Pro Tour & Drug Tests

I just heard that the pro tour is going to be mandating drug testing of all riders before each event. I dont think they are starting this until the 2012 or 2013 season, but i heard its definitly coming.

Im not sure how this might "change the game", but its interesting.

thoughts?

Won't that clear out the field of riders?

i dont think everyone gets high..my opinion

Performance enhancing drugs? That would make sense. I don't think being a stoner is going to give you an unfair advantage.

no more pro tour then..

There goes bonifay

hilarious.

I would imagine that their insurance company is driving this....if it is really true. But really, is it worth the cost just to flush out pot?

Just a lifestyle adjustment for some riders. I don't think it will change much. Although I bet we see a few disqualifications every year.

hahaha i guess my prediction of the pro tour losing all popularity to a pro cable tour is going to come much faster than i predicted.

+1 kyle

Can we just get unemployment to do drug test then move on from there?

Well if they have tigers blood like Charlie Sheen...they dont have anything to worry about.

Josh, can we throw welfare and food stamps in the mix too?

that has to be the dumbest thing i have heard. All that for a little bit of weed. And as for performance enhancing drugs..... what drugs help you wakeboard? its just not that kind of sport.

do we know what they are testing for? I seriously doubt they are testing the riders for weed. and I dont see how this will lead to a cable tour, they will just test those riders as well. good one Seth!

Originally Posted by stevo8290

that has to be the dumbest thing i have heard. All that for a little bit of weed. And as for performance enhancing drugs..... what drugs help you wakeboard? its just not that kind of sport.

Actually there would be a lot of uses for it in any sport. One is the healing factor form injuries, another would be cardiovascular indurance. If you don't tired as quickly you can pull off more, and better tricks. I wouldn't be surprised to see it in wakeboarding. They aren't just for strength.

that's just stupid. you don't see big time pro sports doing this, and the players usually know before hand when it will be. sure, test for steroids if you think that's an issue, but c'mon. stay out of our personal lives corporate America. i guess ryan sheckler wouldn't be able to compete anymore.

finnally the death of contest riding hahaha

I think that would be a really expensive endeavor, and I'll believe it when I see it.

not too sure what a huge set of lats is going to do to help someone ride, but hey.......

YES!!! I can finally make a PWT final now.

before each event? doubt it......

before the pro tour once a year? sounds about right.....

I dont believe anything till I see it.......

And you know how they'll get around this? It's called K2, haha. however, that stuff is actually relatively harmful to your body, sooo I dunno if that's a good thing.

Originally Posted by bwake

not too sure what a huge set of lats is going to do to help someone ride, but hey.......

You'd be surprised at the different sports that they are used in. They aren't just fro muscle gain, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are in use in wakeboarding.

I can't see them targeting marijuana use. Doens't make a ton of sense unless there have been problems wiht the riders due to it. They could be just tryig to create a cleaner image much like the NFL and other pro sports do. Getting around marijuana tets is realtively simple though

The "stay out of our personal lives" arguement is fine, but they're being paid and sponsered, so it's not personal. You wanna smoke up or take some performance enhancing "vitamins", knock yourself out, it's your body. But if the person paying the bills says you can't? Either follow their rules or find another way to make a living.

Great. You can pound a 12 pack and a fifth of Jack and ride, but you can't hit a bowl.

well at least videos will still be cool.

Hitting the bowl results in a much more enjoyable ride when compared to large amounts of alcohol. Just saying...

Drug test? Great, how do you study for that?

Just get your Medicinal Marijuana Recomendation and hold all the tour stops in states that allow for medication.

Medical marijuana cards do not prohibt companies or associations from not allowing you to participate due to mj use.

Maybe with enough cracking down on recreational drug users prohibition will end and we can finally get rid of the gang/crime/border problem since it all stems from prohibition. Personally I dislike marijuana and other drugs but it's none of my business to tell other people what they can do with their own bodies. Prohibition and enforcement of prohibition only makes criminals out of normal functional people who have families, jobs and pay taxes. The criminal organizations it creates is even worse.

