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-   Archive through August 29, 2003 (http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=80768)
-   -   x-games (http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79058)

tfdhyprider 08-18-2003 8:09 PM

did yall watch the x-games. . . i liked danny's wake to wake 9 w/ the grab that was very nice at the end..Hes rips too this being his 3rd in a row at x-games ...WOW THATS SO AWESOME

wakeboarder4lif 08-18-2003 8:53 PM

i'm pretty sure that that 9 was off the double up. <BR> <BR>did you hear those lame announcers, they didn't even know the trick names the called danny's moby-dick a method kgb, then in his next pass he did a kgb and they got that right. I was waiting for them to call that a moby-dick. I think espn can affored to get better announcers than that maybee some that actualy know the sport.

actiondcpd 08-18-2003 8:57 PM

I like how the whole coverage spanned a whole 10 mintues... I'm glad I was there to watch it in person.

griffdizzle 08-18-2003 9:02 PM

i noticed a few other mistakes as well. the only one i can remember off hand was that one and that they called shane's on axis 540 an off axis 540. i know there were some others as well. i think watkins did an indy glide and they called it something different. besides the mistakes the comments about riding in general weren't what a rider would think about. jeff barton may have an annoying voice or an annoying vocabulary but at least he knows what he is talking about. i would have rather heard him. but hey at least wakeboarding got some more coverage this year. we saw all of the tricks of all 8 finalist's runs.

wakeboarder4lif 08-18-2003 9:09 PM

true about the coverage. i think i would have rater heard jeff also or any body a lot of us could do a better job than they did. one more thing i hate how they show all of that old school wakeboard film ya know

jzwake 08-19-2003 6:43 AM

The riding was good, predictable but good, only suprise was a Whirly 5 from Danny. I will say that the s bend from shane was Odd, why wasn't he doing that trick back when it would win the contests. The announcers Suck, "that was super" and the load "WoooooaaaaHHH" as the rider hit the double up. I caught that KBG / moby dick. I like the slo mo when parks lost his balance on the Small slider and dragged his hand. They were like "he all locked in" god, couldn;t they of shown something else from the pass slomo, not his bobble. I for One would Prefer if they just did wakeboarding like bike stunt flatland, have the riders talk us through each run. This is like the 4th year in a row I feel that wakeboarding is badly represented on TV at the X games.

rock_n_boardin 08-19-2003 7:29 AM

They should have someone who knows what their talking about, or at least have a spotter who tells them the tricks into their ear phones. "who knows they probably did" It is tape delayed, how about putting in the commentery after the fact, then you don't have to hear two knuckle heads hooting and hollering when someone goes big. But from what I have seen it's almost the same for all the sports that are covered during the X Games. I guess the major sports, Football, Baseball, etc. get the good announcers. Leaving the scrubs to the X Games. <BR> <BR>But I will say the highlight for me was Parks getting ready to watch Danny hit that double, he was so stoked, it was good to see another rider get stoked for someone who just beat him. If anything it put a good light on the sport, that was pretty exciting. Oh and the fact he almost dropped an F-Bomb "freakin" LOL <BR> <BR>Did I just miss it, or did they never show Danny's score? It was as if they just went with Park's commentary that he had it won, the taping I saw, they went straight from the celebration on the beach to a victoy interview at the end LOL what ever happened to the suspense of the final score being announced? LOL

blind5 08-19-2003 7:43 AM

you guys sumed it up perfect.

jess 08-19-2003 8:10 AM

Whatever happened to Ruck's run. He went after Harf I thought. They only showed 7 riders.

nautiair 08-19-2003 8:14 AM

the announcer sounded like spiccoli..... uhhh duuuude... ahhhhh.. that was like siiiick. uhhhh. did anyone else notice........

blind5 08-19-2003 8:18 AM

hell ya sure did

corey_marotta 08-19-2003 8:57 AM

First off I am not defending the X-Games, but I am curious to know how many people here have experience calling out tricks live and at todays level of riding? <BR> <BR> I know it's easy from the comforts of a couch.

