PWT Fun Box

Anyone else think that they could put something better there?

Every rider does the same thing:
Pass 1 - 270 transfer
Pass 2 - Back Lip

At least with the rooftop you see some variation.... maybe its just me, but I hate the funbox

Nick,

I can tell first hand having it that Transfer Box its not as easy as it looks and crashing on it sucks. Both those trick you just mentiones are basically hammers on that fun box. Also a lot of guy hit it switch increasing the gnar factor.

To a certain extent what you are complaining about is seeing the same thing over and over again. The PWT's new score system has eliminated a lot of the "typical" contest passes. But I bet almost every run on a PTW stop has a Pete, Crow-5, Batiwng Variation, and a two 7's

andy - suprised at your comment -

i'd pretty much say hitting the funbox switch is easier for a lot of riders.

but yeah - watching the tour has gotten incredibly boring. unless i see a 9 or ts bs spin i'm pretty much unimpressed.

how come no more freeride tournaments. i remember them from 12-14 yrs ago - gator, heavener, byerly - 4 min to go at it, no rules.

Charles, I would love to see that. Just show up everybody has 10 mintues, do what every you want. Kinda like Parks Double or nothing. Bring your own drive

I agree w/nick at some extent here. I can back lip and switch 270 a funbox on a cable. Not sure how much harder it is off a boat, but what i would like to c is more toeside transfers and noseslides/presses. toeside is a tough transfer i know that for sure

Yea that funbox needs to go, leave it at my house please.

Going back to some free ride contest would be ideal. I realize the scoring is more subjective, but the potential for style and originality is greater and they are much more fun to watch. You could have 4 std format events and 4 more free style events each season.

I would like to see some points for variation. Most of the riders do the exact same pass all three rounds. Maybe have a drawing before each round that dictates 1 or 2 mandatory tricks. Kind of interesting to see who has a big bag of tricks.

I think the tour is fun to watch though. Especially if you just hit the semi finals and finals.

in competition you get rewarded for consistency, NOT hanging it out there on something that you may not have on lock. so when there's money on the line you're going to get a lot of stock runs w/ the same bag of tricks. it's nice to see some new things emerge like Rathy and Harley throwin toe back 5's but it's sort of wierd to see a toe back 5 and then nosegrab crow.

there's still room for improvement to the new scoring system tho. it would be cool if you couldnt repeat a trick the whole comp. essentially you would have to have 3 different runs on lock. that would be fun to see...

PWT = boring to watch.

Chris O's pressure cooker was a pretty rad contest, I am all for more of that. I would also like to see some comps where the riders vote to decide the winner. Something where everyone is video'd then they all watch the video and vote.

+1 for pressure cooker...that was friggin dope..i watch those videos all the time

" noseslides/presses"
Yeah?? On the transfer box? Lol. Wouldn't that be something to see.You got any idea how little time you have on the downside of that transfer box?

The PWT is where a lot of pro's make money.How exactly would you be a pro at any sport if they didn't have comps?The riding at TX was really,really good. And now it is a lot more competitive as there are a bunch of guys who can win.
As Rusty said "the guys that don't like comps are the guys that have no chance of winning"

Don't like it. Don't watch.

Don't like it don't watch.

I agree that all the hits on the PWT are pretty boring. I'm not saying that what they're doing isn't hard. I'm sure it is very hard, but they all do pretty much the same thing, which sort of tells me the difficulty level isn't way up there relatively speaking. It tells me that they are being safe and saving their falls for more difficult wake tricks. How often do you see someone fall on the obstacles? You don't.

I certainly don't fault the riders for doing this. They have to play the game the best way they know how to earn a win. Unfortunately, the current scoring system does not encourage taking risks on the obstacles and this is the result. I think they should either force the riders to do more exciting stuff on them by tweaking the way they do the scoring or they should dump them altogether and allow them more time for wake tricks.

As I said a week ago in a previous thread, "Why don't we see that kind of rail work on the Pro Tour?"

you also have to take into account the speed of the boat. when i'm hittin rails behind the ski there's no way in hell i'm ridin at 24-25 mph. i'm ridin at 19-21 and i'm on 95' of rope. so there's a lot more time to press and whatnot.

i like what dave said about the taking of the obstacles out of the run. it would be interesting to have them split the weekend up like at the wakepark worlds. obstacles only and wake only.

hey chris

i agree totally if you dont like it dont watch it. How many days would you need to run a free ride event, come on sounds good but practicality doesnt allow for this. PWT might be boring to you MattG but as chris said this is where these guys make their money. Riders judging riders they already do that, it wouldnt be practical to have 20 riders all judging who was the best at a contest. The new format does eleminate some of the hammers that used to be throw, as consistency is the key to winning. Many of you guys out there wanted to see big air tricks so I believe that has eliminated the bigger hammer tricks. Now you need to do tricks in each catagory to win.
All these riders have style and originality of their own, why is it that many people on this site think that wakeboarders need to be more like snow boarding with their riding. Come on they are 2 totally different sports, so it is really hard to copy either. Why dont snowboarders ride more like wakeboarders and why dont they do they same mobe tricks as wakeboarders.
So i have had my 2 cents worth

Jr I totally agree. I never say, 'hey lets go jib you drive 26 mph."