As for the tour and other competitive events that may adopt drug testing, you'll probably see a few riders fade away from competition. Probably not a huge change.

Originally Posted by cadunkle

Maybe with enough cracking down on recreational drug users prohibition will end and we can finally get rid of the gang/crime/border problem since it all stems from prohibition. Personally I dislike marijuana and other drugs but it's none of my business to tell other people what they can do with their own bodies. Prohibition and enforcement of prohibition only makes criminals out of normal functional people who have families, jobs and pay taxes. The criminal organizations it creates is even worse.

As for the tour and other competitive events that may adopt drug testing, you'll probably see a few riders fade away from competition. Probably not a huge change.

+1 on the ending of prohibition

No doubt some would have to adjust their smoking habits if they wanted to compete on the tour, but I'm surprised at some of the responses here to the performance enhancing drugs thought. I'm sure some pros use, or have used them in the past. They are experimented with in almost any sport. I'm not expert on the subject but I do remember high school buddies that were all about researching them, doing presentations and what not on them. Apparently there are several different types steroids/hormones that have different effects on the body. "cutting, bulking,", etc. The fact is, they all make you much stronger. I've weight trained a little on and off over the 10 years I've been riding and I know that when I'm stronger, riding is alot easier. I can definitely see where the right training and use would help a rider. Roids aren't just for 300lb body builders.

lance armstrong is in trouble for some drug that helps move oxygen through the blood or something like that. i'm pretty sure no professional wakeboarders or wakeskaters use illegal performance enhancing drugs. i agree those should be banned, but anything else is just an invasion of privacy. as for pot, if anything it makes winning harder so who cares. and i think this is all conjecture and gossip anyways, but who is going to be paying for these tests? a lab test cannot get results the day of and cvs tests, while fairly accurate, are not good enough IMO. darn double standards. like someone said above, if this were enacted a rider could get totally hammered but that would be acceptable under the rules? psh.

I think it is funny that everyone went straight for the weed. As if thats the only thing going down. Maybe by far the most common but not only. I would love to see something like this happen. If testing is the case where is the line drawn though. Blood dopping would increase revocery time are they going to test for that too? In all sports not just wakeboarding. In any case I vote for any drug testing but will believe it when I see it.

I think they should snort a big fat line right after their first pass, Then watch them go BIG on their 2ND.... LOL.... But really, if their boat sponsor does not mind them smoking a bowl in a $80,000 boat while parked in the middle of the lake then why test them @ contest..

Scott, I'd like your blood, urine, hair, and lie detector every day before work. And you have to pay for it. How's that sound? I'd also like your religion, sexual preference, body scan, and semen sample. It really is dumb. Do what u do and let others do what they do. If someone wants to pull a Charlie sheen it's their business.

Not if it enhances performance,
a little androgen, a little erythropoetin....that would help me

its one thing to use steroids to help repair ur body from a major injury, but if ur using em to give urself an advantage, then it just shows how much of a woman u are! lol physically and metally. if ur tryin to be the best, do it right

IMO, weed doesn't help for wakeboarding but I remember a story about Chris Sharma (pro climber) who got some problems with blood test and weed. Plus, he didn't want to change is lifestyle because he claimed that weed doesn't help his climb but some researchs said the opposite. It suppose to keep some fears away and help to keep focus... ok... possible... for climbing! But, I am sure that doesn't help for wakeboarding! NOT GOOD AT ALL for spatial perceptions! Not good doesn't mean not fun!

Red meat would definitely help performance, as would carbohydrates, ibuprofin, and water. As performance enhancing ingestibles, I wonder if they will be banned also?

I forgot to say that like people said, there's a lot of different steroids... as much as different physical qualities! I'm pretty there's somme could hlep wakeboarding so, maybe blood test is interesting!

