Steezy or Technical?
 

Just merely wondering on your opinions toward which type of riding you prefer to watch, and also that you your self prefer to do. Personally being from the West Coast I'm a larger fan of super steezy riding (poked, grabbed) although I definitely believe that technical riding has it's place.

The real magic happens when the 2 are blended together ;) cue guys like Ben Greenwood, Josh Twelker, etc...

I would rather watch/throw big, poked bs 180s into the flats any day, landing blind just feels awesome. Unfortunately, everyone that rides w/ me would rather see bangers, making days w/ just a driver my favorite time to be on the water.

Steez! Love watching guys like Randal, BennyG, Lyman and Dean ride... But definitely appreciate the tech riders like phil and harley. I guess the tech guys go pretty big too...Man I just like watching anyone throwing down!

A mix of both really. I dont want to watch big grabbed moves into the flats all day, but I dont want to see 10s being hucked either. I like 3's and 5's a la Benny G. Tastefully grabbed and poked, with a decent rotation. A nice happy medium.

Both are essential. There's nothing wrong with hucking 10s. A 10 is hard to rotate. Riders aren't good enough to make a 10 look super steezy yet. That doesn't mean they shouldn't do 10s. They have to start somewhere. These guys at the top of our sport are the pioneers who are paving the way for the days when 10s will be grabbed, poked, and styled out.

My favorite riders are Keith, Dean, Randall, and Darin Shapiro, so I guess I prefer large and stylish riding to some degree, but I don't want to watch a guy just throw endless 180s into the flats. I love watching Dean Smith's nuclear whirlybird, Darin Shapiro's speedball, Lyman's toeside OA OLE mute 7, and Randall's huge wrapped heel 7. These tricks are just as cool and just as awe inspiring as Darin's bee sting, Lyman's melan front to fakie, Dean's Hoochie backside 3, and Randall's styled out 1s. Without their awesome mix of tech, amplitude, and style, these riders wouldn't be fun to watch.

In my own riding, I hope achieve a similar mixture, if only at a much lower level. My favorite tricks right now are my heelside melan 180 and my tantrum, which are my biggest tricks, and my heel and toe 3s, which are two of my most technical tricks. I love the feeling of boosting huge into the flats and coming down hard, but I also love the rush of landing the more technical 360s because they're still really hard for me. I imagine pro riders probably feel the same. When I want to go hard, I have two outlets for that energy. I can rail into the wake for a huge, floaty trick, or I can concentrate on locking down the focus and body control it takes to land a 3.

Both for sure. I want to see a nice mix of nice clean style tricks. But i also love getting my mind blown by insane tech.

go hugeeeeeeeeeeeee

style over spin any day. in my opinion anything over a 3 i dont care to watch. always looks rushed/hucked. and prefer a BS 180 grabed over a 3 as well.
i have huge respect for those throwing 7,9,10 etc. the talent, skill, and practice it took to get there. but they look like ass too me. a flying tazmanian devil of handle passes.

Some riders definitely make it look like that. But imo guys like Harley make a poked out TS 7 look pretty damn smooth.

To me, riders that make everything "look easy" are the funnest to watch. The coolest style to me is when a rider throws down something that could be crazy tech and totally unattainable for me, but makes it look like its a basic beginner skill. Guys like harley are getting to where they have a great blend where everything they do looks totally controlled, super styling and essentially looks easy.

When they both come together its sick, but bring on the steeeeezz!

How's this for a perfect combination of both: http://www.alliancewake.com/wake/201...rley-clifford/

I like both, but I have plenty of friends that can do super stylish grabs, 180s, and 360s...so if Im watching a pro rider, Id like to see some tech.

On another note-I love how Alliance calls out "Young Riders' Lack of Style" in this year's "The List" when Harley shows he has just as much as anyone in that Body Glove video. They say "the next step after landing a crow mobe is grabbing it, not hucking a two handed crow 5." The irony kills me considering the only people I can think of that do 2 handed hucked crow 5s are Chad Sharpe and maybe Ruck or Hansen?, a few well established/older riders, even from THE Pointless Crew who Alliance practically worships. Alliance seriously needs to take off its Old-man blinders. I remember they had some other snarky comments like this before and its just silly.

^^^ I've seen JR mens vids that show a few riders doing ugly 2 handed Crow 5's.

And I agree with you. I can't stand people who think they know it all and make snarky comments ;)

@ Eric Alper- Nice video, hadn't seen that one yet. To be honest I wasn't a huge Harley Clifford fan until I had seen that video. Not to be little his riding ability, he is fantastic, but I had never seen him do anything extremely stylish. That video just completely changed my mind, hopefully we see some more riding like this from Harley!

Btw I'm a fairly large fan of double grabbed 3's or super slow poked grabbed 3's. Figured I would share since everyone else was...

Harley's style is as sick as any I've seen. I didn't know he had a crow 7!

I respect all riders for their hard work and effort to do what they do best.All riders are progressing the sport.So long live Tech and Steeze!

If Harley and and Rathys riding are considered technical then I'd rather watch that anyday

Definitely have to take the pragmatist view here and agree with a few people on here that the ultimate is when both are combined together. Methods are one of the ultimate style tricks, but a method to blind is just epic and technical. If you can take technical tricks big and tweak/grab them, it's the best of both worlds. Lots of people can do big, lots can do tech, but it's a very select group that can combine both.