jzwake 08-19-2003 9:07 AM

From the boat it's easy, from land a little harder. IMO, I can live with the Mistakes in what trick he did but all the extra, horrible narration is too much. I was watching last night with a friend that is a killer snowboarder and when the announcer yelled out woooooowwww! as soon as shane hit the double up he turned to me and said how do you watch this Crap. I mean dude is screaming before shane even got the poke out. <BR> <BR>(Message edited by jzwake on August 19, 2003) <BR> <BR>(Message edited by jzwake on August 19, 2003)

greatdane 08-19-2003 9:27 AM

Did anyone, other than me, think that the x-games wake from the new x-star looked rampy and small?

rock_n_boardin 08-19-2003 9:31 AM

Corey, <BR> <BR>your right, I am sure it's not easy to call tricks live. It's also not easy pulling a 9, but Danny did. Or to pull a 360 inverted on a dirt bike, but it happened. Because these guys are profesionals, they do this for a living. That is why they get on TV, because they are the top profesionals in their sport. <BR> <BR>Now the announcers should be profesionals too, yes everybody makes mistakes, I have seen the best make them, but if these are the best announcers they can get? ughhhh To showcase on TV during the X-Games, supposedly the top event for the majority of these sports, and only happening once a year? <BR> <BR>But to answer your question, no I don't have any experience calling live tricks on TV. You know what, I would be the first to admit I don't have the talent to do it, but guess what, I am also not getting paid to do it for a living on TV either. <BR> <BR>I agree with Jason though, I can overlook a few miscalls on tricks, but the lame hoooopin and hollllering ugghhhhh It's so annoying......

jzwake 08-19-2003 9:47 AM

Why can't Espn get some non competive/former rider to replace Weatherhall (sp?) for the X games. He is the old pres of the WWA and I've never Scene a thing about him since. Most of the other Sports have a Former/Present pro and a TV person. Have Bill Macaffery, Collin wright, Greg nelson, Dean Lavell, Greg Necrasson, Byerly do color and tell doug Dunbar to shut up. JB Does a Good job but they have him dockside announcing for the crowd. <BR> <BR>(Message edited by jzwake on August 19, 2003)

rock_n_boardin 08-19-2003 10:25 AM

Yeah good idea, in almost every other sport that is how it is.

paulsmith 08-19-2003 10:38 AM

Dane, I absolutely noticed that. Of course, bear in mind this was saltwater, which significantly affects wake shape and size.

corey_marotta 08-19-2003 10:53 AM

The problem is the current governing body of the pro tour derived from another water sport, not wakeboarding. ESPN hires out those "talents" to run their events within their X-Games format. So in wakeboarding’s case you will still come across old hats. Compared to the other board sports wakeboarding is still very young and all the weeds have not been picket yet. <BR> <BR>This is not to take away from individuals that do bring a legitimate “talent” to the pro tour, like events, and real publication. We are still just growing. Unfortunately we had one more year of the X-Games version of the sport for the world to watch. <BR>

toolfan 08-19-2003 11:00 AM

how do you know for a fact that the announcers were calling it live. the show wasnt live. as a video editor, i can say that tv can be deceiving. bottom line....the coverage once again sucked. one upside was the fact that sportcenter air a clip of the event in its opening.

socalrider 08-19-2003 12:23 PM

I did not see the televised version yet but I was there to watch it on Sunday. In defense of the announcers it sounds like they used the live commentary for the television. I noticed a couple of miscalled tricks when I was there as well but the tent that they were calling from was at the far end of the course. As for the yelling and stuff it was a way to try and get the spectators pumped up. The only thing that disappointed me was that the TV booth was in the middle of the course obstructing the view of at least one trick in each pass. I was also amazed that Murray did not make the finals. His prelim run was amazing.

