’s Media Group, the award-winning production company known for live broadcast in the sports and entertainment worlds, has been tapped by the Natural Selection Tour as its official production partner as part of a three-year partnership deal. Uncle Toad’s will spearhead the entire production of the three-stop event, including a soup to nuts production for the live broadcast, offline content creation, vendor selection, drone development, graphics, technology, staffing and logistics.

The Natural Selection Tour will stream live and for free at NaturalSelectionTour.com starting January 23. The YETI Natural Selection at Jackson Hole contest window is January 25-31, 2022.

“This is exactly the kind of project that Uncle Toad’s excels at: producing a first-of-its-kind action sports event within a challenging and remote location,” says Jordan Velarde, CEO of Uncle Toad’s Media Group. “We’re building on the innovation from last year and looking forward to helping Natural Selection showcase the talented riders with unique camera angles and technologies that provide an authentic and dynamic viewing experience for fans.”

In its second year, the Natural Selection Tour, founded by professional snowboarder Travis Rice, is where the world’s top snowboarders from contest medalists to big mountain icons compete in iconic natural(ly) enhanced venues. The action kicks off live with the YETI Natural Selection at Jackson Hole with invited riders going head-to-head, combining big mountain knowledge with freestyle tricks. The tour continues with stops at Baldface Lodge in British Columbia, Canada at the end of February and in the Tordrillo Range in Alaska the last week in March The Baldface and Alaska stops of the Natural Selection Tour will run as two-hour shows following each event.

This is the second year that Uncle Toad’s has partnered with Natural Selection. Last year, the team developed and implemented a first-of-its-kind camera angle – a live stabilized Racing Drone, or First Person View (FPV) Drone, used for primary coverage, in partnership with a world championship racer, Gabriel Kocher (Gab707). Uncle Toad’s and Natural Selection Tour were awarded a Bronze Clio for the event production.

“We’re excited to work with the Uncle Toad’s crew again this year to produce this incredibly unique and challenging to produce event,” says Liam Griffin, COO of Natural Selection Tour. “Pulling off an event of this magnitude from the side of a rugged mountain and broadcasting it live, while making it all look good is no small feat. This level of production and attention to detail puts the viewer right in the action, creating a connection with these special mountains that we all love.”

For the 2022 event, Uncle Toad’s will provide innovative camera angles of the competitors and audio to match. All snowboarders participating in the event will compete with microphones to provide a dynamic and immersive experience for viewers. The Tour will also be produced in 1080p progressive format versus traditional interlaced format to give viewers a higher quality viewing experience.

On top of producing the live broadcast, Uncle Toad’s will provide all video services for the event including branded content pieces for Natural Selection partners Backcountry, the Tour’s Official Outerwear and Retail partner, Red Bull, GoPro, Fuel Off-Road, Visit Jackson Hole, Thule, Burton, Fast, Conservation International, Pacifico, BetterHelp, DraftKings, Carnal, Ski-Doo, Oakley, Dakine, TAE and Rocky Mountain Yeti, along with host venues Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and Baldface Lodge.