Parks...vanished?

anti-shoobies · Posted: Aug 27, 2005 4:38 pm Post subject: Parks...vanished?

I was watching some videos today and I noticed some sections of Parks killing it. Throwing down 9's, sick off-axis spins, and all kinds of tech and style. This brings me to my question, what has Parks done this season? I mean, a couple year's ago Parks and Vandall split the Rider of the Year honors and now they both have disappeared in videos and magazine shots. I know Vandall has problems, but Parks? I know he put on Double or Nothing and might have won biggest air or something. What happened to his innovative riding?

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

uh.......double half cab mobe? thats pretty innovative....

B_Fool · Soul Rider Joined: 15 Aug 2004 Posts: 373 City: Cen FLA

Parks was a better rider before his pro shape came out. His best riding was on the FM board.
Plus he wasn't overweight.

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

yea, it never ceases to amaze me how well such a plump man can flip

midwest wake · Addict Joined: 13 Oct 2003 Posts: 629 City: Middleton

parks messed up his knee at owc early this year on the mini moto track. he did it a few weeks before the pro tour i think. if you read the entire sheet of tricks done on the double up or nothing ocntest (wakeboarding mag) they actaully say. "huge friggin batwing, dove out to save his knee" or somthing along hte lines. he'll probaly be back for next seaosn. it's been nice to see some other riders though get all the attention. i think it will push it for next year with phil soven riding so well and josh sanders being king of wake.

Craig-R · Guest

i was reading the new alliance wakeboard magazine and parks was in at least different ads so i wouldnt say that he hasn't been in any magazines lately

dmb · Posted: Aug 27, 2005 6:50 pm Post subject:

intotheflats · Posted: Aug 27, 2005 7:45 pm Post subject:

Mike · Addict Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 536 City: Orlando

gotta be the dreads

anti-shoobies · Posted: Aug 28, 2005 9:20 am Post subject:

I got no hate, I was just curious if there was something deeper going on. Parks will always be remembered for his innovation and talented riding.

It just seems there are a lot of faces breaking out for a year and then they blend back in with the crowd. They are still sick riders, but they get hot and then they are not. I don't really know what I am trying to say, I'm struggling with my words.

It is cool that new people are getting recognition. My list of rider's having big years included the likes of Rusty Malinoski, Ben Greenwood, Keith Lyman, Mike Schwenne, Collin Harrington, Keith Lidberg, etc. And of course, Harf keeps pushing it year in and year out, no fading.

pointblank12 · Soul Rider Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 313

parks is just a fatty...his partying days are catching up to him...simple as that...

nickdakoolkat · Posted: Aug 28, 2005 4:01 pm Post subject:

I still like parks, but he has really turned into a hippy the last year or so....even taking it as far as wearing dreads white people with dreads = Confused

intotheflats · Posted: Aug 28, 2005 4:42 pm Post subject:

nickdakoolkat, Couldn't agree more. White people and dreads just don't mix.

K-wood Kid · Posted: Aug 28, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject:

anti-shoobies if I may ad to your list I would say Gabe Lucas and Trevor Hansen. Both of those guys killed it this year. Gabe finally started making finals on the PWT and Trevor went big all year.

anti-shoobies · Posted: Aug 29, 2005 8:41 am Post subject:

K-wood Kid, I haven't not seen any riding from Gabe Lucas, but I have seen his name pop up quite a bit lately.

410fortune · Soul Rider Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 314 City: Morrison

hahahaha people are people doesnt matter what color you are. If he likes dreads and likes the weed, so be it. Hes old enough to decide what to do, right?

His career may suffer for sure, but how long can you be at the top of any sport?
especialyl with injuries.
How many years do snowboarders stay at the top? 3-5 max? Before somebody new goes bigger and better, the same is true with any extreme sport, its just nature.

Now with that said, I dated a white chick with dreads for a bit, her hair was a PITA!! I'll never do that again! hahaha

Mitchell · Posted: Aug 29, 2005 10:10 am Post subject:

whos parks bonifay, is soven the best Surprised

Mike · Addict Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 536 City: Orlando

The aussies are taking over!!!!!

jason_ssr · Posted: Aug 29, 2005 10:47 am Post subject:

Parks is just one of the last of the true innovators. He is still trying stuff off the wake that has never been done. he has done things that nobody else can do. We like to think of wakeboarding as limitless, but it is actually quite limited. lets face it, 90% of pro runs consist of tricks we have been doing for a decade. Nobody is doing anything REALLY different like they were back in the day.