jzwake 08-19-2003 12:24 PM

In the past X games and past and present Pro tour the announcers have/do not call it live. But, This year it appeared they called it live since Parks Bonifay was talking to them on a head set while danny harf was on the water. <BR> <BR>Corey that is a very good point about ESPN giving control to Wakeboard tour folks.

actiondcpd 08-19-2003 12:53 PM

Yeah that TV booth was in a lame spot... we were on that side for the prelims and then walked around so we could get in the water and have an unobstrucked view for the finals.

blind5 08-19-2003 1:27 PM

all im sayin is that the wakeboarding announcers and espn make our sport look and sound really stupid to me. like when espn shows some really old wakeboarding footage when the wakeboarding section comes on. you don't ever see any old footage when they do any shots of anyother sport in the X-games. maybee some shots form last year or something like that. <BR> <BR>They could have edited all of that parks interview and such. <BR> <BR>i don't even care to watch that crap with those idiots announcing that don't even know trick names

corey_marotta 08-19-2003 2:02 PM

With the job that ESPN does for the sport during the X-Games, if made to make a choice would you have wakeboarding shown the whey they do on TV or not have wakeboarding in the X-Games at all. <BR> <BR> At what point does the exposure do more harm than good? <BR>

rock_n_boardin 08-19-2003 2:59 PM

Good point, but it was nice to be able to see it in the first place, since I was not able to make it in person. I guess next time I will just turn off the sound and crank the stereo! LOL <BR> <BR>But I will say in a lot of cases the other sports were not to much better off than wakeboarding as far as the announcers are concerned. I watched some of the Moto X Freestyle, Skateboarding, BMX Downhill, inline vert. Announcers seemed to in general have the trick names down, but were still lame, with all the fake pumped up voice and cheering and such. Like this is the X Games, we are extreme YEAH YEAH LOL <BR> <BR>I think it just has to do with the fact that a lot of these sports are not on TV to often, so the announcers never get practice. A good basketball announcer might announce 80 to 100 games a year, and probably do over a thousand games before they would cover a big event. <BR> <BR>So ESPN is probably doing about is good as they can do, so until Wakeboarding gets more main stream, and we get lucky enough to have an X-Rider who is a natural at commentary and ESPN thinks Wakeboarding is big enough to justify bringing on another announcer for a specific new sport, it probably won't get much better. Just look at how much better it got when Parks threw in his .02 cents at the end, he used his inside knowledge/experience to throw in some meaningful commentary, and to me was pretty entertaining though it was only for a few seconds. Kinda a tease, of what we could have. <BR> <BR>Boy that was long, anybody asleep yet? LOL

toolfan 08-20-2003 7:03 AM

i work for a production studio that produces shows for ESPN. the wake boarding community needs to band together. what i mean by this is......logon to EXPN.COM, go to the bottom of the page, click on "Contact Us", and then post your thoughts. i agree that coverage was a little sketchy to say the least. Believe me, they do listen to what the viewers want. maybe after enough suggestions/complaints they will realize that wakeboarding needs more coverage. this is our chance to show how many people are into the sport, and how many people care to watch it.

paulsmith 08-20-2003 7:21 AM

The women's coverage was horrid. They only showed Melissa and Dallas, and appeared to cut Dallas' run short. I liked when Melissa did a backside 3 and the announcer said "there's a backside 3, and she kinda took it blind." Am I missing something?

rock_n_boardin 08-20-2003 7:33 AM

What the hell is the squish noise they keep throwing in between angles or shots?!?!?! It sounds like......well I won't go there, but they have it going for all the sports. Change angle SQUISH, did anybody else hear this? Once you keyed in on it, you couldn't ignore it uggghhhhh What is the point, what does that lame a** noise add?!!? <BR> <BR>Kinda off the subject a little but what is up with the skateboarders on the skate park comp, the 2 top guys screw up the begining of their run so the just pull up and quit?!?!?!? What a bunch of pu****, give me a break, they let a 13 year old school them LOL If you are going to give up why don't you go hit a huge out of control trick to give the crowd what they want. If you ask me they set back skateboarding with that competition. Lame.