Redmeat and carbs are just natural energy sources. They're not artificially changing chemical levels in the body to create new tissues.

Beer makes you braver. Or stupider. Sometimes it's the same.

All in all I don't see the point of doing the tests unless they've had problems. More than likely they are just trying to be proactive and follow suit with other sports.

I guess it could be argued both ways, but personally, I dont think physical strength is a large enough part of wakeboarding to make steroids an issue in contest riding. When Harley can beat Rusty, or Adam Errington can place third in front of a field of riders who are visibly more muscular than he is, its not like that extra little bit of strength is an issue. As far as endurance, how long does the average contest run last? And the time between heats is more than enough to recover from the previous run. Riding in the amature class in Wakestock, my run was over before I had fully processed that it had started. Pro runs are obviously longer, but still below 5 minutes. Endurance isnt really even an issue. So sure roids (or whatever) will give you a bit of an edge, and its obviously unfair to have that, but I think its just not enough of an edge, and I personally doubt that drugs are common enough to warrant full on tests.

yeah as far as the performance enhancing drugs go, It doesn't matter how much time I spend in the gym during the winter, I still can't lift my arms above my head after my first set of the season.
I love how you can be a pro wakeboarder and look like Shane or Harley.
Its kindof hard for me to believe that dudes would be taking anything like that unless it was to recover from an injury.

I'm sure it is for PED's and not recreational drugs but who knows it could be both. If its a once a year thing passing the test for MJ would be a peice of cake with all the products on the market that allow for that. I can gaurantee that PED's will help both physically and mentally in wakeboarding. They make you think you can do anything and next thing you know, you are.

Originally Posted by benjaminp

I guess it could be argued both ways, but personally, I dont think physical strength is a large enough part of wakeboarding to make steroids an issue in contest riding. When Harley can beat Rusty, or Adam Errington can place third in front of a field of riders who are visibly more muscular than he is, its not like that extra little bit of strength is an issue. As far as endurance, how long does the average contest run last? And the time between heats is more than enough to recover from the previous run. Riding in the amature class in Wakestock, my run was over before I had fully processed that it had started. Pro runs are obviously longer, but still below 5 minutes. Endurance isnt really even an issue. So sure roids (or whatever) will give you a bit of an edge, and its obviously unfair to have that, but I think its just not enough of an edge, and I personally doubt that drugs are common enough to warrant full on tests.

Endurance may not directly effect contest runs, but where it will impact is training. When you can extend sets in training, and get more sets in, you are going to ride better come contest time. Really this is basically how they effect other sports also. They don't just make you stronger, faster, or have more endurance without putting in the training time to make them work.

^Good point. Again, from my point of view, with the amount they ride anyway I'm not sure how much of an impact the extra endurance would have, but I'm no pro rider so you likely have more of an idea than I do.

I'm not a pro rider either, just have been a gym rat most of my life and was a personal trainer for quite a few years, and have trained some pro athletes. Depending on the drugs you take you'll get different results. What it really comes down to is if you have 2 athletes at the same skill level and you allow one to be able to train harder, longer, and without the negative effects of over training, then that athlete will be better. It isn't going to make a lesser skilled rider better than a more skilled one, but it will give an advantage to a similarly skilled athlete.

Exactly. When you take performance enhancing drugs correctly, you can train harder, probably wakeboard twice as much, and reduce the risk of injury immensely, and come back from injury much more quickly.

Anyone who thinks correct administration of PEDs wouldn't help a pro wakeboarder simply has no idea what they are talking about. PEDs have less to do with strength than they do with maintenance and recovery. They should be legal, and I'm the first guy to use them if I need to to come back from an injury if it means my life will be more enjoyable.

I haven't taken em, but I'm in the same place as Joe. As I get older and my injuries take longer to heal and my training becomes less effective I have seriously thought about it. In the long run I probably will sooner or later.