All the other names on that list are becoming pros by merely duplicating what the oldschool guys did 10 years ago. I remember going to contests looking forward to seeing something new and exciting. Not taking anything away from those guys, they are sick riders, but they are all doing what has already been done. For every pro run we see, we can all name 2 maybe 3 locals who can duplicate it.

This is why contest riding is dead. We have spun and flipped on every possible axis and in every possible direction in every possible combination that a boat and physics will allow. We have slid up, down, curved, short, tall, rainbow, etc. We have done staged stunts, and built towable obsticles. We have made many attempts to keep it fresh, but I think we are reaching the wall.

midwest wake · Addict Joined: 13 Oct 2003 Posts: 629 City: Middleton

it's true, when you look at parks you think of a great all around rider. but we forget how much he has actually pushed the sport. i mean look at all of his firsts, or the tricks that only he can do.

baller spinning (him and shane)(passing the handle through your legs)
1080- only one to have proven it
double back roll
tempter tantrum
whirybird 720
double half cab roll
doulble cab roll
911
blind judge
vulcan
bel air to blind

i mean, the only others to even challange that many would be byerly, murray, and shapario.

yet, he's never won worlds, why? he always gets so close.

jason_ssr, i think ti's true what you say about wakeboarding reaching it's limits, i mean, go watch some of the protour runs from like 98 or 99 even 2000, and you'll see that nothing has really changed except for wake size, and rope length. people were throwing like 3-5 mobes in their runs, and now we see waht, 2? granted one of them is usually a 540 (crow/skeezer 5)

the sport's progression is dying, i think that is why people just don't get as interested with it anymore. you need your equptment and a boat with will run you far more than a snowboard or skateboard setup. and those sports are still evolving. but wakeboarding is flating off.

midwest wake · Addict Joined: 13 Oct 2003 Posts: 629 City: Middleton

o and i forgot.
people have been doing mobe 5's and pete 5's in competition years ago too. i mean not that often, but kovac would do mobe 5s and i remember brannan johnson doing a pete 5 off the dup in a tour stop. and we really don't see a lot of strange tricks anymore, eveyrone throws the same ocntest run, i'm sure if we saw some fruit loops and slurpys riding would start getting pushed again.

hijack over

410fortune · Soul Rider Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 314 City: Morrison

Wakeboarding is only limited as any other board sport. Boat, equipment, and board tech has alot to do with the progression.

For example, look at BMX, didn't I just see Mirra almost land a double tailwhip backflip? Thats INSANE.
Innovation = rider + tech

jason_ssr · Posted: Aug 29, 2005 12:17 pm Post subject:

I agree, but wakeboarding tech isnt in the board, its getting on a bigger wake. its like saying Mirra did it because he was on a bigger ramp.

Well, with gas prices doing what they are doing, do you really see us developing bigger ridable wakes?

Any further accomplishments will be completely on gymnastic ability.

irish_rider · Soul Rider Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 257 City: Dublin

does the absense of parks mean the decline of parks set ups around the world Question

only time will tell

K-wood Kid · Posted: Aug 29, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject:

If Parks retires what board will everyone buy? It will be pandomonium on these threads with a massive flow of which board should I buy topics.

anti-shoobies · Posted: Aug 30, 2005 6:37 am Post subject:

This is getting hilarious. "The decline of Parks" I can see it on the front of WB magazine next month, probably a 40-page feature story.

On the other hand, technically speaking we might be hitting the wall, but not really. There are so many grab/spin or flip combinations that haven't been done. Sure, these tricks aren't done in contests, but in videos they keep popping up. To me, that's what keeps me interested in videos. Backhand grabs on frontside spins, double grabbed spins, crossed up grabs, delayed grabs, late grabs,etc. Like Harf's HS BS 3 late method, Randy's Indy BS Shifty FS 3. Ben Greenwood does some ridiculous double-grabbed TS 3 in Butter Effect.

I am just kinda rambling for reasons we'll leave undisclosed, but to say wakeboarding has hit the wall is a bit drastic.

jason_ssr · Posted: Aug 30, 2005 8:57 am Post subject:

My comments about reaching the wall were in the paragraph about contest riding. Doing a different grab isnt really motivating the masses to come out to the contests.

Back in the day, we would come out to watch the pro's but why? What motivated us to spend a day watching over a day riding? Because the pros were doing thing we had never seen!! There wasnt the money that is in it today, so pros were going all out in the comps. Gator simply went bigger than anyone else on the water. He went bigger than anyone we had ever seen!! it was a specticle!! Darin was doing double front flips which are impossible and nobody but him has ever done. Parks would come around for his double up and huck the biggest temper tantrum ever. Shannon Best would edge in with a rooster tail like a slolom skier and boot s-bends so big and out into the flats that he couldnt get enough tricks in on his runs. Neccrason would come out and do an entire run full of tricks that no other competitor threw.