zorforg 08-20-2003 8:24 AM

Was the judging good? <BR>I am new to the sport and this was the first competition I have seen live. I have judged and coached surfing for 10 years. Are the judges looking at very small technical stuff or are they looking for riders to go big with style? I agree with Socalrider that Sean Murray should've advanced. He hit everything, going huge, with great style. <BR>Could someone explain the judging criteria, because the anouncer sure couldn't.

blind5 08-20-2003 8:44 AM

ya the judging was fine, but only because it is put on by the pro tour and they use the same judges in the tour. if espn would of gotten some judges they chris law would of won and danny would of made like fith place or something like that. the only thing differnt about the X-games from a tour stop is that this is televised and they have to have someone announce this.

jess 08-20-2003 9:08 AM

Although the men's coverage was not ideal, they showed a lot more of the runs than years past so there was at least an improvement. As far as the women's coverage, I know it wasn't much, but, thus far, it has been the only women's sport covered. <BR> <BR>I am not saying what they showed for men's and women's wakeboarding is what any of us would have liked to have seen, but when compared to the past few years, I think it was a step in the right direction.

jzwake 08-20-2003 9:52 AM

They should bring back freestyle bungee jumping and let the Doug Dingbat announce that. He couldn't even make that look any worse. <BR> <BR>"WooooooooooWWWWW, he jumped off the bridge" <BR>"suppppppeeerrrrrr, 3 flips" <BR>"as the rope tightens the rider will blast off back into the air" <BR>"and he does a forward front flip and took it a little out the front" <BR> <BR>

tahoe 08-20-2003 10:20 AM

There should probably be a separate thread just for this, but I think the key to get ESPN to show more Wakeboarding would be to write them a note to let them know how much we would like to see all the riders on future broadcasts. Heres the addy: <a href="http://expn.go.com/sitetools/s/contact/index.html" target="_blank">http://expn.go.com/sitetools/s/contact/index.html</a> <BR>If you don't get involved, don't complain! A few hundred e-mails goes a long way. <BR> <BR>I could stand the announcers if they showed all the runs. Thats what CD's are for. hahahaha

fbroen 08-20-2003 12:11 PM

Amen Tahoe!

electricsnow 08-20-2003 9:01 PM

You know, they nearly doubled the air time of wakeboarding this year and to my surprise, that still isn't good enough for a lot of you. <BR> <BR>Anyway, in defense of the skating announcers, two of the three announcers are ex-riders and very influential (tony hawk and chris miller). I think they do a nice jahb of announcing: they know their stuff and I didn't hear them being overly fake like todd weatherill (is that his name? right now my brain is mush). They were excited at the appropriate times (and understandably so), and other than that they just announced the runs casually. Quite frankly, some of you are being overly critical and very picky. <BR> <BR>I would like to add that todd (back to wakeboarding) is an ex-rider as well, he just hasn't mastered the art of announcing yet becuase like many of you have mentioned, he is a bit fake like....all of the time (despite all of his practice because I know he's been em-ceeing for a number of years). I believe he was a member of the original dirty dozen so he's been riding longer than the majority of the riders on this MB (including myself). For the most part, he knows his stuff, minus a few blunders. And yes, I have announced live at a comp before so I totally understand that the views and angles aren't always ideal. <BR> <BR>Also, ryan shekler is incredibly tallented and he already won the slam city jam this past year so it's not like he just came up and "schooled" some big name riders. When he wins, it's for a reason.

corey_marotta 08-21-2003 12:39 PM

A fan of any sport is entitled to an opinion. Especially if they don't like what is being shown. Since the begging we have all wanted wakeboarding to have more air time in the X-Games but if more crap is the result than...

