x games annoucer

did anyone watch the super pipe finals last night? i forget which guy was riding but he got hung up on his last spin missing the grab(i think 1080) and the tv announcer made fun of him by saying he messed up and looked like a wakeboarder spinning and they both laughed. i just thought that was kind of messed up to put on national tv.

Was is the black guy with dread? Sal masakela? If so he is a tool anyway and does gossip shows on the E channel now. What a goon.

I heard that too... they said it looked like a whirly LOL. It was a knock on us for sure.

BTW... anyone else think Pearce was ROBBED!!!!

Yes Luker...I agree Pearce was robbed. I like Shaun as much as the next guy, but once they let reputation win over amplitude and style...well, that's the reason why I don't like competitions, because they are so stinking subjective.

I believe that was Todd Richards, not for sure. Pearce laid down a great run, but opted out of his last hit-6th of the run, which cost him the gold IMO.

Here is some info from an article online to see what I mean about their runs.

Both are regular foot, both hit their frontside wall first:

Hit 1
White: Alley-oop backside rodeo
Pearce: Macking frontside air

Hit 2
White: Backside 900
Pearce: Mctwist

Hit 3
White: Frontside 1080
Pearce: Frontside 1080

Hit 4
White: Cab 1080
Pearce: Cab 1080

Hit 5
White: Frontside 900
Pearce: Frontside 900

Hit 6
White: Mctwist
Pearce: Did not have a sixth hit.

On paper, looking at technical merit, White is the winner. He fit in one more hit than Pearce, and rather than straight air the first hit, he did a very stylish and solid alley-oop back rodeo. But that's paper. When you watch Pearce's run, you see that he was clearly going bigger. His back-to-backs were much greater in amplitude, and arguably, style overall. But the judges went with White by a one-point margin. Who do I think should have won? It's a tough call because Shaun did get that extra hit and his run was more technical, but based on initial impression and just good ol' gut instinct, I'm going to side with Pearce. So there it is. Let the fire begin.

It was Todd Richards who made the wakeboard comment.

personally i thought it was one hell of an athletic display by andy finch to not get wadded up on that hit..and it was pretty funny comment.

yeah i think shaun should have gotten second for sure. it wasn't that sal guy. im not sure who the announcer was but hes won gold b4 in superpipe. thats all i heard. he def made fun of wakeboarding spins though.

That sucks todd said that. I bought his goggles this year.

Andy Finch is an amazing Wakeboarder. He has rode with us many times and was Tony's very first Wakeboard coach. One summer while he was rehabing from shoulder sugery he went out one armed and threw some amazing inverts and a huge raley as well. He decided to pursue the snowboard side because there was no money in wake. I guess he made the right choice.

I know it has been talked about before but why does wakeboarding get bagged on by other board sports?
I am pretty sure most of the guys who rag on it have never really givin it a legit shot. It would be funny to see some of these guys come out and eat it a few times.

Does anyone have any footage of a pro in another board sport ripping?

maybe the way people see wakeboarding on tv isn't the right way. they need to show stuff where riders grab the whole time and do slow spins instead of guys flipping fast w2w

yea i caught the wake bashing as well. no one else heard him calling tricks whirly birds? he said something along the lines of "well he didnt have a the huge whirly birds in his run like everyone else." what a dick

i forgot to add but there's this show on fuel tv called the captain and casey show(for skateboarding) and twice ive seen them sitting talking and doing lame stuff then they crack comments like "now you look like a rolleblader or better yet a wakeboarder"

did he actually say wakeboard, or just whirlybird?

White's run was a safety run, he went small, and pearce went so big he was risking his whole run for a final hit where the pipe fizzled out. He went for it the run before and fell, so it was actually smart. White went with the mctwist which he has ended his runs with for like 2 years

he said both

yea the announcer said the thing about wakeboarding and there were at least 2 other instances where he said the whirly bird thing. that show danny and the dingo they talk crap about wakeboarding too. hahaha. its kind of funny

As soon as a snowboarder or skater can strap on a wakeboard and do a 1080 with a rope and handle to deal with they can talk some smack. Until then shut it.

Most of em are probably just bitter because they can't afford the boat..

I heard it and really didn't think it was a dis to the sport todd richards just said it like he saw it and it did look like a whirly.

I think there are only a small fraction of people in snowboarding and skateboarding that look down on wakeboarding and usually they've never been or seen legit footage and Danny and the dingo is the last show I would take offense to, I mean come on look at lucas magoon the kid acts like 1st grader on dope. I personally have lost a lot of respect for the snowboard community over the past few years. Everyone is a snowboarder now...

"the kid acts like 1st grader on dope."

