Future of contest riding

[FlyZone CR]

http://www.alliancewake.com/wake/matters-june-2012/

Good article. Must admit that I never care to see the "Harley's winning run"-video or the "Phil's winning run"-video. Once a year, then notice it's pretty much the same, then I'm done.
Sure they should throw their tech-tricks. But I think they should not be able to win several pro tour stops with (99%) the same run.

[GnarShredd]

I agree. There are a few things about the scoring system that carry over from back in the day where you had to write down a trick list and do them all in order. riders for some reason seem to still follow that pattern, although not on paper anymore.

There needs to be more room for expression in competition boat riding for it to progress. It's the least interesting riding to me because it often gets dull before the end of the season with everyone doing the same pass at every stop. I'm not sure how to do it, but if there was a way to offer up motivation to the riders to keep pushing something new each time it could change the game.


Quick Addition: Maybe if one or two bad individual events didn't hurt your chance for the overall season as much there could be room for some creativity?

[mgs917]

The writer made some good points. The comments were quite entertaining to read. I think someone needs to try and put a contest or two together with a new scoring system based on style and uniqueness. This way riders could do both and the contests wouldnt overlap the pro tour. This way there can be a new version and still keep the older version.

[TheHebrewHammer]

Part of the problem with a scoring system based on style over tech is that the judging gets very subjective. With the current format, it's easy to say that Phil should beat Harley because he did more mobe 5s or bigger spins.

With the less-than-5 contest, there's a lot more room for interpretation. Randall was a deserving winner, but who's to say that one guy's poked out 180 looks better than another guy who pokes it a different way?

Contests would lose a lot of their drama/pressure/significance because the difference between winning and losing would be pure preference. It would be like the X-Games contests in which the fans could text in to vote for the winners. It was a cool idea, but the fans often got it wrong, the winners weren't necessarily the most deserving riders, and the losers could just write it off and say their runs were better.

[ediotism]

one thing i enjoy less about watching a comp is the fact that the riders need to do things that they know they can land reasonably consistently. the downside of falling matters too much in my opinion.

how about (for example) a 4 minute run for each rider, in which you're only "allowed" to land 7 tricks, including 1 or 2 double ups. falls don't matter, you finish your run either by the 4 min clock or having landed 7 tricks. you're only judged on the style, difficulty, amplitude and smoothness of each of the tricks you landed, and falls are ignored.


pros for my suggestion:
riders are less concerned about consistency (since your penalty from falling is just the ticking clock)
better balance for pro riders to balance between consistency and really pushing new tricks, both in their practice and in comps
what would the audience rather see: a quick stylish stalefish 180, landing it then quickly setting up for the next trick, or a fully edged out stalefish 180 carried waaaaayyyyy into the flats then a few seconds to thank the crowd for being as stoked as he is before setting up for the next trick? i'd very much rather watch the latter (i believe having more interaction between pros and the audience DURING a run is like a goldmine for sponsors as well)
some pros now ride at 25-27mph, which is disadvantageous in current comps because of the set distance of a single pass. in the 4min session format the high speed isn't as negatively affecting.
in a way, those who are normally consistent with their tricks will have landed 4-5 with lots of time left, so they have room to really push out a banger near the end of they run
the Less Than Five is aimed at pushing out new stuff in simple tricks, whereas my idea can let riders can push out in their own direction. there's no limit in trying for the highest pop mute grab or a whirlybird 9, just go for what's good for you
The format i've mentioned has been very successful in BMX and skateboarding, a jam style comp (with a few varieties of them) has evolved to pretty much replace the old


cons for my suggestion:
being able to pack 6 tricks into a single pass is part of the difficulty judged in comps, and some riders would appreciate it more than whoever that does individual big tricks but have to take 30 seconds to set up for it
how tricks are put together to form a run was part of the comp in the past but is now shattered, variety is less appreciated in my suggestion (although this can be addressed by adding a 'variety' category in the judging)
the feel of the comp will have more of a jam session feel to it, which many wakeboarding riders aren't used to, and may not work that well with wakeboarding
it will be some time after this format has been in place before the true advantages of it show (as more riders concentrate on harder hitting tricks in their practise and pushing new tricks etc), and before that happens, riders would basically be doing their usual comp tricks with more setup time/ tries to land them etc.
(pls feel free to add to this)

[TheHebrewHammer]

Yes, this is the answer. The numbers could be changed, but wakeboarding really needs to get away from its waterskiing roots and move to jam session format.