deepstructure 08-21-2003 12:46 PM

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1><b>quote:</b></font><p>By the not so naked chef (electricsnow) on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - 9:01 pm: <BR> <BR>You know, they nearly doubled the air time of wakeboarding this year and to my surprise, that still isn't good enough for a lot of you.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote> <BR> <BR>lol. you say "doubled" as if to infer a dramatic increase. but if you double from 1 minute to 2 minutes, sorry but despite being a %100 increase it's not impressive. likewise for 5mins to 10mins. and like corey said, quality as well as quantity counts. <BR> <BR>i didn't see the broadcast, but if it's the guys in the video clips on expn, they sounded pretty inept. of course, i thought it was lame that expn has the video of the mens/womens winners up there, but doesn't include the double-ups! what...did they think the d/u's weren't part of their run?? <BR> <BR>there's no answer to the fact that coverage of wakeboarding, both in quality and quantity, needs to improve. period. is it better that there's more being shown? yes. can it be improved? yes. is there any reason not to point that out? no. <BR> <BR> <BR>

corey_marotta 08-21-2003 1:05 PM

Correction: Beginning

tfdhyprider 08-21-2003 7:44 PM

yeah i feel like espn is shunning wakeboarding. They need to realize it is a up and very much coming sport. 10 minutes is like nothing i wouldnt care if it sucked like it did in the x-games anouncing as long as they atelast put in a 30 min. session or somethin. GEEZZ!!

wakeridershs 08-22-2003 9:43 AM

wakeboarding has like the smallest following of any sport... i think we should just not worry about coverge and go ride... OR just tell blue tourch to show the X games

corey_marotta 08-22-2003 10:41 AM

Jay, do you know how long Blue Torch has been dead for? <BR> <BR> If you don't care about wakeboarding coverage looking gay, than by all means throw a rainbow sticker on your board and have at it. <BR>

electricsnow 08-22-2003 8:31 PM

I have a question: how exactly was the x games any worse than a pro tour event? Some of the negatives regarding the x games that I picked up on here include air time and lame announcers and pro tour events share at least half of those problems. As far as the air time is concerned, it was longer than 10 minutes, considering that last year they showed about four runs and that came to about 15 minutes. According to my vcr, it was at about 27 minutes, which is an improvement for all of you mathematicians out there. So, whoever said that there was 10 minutes of air time exaggerated in a major league way. <BR> <BR>As for the announcers,most of you said you wanted somebody that wasn't fake and somebody that knew their stuff (and alot of you made requests for JB). This is one aspect that I agree with. I agree that the commentators suck (for the most part). As for JB, he has a major league fake voice and he doesn't know what a boardslide is, so I don't think he is a huge step up from todd weatherill (and even though JB may be a great person, I wouldn't request him as a commentator). I do think that an ex-rider would be a nice addition, but when sonja scheffler announced some of the events this past year, I heard people knocking her (I think she did a nice job). Wakeboarding has gone through a ton of announcers in the past seven years and not everyone has a knack for the job. I'm being rather skeptical, but I don't see anyone actually being satisfied with an announcer, considering the fact that every other experienced announcer ended up being bashed as well (from other sports). <BR> <BR>Lastly, chris, how can you complain about the broadcast when you haven't even seen it? Video clips don't show everything.... <BR> <BR>Corey, what exactly are your suggestions for the x-games? I never caught any specific complaints from you, only that you thought the coverage sucked. <BR> <BR>Also, in my personal opinion, I'd rather watch this year's x-games coverage than nothing at all. I am out with a knee injury and I actually found a lot of the runs to be totally inspiring (shane for sure, and parks killed it). Plus, it's a nice comp for the riders to earn some major loot. Even parks said that he was glad that the x games has stuck with wakeboarding after all this time. It'd be easy enough for them to just drop it all together, especially with the response on this messageboard. <BR>

jzwake 08-23-2003 2:54 PM

Jeff Barton Was NOT the On air annoucer for the Xgames. He was the dockside announce for the live Audience. It was Doug dunbar and Jeff weatherhall. Weatherhall was the pres. of the WWA and took over for Tony finn after he left for ESPN. After 1 tourcherous season of Wheatherhall anouncing he was replaced by PJ marks. JB is probable\y the best announcer we've had yet.