I didnt hear the wakeboarder comment...but thats harsh. I dont rag on snowboarding or skateboarding...I mean I could say all snowboarders do is spin. All I saw in the pipe was spins besides Rodeos and McTwists which are basically just super off axis spins. At least wakeboarders have a mix. I know wakeboarding has its limits (the whole rope thing) but we can do stuff you cant do in any other sport ex. late spins/rewind spins. At minimum they should appreciate that.

Shaun won hands down, Richards is wrong for saying Pearce did better, IMO. Now had Kevin nailed his SECOND run (he fell on his 4th or 5th hit), that was better than Shaun's. I'm not bagging Kevin, he is a sick rider with Tons of style, but bottom line his straight air off the 1st hit (even 4-5 feet higher), is not as hard as Shaun's almost equally huge backside rodeo.

Bottom line Shaun did an extra trick(which really was a 900 just in a diff spot on the pipe), AND he did a Back Rodeo compared to a straight air. Spin-to-win, we say it all the time in wake.

Richard's wasn't bagging on wake in my opinion either. To each his own.

P.S. Pray for snow we need the water.

cant we all just be friends . I dont understand why anyone has to bag on any other sports dudes. Every sport has their own technicalities. I try to respect everyone thats a part of the action sports community. I mean were all really fighting for the same cause ya know. I didnt hear the comment, but i cant see why he would be trying to put down wakeboarding

Sal sucks anyway, cant take anything he says seriosly. And yes Pearce got robbed big time. I think X-Games has turned into a popularity conest anyway. They suck (x-games)since they dropped wakeboarding from the summer games anyway.

I wouldn't say the respect of wakeboarding is gonna improve after those claratin commercials with the woman doing w2w's and a backroll...and she's like in there 30s (if i remember)

Ehh, nevermind

They have to have Shaun White win... every commercial set during the X-games had something to do with him somehow.... he is a marketing master, all he had to do was land stuff and he was winning.

I think they should let Pastrana strap into a board and ride pipe with Shaun. Now that would be a contest...

Anyone else get annoyed how the announcer was like "look at that style, thats what the judges love" everytime a hand even remotely touched a board or ski?

Is anyone surprised that there is some serious "clicky-ness" associated with the X-games...really?

Shaun White, and those two skiers (hansel and gretel or whatever) are ESPN's new love children. Years ago it was extremely clear with the whole Pastrana craze.

If the X-games were truly "legit" they would have many more sports than just the "money makers". Which has been extremely obvious through their "evolution" over the years. Its VERY clear they dont give a crap about any sports progression through their "competition" unless they can make mucho coin off it, that's ALL they care about.

The funny part is anyone bashing on Wakeboarding being lame in X-game commentary is pretty much a sellout themselves...(it appeared this year more than any that Todd was pretty fed up with the EXPN animal through his commentary comments) so I could really care less what those guys say...although I will give respect the fact that Todd said "if shaun wins it, its because of his name".

Sal said something like "It looked like he just lost control, like he was on a wakeboard or something" I enjoyed the shout-out but got kinda confused

I thought it was kind of funny. First, he said he looked like a "wakeboarder." Then, he said it "looked all gymnastic, like some kind of whirlybird" or something like that. I don't think he was necessarily bagging on wakeboarding as a whole, but probably was talking trash on its flippy/gymnastic side....things a lot of people on here have said too by the way (see, e.g., endless topics on Phil Soven).

That being said, I enjoyed the XGames in HD but Sal M., the Mega Mo (camera was sweet, didn't need to hear MEGAAAAA MOOOOOOOOO every single time), the completely text voting for certain categories (fairly illegitimate way to hand out awards), the endless self-promotion (double b-flip), self-congratulation (we at X don't think recession, we think progression and yes we can for 15 years) and self-flatulation (bro brah) are all out of control.

Lots of these pro snowboard guys wakeboard by the way, so I wouldn't be surprised if Todd Richards did too.

Can someone link me to when he said that ?

maybe I heard it different. Almost every x games that I have seen andy finch compete in they make reference to wakeboarding and that he was really good at it. He used to do something in his snowboard run a few years ago that looked pretty much exactly like a whirlybird (i think he grabbed it though, at the time, there werent too many grabbed whirlybirds being thrown on a wakeboard) and his save looked about the same.

I don't even wakeboard anymore..... costs too much and is just so unnatural. let the bashing begin.

How is that relevant besides trying to start an argument ?

huh????

ringo, that was rediculous

i think he bashed wakeboarding for sure. the snowboarder messed up and was flailing bad in the air and they said "woo he looked like a wakeboarder." i never heard them land a sick trick and say that. there is a whirlybird on a snowboard in the pipe and they call it that but its a trick they don't do and make somewhat fun of. its kind of like a whirlybird on a wakeboard

(Message edited by hsryan33 on January 27, 2009)

After reading all this I conclude that every sport needs to be respected. I think riders can put equal effort into all sports, their efforts just manifest themselves in different looking tricks.

white sucks..... remember a few years ago when Andreas Wiig was winning .... all they talked about was how white was loosing..... WTF?