So, fast forward to today: every local outlaw rider can do the tricks the pros do in their run. Granted they may lack some of the grabs and the consistency, but they can do em. Last contest I was at my wife thought it was funny when i was calling Darins tricks before he threw them. Is our only excitement now when a rider grabs his mobe method instead of indy? Why has the line between amature and pro become so thin? Is it because the amatures are reaching the talent of the pros, but the pros are not moving forward? Do the top pro men actually learn new tricks? Do they even look at it like that? That is why I say it has hit the wall.

nappy4159 · Newbie Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 26 City: Madison

the guys still got knee problems he hasnt fully recovered from, but he is still killin it. with a little off season healing he'll be back, give the guy a break maybe he is a little chubby compared to his 1080 days but he is still killin it on the wake as well as the rails. People and competitions are still progressing as well, new formats (i.e. head to head) new tricks getting landed in comps, it wont be long before we see soven or harf stomp a 10 in a com.

midwest wake · Addict Joined: 13 Oct 2003 Posts: 629 City: Middleton

nappy4159, not to rag, but what trick besides the nuclear whirlybird and whirlydick (parks basicaly did the same thing years ago but it was a whirlybird 720) and blind pete. so two new tricks in the past four years?

pros have lost a lot of tricks. i mean, if you look at riding, noone does slurpies, 90210 (ts 313), any frontflip blind spin. and aside from a few girls, their ridnig has stayed the same too. chrissy or christy smith was doing hs mobius' and crow mobes in her passes.

currently untill the pros are willing to sacrifice a good season to progress the sport, i see it as staying the same.

Mike · Addict Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 536 City: Orlando

I think anti-shoobies is right about videos. I see a lot more progression and more style in the videos. Watch like Skurfs-Up or Hit It! Then watch The Butter Effect. Yes, there will be a lot of duplicates of the same tricks, but there is a whole different style and the tricks are bigger. Plus, I would say that a crow 5 is much more diffucult than a regular crow (not that I can do either). Even from just a few years ago, the videos have shown a progression in the sport. Watch a video out of your collection that you bought 2 or 3 seasons ago than watch a new one.

Concussedrider · Newbie Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 21

i think that wakeboarding from the pro's has began to slowdown on the progression side of it... but there are still alot of things that can happen....

walton · Newbie Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 9

parks hurt his knee real bad.. thats why he wasnt around much. missed wakefest and stuff...

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

well how much more stuff do you think can be done? theres alot more limitations in wakeboarding than there is in other sports like skiing or surfing. Theres 8 base inverts in wakeboarding, and then frontside and backside 3's can be added to them. Then you can bring some of them to 5s, and whirlys to 7s. And then spinning, were stuck at the 900. theres endless ways to do the tricsk and grab them and stuff like that, and thats probably all that wil lchange in the years to come, but theres only so much you can do on a wakeboard, and almost everything has now beed done

K-wood Kid · Posted: Aug 30, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject:

I think after soemone lands a ts 1080 we may see a few crow mobe 7's. Also Gator's tantrum to fakie was so big at Park's D-up we may see a Moby Clit(Tantrum with a fs 360) soon also I dont know if it was done maybe by Darin Shapiro but S-bend to blind or double S-bend would be sick. How about a KGB with a baller spin (handle through legs) I've seen a roll2blind where the guy landed with the rope between his legs and rode off like that. I think if people really think about it there are many more tricks that can be hucked very ugly Very Happy

needtoride · Posted: Aug 31, 2005 12:00 pm Post subject:

On the subject of progression.... I definitely saw a switch ts ole 1080 landed the other day, but unfortunately my buddy popped the handle (because you have to land it blind exactly like a whirly 5.) The huck-ometer was definitely off the charts, but I have never heard of anyone else doing that before. He tried about 4 more the next day, but didn't come nearly as close. That was probably the only day all summer we weren't filming, so that would have sucked if we would have missed it on camera. My point is... People are still progressing.
On the subject of Amateurs and Pros.... He is one of those "amateurs" who can throw all the tricks the pros can, but because we are from Michigan, and we snowboard the other half of the year he is not as consistent as some of the pros. So I agree with that statement.
I have to blatantly plug a video. So check out "Casual Moderation" if you guys get a chance. There is a review of the video in this months wakeboarding magazine.