08-23-2003 2:59 PM

Dallas Friday blew me away. <BR> <BR>Demi

electricsnow 08-23-2003 6:29 PM

yeah,I know he's been announcing the x games since 1998 (at least, maybe 1997 too). but I'm saying that JB has the same announcing problems that todd has. he has a fake voice and he mislabels tricks, too. So quite frankly, I'm not sure how JB is a huge step up from todd. But that's my opinion.

jzwake 08-24-2003 4:53 PM

From what I've seen, JB is much better at calling out tricks. The last 2 X games in Philly he was very good at dockside calling out the tricks.

corey_marotta 08-25-2003 9:45 AM

Hey Chef, stuff it! <BR> <BR> I never used the word "sucked" so do your homework and don't put words in my mouth. Your writing style reflects that of someone in the industry, come out of the closet. My standpoint on this topic has been mostly in question format so don't try to pull ideas for improvement out of me. <BR> <BR> Sonja Scheffler??? Give me a break, that your example. Nothing against Sonja, nice girl and has done allot of work in the industry; but the whole sex sells deal does not constitute a caliber of rider for the example of a "former rider" doing announcing. <BR> <BR> As far as calling out JB, your thoughts on him only concrete how much you don't know what you are talking about. Have at it and good luck to you on that one! <BR> <BR> Nothing I wrote said I didn’t want wakeboarding in the X-Games; I worked for them for four years and am happy to have been a part of it. All of us discussing this topic have a right to our opinions, if it didn't look good on TV for the majority than you might think it didn't look good to the rest of the world. If that's the case than it was probably not a good representation of the sport. Is that not the goal of ESPN and the X-Games??? <BR>

electricsnow 08-26-2003 1:13 PM

This was from one of your posts above: <BR>"With the job that ESPN does for the sport during the X-Games, if made to make a choice would you have wakeboarding shown the whey they do on TV or not have wakeboarding in the X-Games at all. <BR> <BR>At what point does the exposure do more harm than good?" <BR> <BR>You are right, you never used the word "sucked" but many of your posts wreaked of disapproval when it comes to the X games exposure and television coverage (Just as an example, the quote I provided above, and your comment about how "if more crap is the result.....") <BR> <BR>Secondly, I never thought of Sonja as being a "sex sells" sort of deal. I never approached it that way and quite frankly, I did think she did a fairly nice job. As you have said, people are entitled to their opinions and that's just one of mine. Also, can't a girl announce without people worrying about "Sex selling?" It's not like she was dressed like a floozy and it's not like she was there to act like a bimbo and make JB look good. It's like girls can't have any credibility, which is lame. <BR> <BR>Also, I was calling out JB because people were making a big stink about todd when really, they have similar styles. They both sound fake when they announce and they both make mistakes when calling tricks. As I've said a thousand times, JB still doesn't know the proper jibbing terminology (at least on tv) and he's made mistakes on trick calling just like Todd. I know he's (JB) been around wakeboarding for a really long time and I know he's done a lot for it because he loves it, but I don't think he's the god of announcers and he's not that much better than todd. <BR> <BR>And quite frankly, I don't know how I'm that far off about JB. I never said he was a dweeb or anything about his personal character. I have based my comments on observations from previous competitions that I have watched on tv. Why would I make up something like, "JB miscalls tricks, too." To each his own, but what would an uneducated, nobody like me know. <BR> <BR>Also, I never said that people weren't entitled to an opinion regarding the x games because I have mine, too. The thing that I read in this discussion is complaints about one televised tournament that basically goes on with the tour stops as well. Yet for some reason, people always find a way to hate the x games. <BR> <BR>Lastly, I wouldn't consider myself a full-on industry insider, I'm just a fan. I have been lucky enough to help someone with their wakeskate projects though, and for that I am thankful. <BR> <BR>I don't have a beef with you, so thanks for your professionalism. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and "stuff it." <BR> <BR>

corey_marotta 08-26-2003 1:44 PM

No beef on this side either.


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