I only saw a little bit of this years x-games but when I did watch, Ker Dillon was announcing. was that the black guy you guys are talking about? Sal Masacata sucks as an announcer anyway & can;t snowboard... check out the end of DC Mountain Lab & Pastrana can't snowboard.. check out Mountain Lab 1.5

I still enjoy X Games, although there does seem to be a bit of ironic hypocracy in the fact that they have let go so many true action sports to keep only the ones that make the money.

I am actually glad that wakeboarding is not an X Game sport any more. Sure it's cool when someone recognizes what we do, but to be honest, I think we are better off keeping our world on the smaller side, for the people who really enjoy it. Makes for bettter atmosphere, both water conditions, and in the boat.

I think it would be a cool idea for X to take all the medalists, and have them compete against each other in a complete different discipline, maybe Mountain Bike downhill or something...

Todd Richards is just "ignorant" about wakeboarding.

I was real big into snowboarding until about 2002. At that time, the sport went away from flips (rodeos, misty's, underflips) and went towards spins, mainly off axis spins. There was an emphasis on BIG, slow, grabbed spins. That has seemed to be the way it has stayed for the last decade.

Wakeboarding probably looks goofy to core snowboarders because wakeboard comps that are seen on tv has a lot of "goofy flippy things". These tricks (whirly's and the like) definately lack the "big, slow, smooth, grabbed" style of current snowboarding. I understand the misunderstanding, because I do feel the same way. Although VERY difficult, the "flippy things" are not very stylish and do not stoke me to go ride (IMO). It is said in this forum often, that we would rather see a big grabbed bs 180 than a crow 5 or hucked 9.

If re-Todd and the other snowboarders would watch videos like Push Process (lyman), The Butter effect (everybody), and transgression (randall) , I think they would have a better understanding about our sport, and how much style there is. Watching Lymans off-axis grabbed ole 5's... so much style. A lot more than shaun white (or whoever's) hucked 10's and 12's. Although 1080's and now Harfs 1260 are incredible, I prefer to watch randall's, benny G, or Lymans sections before I go and ride.

screw the x games. Its sweet that we are not mainstream. Its more exclusive that way.

isn't randall harris and chris oshea the only guys doing wrapped spins alot? it seems like that is the only way to spin if you want it to look like a snowboard spin.

I wish snowboarding did more than just spins. I find the half pipe boring to watch. How many spins can you watch. The whole comment about the "flippy things" or gymnastics is just group think. Hey- the guys who say those things aren't the sharpest tools in the shed and are just repeating what they think that are suppose to think.

By the way- I like gymnastics too. Definitely a lot better athletes than snowboarders. Any sport whose top athlete is 5'5 and weighs 130 should not dis anyone. Real athletes crap bigger than most of those guys.

I can't believe you guys are all worked up about Todd's comment. I thought the same thing when I saw that trick. Todd Richards has been around theses sports pretty much as long as they've been around. I'm sure he's wakeboarded before and I'm sure he's watched quite a bit of wakeboarding. His opinion of action sports is as legit as they come. If you don't like the way wakeboarding is portrayed maybe you should do something about it and take some snowboarders out on the water and change their minds. I've taken a buch of my snowboarding friends out wakeboarding and they had a great time and enjoyed it. They also realized how difficult it is to make tricks look good.

That right there is the problem. Making tricks look good. it is alot harder to make them look good on a wakeboard because their are so many other things to think about in wakeboarding. ie. the rope, shape of the wake, ect... Therefore wakeboarding actually takes more skill to master but does not necessarily look better.

Ya we actually were at X Games and caught the comment T.R made about Wakeboarders. All of us about freaked when he said that! Being that most snowboarders tend to wakeboard during the Summer, it was a big hit to the guys. I agree with the above comment from gene3X.....

"Therefore wakeboarding actually takes more skill to master"

Gene is perhaps not a snowboarder. The big difference between snowboarding and wakeboarding, as I see it, is if you blow it on a big trick on a wakeboard, the boat comes back around, if you blow it on a big trick on a snowboard, maybe you get a chance to ride again next year after rehab. I love them both, and I probably love wakeboarding more, but let's be realistic here.

EDIT: I've blown it on a big trick on a wakeboard and the boat came back around and collected my carcass, so I'm not saying it can't go bad on the lake

(Message edited by joe_crawley on January 27, 2009)

I am not saying that snowboarding is or is not more dangerous when things go bad. I am saying that It seems to me after doing both that their are less constants in wakeboarding making it more difficult to master. Anytime you have to think about more than getting the balls to go off a big jump at the right speed or angle just to get the trick (ugly or not) it makes it harder IMO.