So here's the deal from my perspective: The PWT transfer box is one of a kind. The only chance that most of the riders get to hit it is at the events. If you are really lucky and probably really good, you may get invited to media day and get to hit the box the day before the event. I know that there are a few transfers around that are pretty close to the one on the tour, but none that are exactly the same. As a practical matter, tricks on a wakeboard take a while to perfect so that they are comp ready. Most tour riders aren't doing super technical tricks on the transfer, because they don't get a chance to hit anything close to it on a regular basis. It is impossible to perfect a trick if you can't practice it. Riders who do have access to a PWT style transfer have a HUGE advantage on the rail part of their score. These are the guys who are doing the more technical tricks on the box. Riders who don't have access to a similar apparatus are mainly trying not to kill themselves on it.
I am happy to see the tour use the rooftop and the A-frame. These sliders are somewhat similar to more common sliders that many people have access to.
At the Texas stop, I saw some pretty technical slides on the rooftop. That's fun to watch.

watch the vids. some dam sick runs there with variation. do we not see old school tricks like s bends cause new riders cant do them? the likes of shapiro, eisenhauer and weatherall would be sitting back and having a laugh...

Peter, I agree with you and I think that would be all the more reason to remove it from the competition. People want to see pros riding at the top of their game doing tricks that they've worked hard to pull off. The last thing people want to watch is a pro learning a new trick at a competition, which is sort of what you've described. Adding a slider that nobody can practice on seems similar to telling each rider that they have to perform a wake trick that they've never tried before in their run. It just doesn't seem conducive to showing off the best of the best and wowing the audience with the incredible skills that each of these riders possess.

Agree with Chris & Andy, hitting the box at 25 mph in a comp when one mistake and you out is pressure, I've seen the box take out good pro's at every comp. As far as everyone doing the same thing, I guess you have never seen Steel doing his backside 3 or 450 transfer, kind of intense. The tour does a good job of changing up the obstacles at every stop so the riders have to plan a different strategy at every stop. Just maybe the Pro's make it look easy because their Pro's.

How about Adam E busting his huge ollie on to the rail without the box! That was dope!

I just think everybody is a bunch of whiners! If you spent as much time riding as you did whining you would be on the PWT to do whatever YOU wanted to on the funbox

In order to grab a percentage of a viewing audience, like it or not, you have to add a level of danger. When you go to a rail jam where the high percentage of spectators are of the untrained eye, they all want to see them go upside down. I can't begin to tell you how many drunks I wanted to beat down cuz they wanted my kids to go upside down off a kicker into 2 ft of water! When Jacob does his demo for fiesta days in Canyon Lake, he can tweak his grabs all he wants but give him one back roll and 2000 people go nuts!! You do have to morph into what sells tickets, like it or not!
Do you know they used to call the transfer, "the slaughter box"? It was a well deserved name.

Andy, completely with you son

Charles, have YOU hit the transfer? heelside, let alone toe side?? Now THERE is crazy!

Dave, all these years and I NEVER knew you were anti transfer!!

Hugs all around!!

Just my two cents...

I'm not anti-transfer at all. I'm just saying that if you're going to use it, weight the scoring in a way that gives riders more of an incentive to take risks on it, rather than an incentive to do something safe on it. I'd love to see what the pros would do differently if they did this. I think it would be great!

Ok, ok, lets put this on hold for a sec and focus on whats important....GO LAKERS!!

The only transfer box I've ever done was the old one OWC had back in the day, I could transfer up to that fine (270's etc etc)... true it was the cable, it wasn't under pressure, and it was going really fast... but it wasn't nearly as hard as the other stuff going down PWT than transfering on a funbox.

I never hit it switch, my switch riding is fairly awful... I understand they want to win and land their tricks, but when 9 out of 10 riders do the same thing it just gets old.



The "don't like it don't watch it" arguement is stupid.... maybe if there were 2/3 contests that got filmed every week I would forget about the PWT but since there is basically 1 event a weekend that someone will film and post I have to watch it..... everything else about it is great, just that one thing.... if they keep the box they should change it up to give riders some options

I completely disagree with anyone who wants this removed from the tour. I do agree with the fact the seeing the same transfer to backlip, 270 front board does get old very fast. At that point I say to you that if you have not tried to hit that box behind a boat, better yet a jetski, then you do not realize the difficulty that it takes to do the transfer tricks that every rider does. The fact of the matter is the fun box with probably never be removed, due to the fact that its been around on tour forever, and more so a crusial point in the course. Just look at what happened to some riders in Texas. Their runs were solid, but they fell on the box, causing them to fall short of advancing. Anyone that thinks its boring to watch think that simply because they don’t respect it. I would love for you to trail on down to Florida and get with JD Webb, Kyle Alberts, Nick Jones, Robby Carter, and Andrew A, sign the wavier, and pay the fee and hit theirs. Then see if your opinion changes about it. Otherwise, quit being girls and worring about whats on tour. Just be happy that you can watch these guys do what they do. When you get on tour, you make changes and get things done. Until then, let it go.

I cannot believe the PWT does not promote the evnt more. There should definately be more people out there these days.

I was getting fitted for my ACL brace yesterday and some kid with a broken arm asked me how I hurt my knee. I told him wakeboarding and he launched into some monologue about Rusty and all of these other pro riders. I asked him if he went to the Pro tour last week and his mother and him looked at each other like "damn, what a bummer that we missed it." Then I told them about Nationals and other events comingup soon and they were all over it.

Hell when I tried to look up nationals / wakeboarding online the first sites that cam up were the cable park nationals. If they wanted to grow the sport they could definately get more local radio promotion. Hell the guys that run the Dallaswakeboarding.com tournamant here get our little tournament here better promotion than the Pro Tour!