The Worst Wakeboard Announcer

SCBrips · Guest

Who's your pick for the worst?

My vote goes for Weatherhill.

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

How 'bout all of the above?

SCBrips · Guest

They can't all be the worst, can they, Joe? I suppose that's debatable.

I hate them all as well. I just hate Weatherhill the most. If there's one person in this world I'd consider murdering, it'd be Weatherhill.

Porterwake · Posted: Dec 13, 2003 4:11 pm Post subject:

There was this guy on the Inspiration network doing this wakeboard comp.

He kept saying "A little surface 180 there, nothing fancy, just coming out to have some fun! It's all about fun and that trick was nothing cool, it was all about having fun"

Any little trick like that would be a "fun" speech

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

SCBrips · Guest

Yeah... JB... he sucked too.

Back in the Launch days, I loved JB. I thought he was the best editor. His articles were quite good in my opinion, and it was obvious he loved the sport.

I don't know... When he went over to Wakeboarding Mag, he just sucked I guess. Wasn't the same guy for me. Some of the vocabulary he used was just funny. Are you trying to impress me?

Anyway, yes, his announcing skills, if you could actually define them as "skills", were abrasive at best. He actually got worse, though, after being coupled with Weatherhill. Coincidence? I think not.

bizzuck · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 593

jb. he doesnt even call the tricks right, how do you work in the industry for ever and miss call tricks

toothpick · Posted: Dec 13, 2003 7:42 pm Post subject:

This is the reason that I watch wakeboarding on tv with the volume all the way down. It's just ridiculous. BUT IT'S SO EXTREME!!!!! RARRRR!!!! WOOOOO!!!!! I'M STOKED!!!! Neutral

ORIGINryder · Posted: Dec 13, 2003 7:49 pm Post subject:

hell ya bizzuck, almost every wakeboarding program i've watched on TV has announced so many tricks wrong, and like real obvious ones too. OH! A CROW MOBE! and it was a dam moby dick. common get a dam announcer that can do it right.

electricsnow · Posted: Dec 13, 2003 9:09 pm Post subject:

Woaahhhhh doctor.....

ontrider · Ladies Man Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 16491 City: Russia

ORIGINryder, crow mobe and moby dick are almost identical!!!! Give the announcer a break!

Rolling Eyes

derrick · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 723 City: Orlando

Has to be Tony Finn. Something about a line I heard once from him that went something like this" WHOAAAA, CAN YOU BELEIVE THAT?? THAT WAS JUST A SCARECROW MOBIUS 540!!!! UNBEILEIVEABLE!!" just really turns me off.
peace
Derrick

SCBrips · Guest

Some of my favorites (paraphrasing):

Weatherhill

"That looked like a wrapped Fruit Loop" - Cobe did a Remix off the Double Up.

"Shapiro falls on the Skeezer! A trick that he invented!" - Shapiro invented the Skeezer like I invented the Raley.

"Whoa, he just did a way off axis 720" - Watkins doing a perfectly on axis wake to wake ts 7.

Tony Finn

"And a backside front flip to fakie, ohhh my!" - The Kid doing a heelside front to switch.

"He comes in switchstance, lands it switchstance. It's a switchstance krypt." - Dean Lavelle doing a switch krypt.

"Ba Boom!"

PJ Marks

"... a little butt dunk"

Doug Dunbar

"One of the cleanest riders on tour" - Referring to The Kid.

"Mr. Style" - Referring to Shaun Murray riding in knee high gym socks. Mr. Style indeed. Or is that house of style?

JB

"Sweet mother of pearl!"

Pat Parnell

"Parks' competition riding looks like he's in a video segment"

kim · Addict Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 588 City: Orlando

I don't remember who it was, I'm assuming Kenan Harkin or Pat Parnell, but the X-Games announcing was so irritating this year. They kept calling Josh Sanders 'Joshy'. It was driving me mad. Every trick he did and it was "Wow Joshy stomps it" "Joshy is lookin smooth right now" I mean WTF? Rolling Eyes

His name is JOSH. Very irritating.

Sorry. Rant over. Crazy Eyes

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

Although Cobe has been the best announcer wakeboarding's had, one comment he made made me laugh.