Sure I used to think the water was much easier to land in also. But after 2 broken ankles, a ruptured disk, torn ACL, countless concusions, and ruptured ear drums.... i think that things can go just as badly on water.

I am no snowboard expert but have gone enough to know that the biggest difficulty of snowboarding over wakeboarding is not having a handle in the air to use when you are in trouble. Other than that there are just more variables in wakeboarding to become good and make it look good.

"biggest difficulty of snowboarding over wakeboarding is not having a handle in the air"

or the fact that you're landing on a steep hill from 15ft in the air, or some skier just chopped off the lip of the jump, or some kid is in the landing area and no one knew, or it's all rutting out and you have to go off the side of the jump, or someone is about to cut you off from your line, or you just tweaked it a little too much and are about to slam your shoulder into some ice upon landing. Whole lotta constants there. Constant things to look out for.

http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/25/monday-mallet-keystone-boarder-slams-into-skier/

Did you read the comments on this vid down underneath? LOL classic

Yeah, unfortunatly I wasted my time reading those. It makes me even more appreciative of this site. Yes, it gets out of control sometimes on here, but nothing even compared to that.

Start hijack...

That video gives some very important advice: always look above you when in the park. Although technically it is the person above you's responsibility to avoid you, that doesn't mean it won't hurt when they fail to see you :-).

End hijack; continue.

Even better advice would be; don't ski across or below the landing of a jump. That guy broke his board and some ribs, and nothing happened to the skier.

Don't you have to have a pass to go in the park in Cali or Washington somewhere? I think we'll see more and more of that

if they start selling passes seperate for the park, that park better have its own lift, cus im not paying extra to waste my time going down to the bottom, back up, and half way down again just to hit a series of rails and jumps

I am not bashing wakeboarding but it is a bit easier than snowboarding, skating, and surfing... The handle, bindings, and consistent wake make it easier than the other sports. Think about how much harder it is to do a 900 on a skateboard than on a wakeboard. Seems like everyone is doing 9's on a wakeboard now... not even a big deal. Right? There are many other aspects as to why wakeboarding does not get respect from "some" people in other boards sports.

Note: I am not bashing... just trying to inform on what the other side is or could be. I like wakeboarding and the people involved. I have been surrounded around snowboarding, skateboarding and especially surfing all my life and I have never had the same camraderie (<-spelling?) that I do within the wakeboarding industry.

Arun, everyone is different. I agree skateboarding is the most difficult, but I think snowboarding for me is by far the easiest. Wakeboarding has more variables, I feel. I think 3's, rails,riding switch and hitting kickers come pretty fast on a snowboard. I love doing all three but nothing beats summer, boat bun and riding in butter.

Arun, did you ever think that we have bindings and skateboarders dont?

Probably why spinning is so much easier ;)

Thats like saying, "see how many people through double kickflips in skateboarding vs. wakeskating?" They can't be expected to be compared in that espect for they are different.

Ive never understood the whole easier/harder arguement for boardsports. I guess if you are talking is a FS 900 easier in boardsport A vs. B you could say skateboarding is harder than wakeboarding...but I dont look at it that way...900s may be harder on a skateboard than snowboard/wakeboard, but the snow/wake guys are now doing 10s and 12s which are probably just as "hard" as 900s just by the fact that practically nobody can do them, just like the skateboard 900. If the sport is "easier" its just going to get pushed to higher and higher degrees of difficulty until people cant do the highest level stuff, just like people cant do the highest level stuff in the "harder" sports...therefore IMO they are all equally "hard." In essence, A wb 3 might not get you as much cred as a skate 3, so wakeboarders do a 5 to achieve the same level of riding.

Hey, they started it. We're just bashing in self defense.

If you're worried about a sports announcer making negative/nutueral references to your sport then perhaps baseball or football is your way to go. The coach and boundaries will help protect your thin skin and keep you safe. On the field is where you belong, NOT the lake or the mountain...noooo you don't want to go there! You might be worried what someone else is thinking of you....stick to the team sports and quit whining!

Lol THAT has got to be the funniest thing i have heard anyone say on here!

I used to speak my mind on here but to many people get offended in the political correct world we live in so I just don't get on here that much anymore but I am reviving my •••••••••••••• as of now.

^^^^ ••••••••••••••••••••• t a t u s ^^^^ as of now...

wtf??

^^drunk post?

Here is Jeremy Jones ripping on wakeboarding in his blog...
http://www.therealjeremyjones.com/blog/
under the post for Jan. 29

Was it that obvious?