It's Contest Day for Research and Development

It's an exciting day in snowboarding today. The all-new women's backcountry freestyle contest, Research and Development , goes down today.

The event, helmed by Robin Van Gyn , is being held at Whitewater Resort in British Columbia. Fourteen women backcountry boarders have been invited to compete.

The roster at Whitewater who's who of our favorite boarders. The fourteen women who will be competing:

Melissa Riitano
Telma Särkipaju
Madison Blackley
Naima Antolin
Katie Kennedy
Stefi Luxton
Zoë Vernon
Nelly Steinhoff
Estelle Pensiero
Mia Jones
Marissa Krawczak
Kaleah Opal-Driscoll
Ellery Manning
Gillian Andrewshenko

For the past few days, the riders have been at Whitewater, studying the terrain, ripping the resort, and hanging out with mentors Robin, Hana Beaman, and Marie-France Roy. Over the weekend, they held seeding and bib selection.

Here's the start list for the event today.

There are two zones the riders will be dropping into. Tahoe-local Nelly Steinhoff will be opening up the competition dropping into Zone 2. Telma will follow next in teh order, cracking the seal on Zone 1. Backcountry baddies Madison Blackley and Marissa Krawczak will close things out in Zone 2 and 1, respectively.

Up for grabs is 5k in cash and an invite to the 2025 Natural Selection Tour.

The contest will be shown live on Research and Development's Instagram on Monday, March 25th at 10am PST. Stay tuned to @rndsearch for more.

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