"Check out that TS Pete Rose."

Kinda redundant, don't you think, since Pete Rose can only be done TS? Laughing

holdsworth · Posted: Dec 14, 2003 6:49 am Post subject:

they should have some of the pros do it......have riders announce when they aren't going to be up for a while, then it would be better when they know what they are talking about

toothpick · Posted: Dec 14, 2003 8:21 am Post subject:

On the other hand, if you ever went to Wet Wednesdays at Hu Song and Larry's in 2002 or earlier (not sure when they started, my first was in 1997), then you most likely heard Matt (don't know his last name) working the mike. He was one funny guy. True he got the moves mixed up a lot, but that was usually because he had a bit much to drink. He's gotta be my favorite announcer.

bizzuck · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 593

at the masters on sunday they usually let a pro call it. murray did it 2 years ago and it was the best ive ever heard.

Mister C · Posted: Dec 15, 2003 8:40 pm Post subject:

Ive only heard a couple of announcers on TV and I dont take the effort to remember who they were, but I can vouch for the fact that they all suck.

finkle · Wakeboarder.com Freak Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 4067

when do u see comps on tv.

I watch more tv than ne 1 i know and i never see anything other than what i pay for.

SCBrips · Guest

Fredrick Eisenhauer · Posted: Dec 16, 2003 12:16 am Post subject:

Who here things they could do better then the announcers? If not I dont think you should be the one to criticise.

SCBrips · Guest

I absolutely know that I would be a better announcer.

Regardless, people can crtiticize whatever they like.

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

jason_ssr · Posted: Dec 16, 2003 7:25 am Post subject:

I cant believe anyone would bag on Todd like that? He is one of the coolest guys ever. Besides, announcing wakeboarding is like announcing golf, completely pointless. How is anyone going to do a pointless task requested by tools and make it cool? It just wont happen. Those guys do it because its what the broadcasters want as part of a sports show. There are no words that can make a wakeboard-run sound like it looks. Calling tricks from the booth while keeping a running commentary isnt as easy as it looks.

I think the announcing is there for the people who arent really into the sport, not for you and me. I dont need each trick explained to me. Those broadcasts arent for you and me, they are for the masses. You and I know what tricks every rider is going to do; we've seen them a thousand times. Thats why I dont even go to the events anymore. That is why all announcing seems elementary to you and me.

Who do you think is good then? I havent heard one that was any better or worse than the others. I dont see wakeboarding as a sport with "announcers".

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

The tourney that Tige' sponsored had Cobe as an announcer. He was for the most part really good. Although he snuck one too many Tige' plugs, and he said, "TS Pete Rose," he got most of the tricks right and didn't sound like he was overly excited. Don't get me wrong, he didn't sound dull and boring, but at the same time, he wasn't screaming like Tony Finn or Todd Weatherhill.

NAW · Posted: Dec 16, 2003 8:27 am Post subject:

I don't see boarding enough on TV to even notice what they're saying. But at the events I hear them. JB does a pretty good job, but I think Nick Wienecker does the best. Thomas Horrell did some commentary at MWWF this year for the Wakeskate comp, he did a good job too.

I know I would suck at it though.

electricsnow · Posted: Dec 16, 2003 8:36 am Post subject:

I've got to jump in here and stick up for Sonja. I actually got into this with another guy on a different message board, about how she was brought in for sex appeal. Quite frankly, Sonja knew more than Jeff Barton. Also, she didn't put on this fake, excited voice that made you question whether or not she was trying to pinch something in until the broadcast was over. I think it's a shi tty double standard that men are given legit credit because they're men, but when a woman is brought in, it's only for sex appeal and clearly she doesn't know anything about wakeboarding. Out of all of the dudes that have been listed, I would personally rank sonja towards the top because she knows what she's talking about. Obviously they all have their faults and they aren't perfect, but as I said many times before, she can call the tricks, others can't. But that's just me.

As for the announcing, I have announced before and I did a nice job (that's what others said, I'm not throwing in my opinion). I can, however, honestly say that it is difficult calling it live because you don't always have the best view and when the rider is off in the distance and looks like the size of a pine cone, some things are hard to recognize. But screwing up a moby dick and a pete rose is unacceptable. Good day.

Bicasso · Newbie Joined: 16 Dec 2003 Posts: 47

You forgot about Charley Patterson.

I vote for him!

SCBrips · Guest

jason_ssr, perhaps Todd is a cool guy. I really don't know, I was just "bagging" on his commentary. My statement about wanting to murder him was clearly tongue in cheek. Hmmm, nah, scratch that. He must die!

electricsnow, All of my little quotes were caricatures. For me, they sum up each person's time behind the mic in just a few words.

For Sonja, I was thinking of going with "Hey, I used to date Lavelle" or "I used to be pro 'cause I could do a backroll". But instead I went with "Hey, at least I'm hot". I chose that one 'cause that's what would often come to my mind - "She sucks too, but hey, at least she's hot".

Do I really think that "Oh my" sums up Tony Finn as a complete person? No. In the same way, I don't think my quote about Sonja does either.

Anyway, I don't think she was brought in for sex appeal (a la Leann Tweeden). Sonja spent most of her time away from the camera; we just heard her voice. Where's the sex appeal?

Also notice that I didn't give any of the men credit; I said they all sucked. Additionally, I don't give credit to men "just because they're men".

By the way, electricsnow probably knows more than me when it comes to wakeboarding and wakeskating; even though she's just a dumb girl.

electricsnow · Posted: Dec 16, 2003 1:57 pm Post subject:

SCBrips, if you had picked the back roll stab, my blood pressure and my "freak out meter" probably woudn't have spiked. But I figured that even if you weren't being a sexist a-hole, I'm sure someone out there is so I thought I'd bring my point to the table. Regarding the other guys, I too mentioned that not all of them were perfect and some were definitely worse than others. Can you pick out this quote? "Wow, that trick is virtually impossible."

By the way, "sweet mother of pearl" is totally legit....

But yeah, the back roll is definitely sonja's "bread and butter trick" (somebody had better tell Donna Warren that she stole her trick:) That was her money shot in "skurfs up."

By the way, you made an excellent point with leann tweeden. Here's a quote I picked up from sack lunch regarding the demise of "54321": done. stripper [leann] is inking a big $ deal with espn to be a bad representative for skateboarding on a different network.

her chest signed the contract last week, they are recalculating a much smaller royalty for the rest of her.

In conclusion: "...Probably knows more than me"? Stupid boys.....(just kidding)

Oh yeah, todd is a member of the dirty dozen; it's pretty amazing what those old schoolers DON'T know.

SCBrips · Guest

electricsnow · Posted: Dec 17, 2003 7:36 pm Post subject:

let's see heahhhhrrr(like cartman)...

That quote was from your pal todd. That was my most memorable quote because I remember the 1998 summer x-games and he'd always say "that trick is virtually impossible" and that peeved me. Virtually impossible? It's either impossible or its not.

As for donna doing a raley, I'd be pretty damn impressed if she did that. I must not have that issue of launch, but I've never seen donna edge in hard enough for anything but a backroll--a low back roll. Dana preble? Yes. Donna warren? No. raley wise, I mean. Dana wasn't steezy but she had balls....

as for leann and her contracts, boobies that large have a mind of their own, so I'm sure she worked it out some how...

SCBrips · Guest

Ahh, I should have known. I don't think I had cable at that time, so I missed the '98 coverage.
<office space>Well, I wouldn't say I missed it!</office space>

Pat McCarthy · Posted: Dec 18, 2003 2:36 pm Post subject:

Matt at Who Songs and Larry's was definitely the best announcer I've heard. Great comedy....he actually made an art out of intentionally getting tricks wrong and blaming it on alcohol, a hot girl in his view, or some other distraction.

Wakeboarding announcing has always had it's problems, but I think we're also being a bit picky in some cases.

Another thing to remember is that they're not really catering to wakeboarders who know it all, they're trying to sound excited and "extreme" to people who probably have no idea what wakeboarding is before watching the broadcast.

That doesn't make it right to get tricks blatantly wrong, but I think they get pressure from the television producers to be like that.