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Re: This is how PKRA / KPWT should look like

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:39 am
by braveman
RRD XXX , brings back some good memories.

Re: This is how PKRA / KPWT should look like

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:13 am
by mike holmes
I can imagine ESPN having several episodes of a competition that combines different disciplines but showing only the wakestyle stuff will get boring pretty early to the regular Joe.

Braveman - I will agree with anything you say as long as you change your Avatar :roll:

Re: This is how PKRA / KPWT should look like

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:04 pm
by johnm
Toby wrote:Spectators got bored with that? Do you mean the riders watching themselves? True, but not the average joe
well my memory's failing as I get older :oops: - but that's pretty much how I remember it yeah...

certainly when board-offs were popular around 2001, 2002 you'd regularly see 'average joe's' (including myself) trying board-offs and varials down the local beach. Nationally and internationally comps would see riders desperately trying to find new ways of twiddling their boards around while doing a big dangle...

even then it felt like maybe the sport had driven itself up a cul-de-sac - the organisers tried to spice it up by banning handles to increase the difficulty - but it still felt like something was missing...

my memory of everything changing was the first time someone hucked a massive kiteloop in competition - think it was one of the slingshot riders (jeff tobias?). Suddenly here was this move that required timing and skill - and huge committment as the wipeouts were brutal (remember this was back when every kite was a c-kite and very little depower) :thumb: board-offs pretty much disappeared overnight round our way as everyone tried to build up the courage to do this new fangled, scary-ass 'kiteloop' thing... :lol:

not quite as big - but similar impact on the pkra this year I think - now everyone's figured that bindings give the opportunity to have full board control with way more power - the whole level's jumped up a notch (imho)

I agree that it's not instantly accessible to non-kiters though - to me ideal would be a kiteloop contest run alongside each freestyle event :thumb:

Re: This is how PKRA / KPWT should look like

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:51 pm
by Westozzy
Brent4336 wrote:The really high end of both the surf and wake stream of riding are so far beyond the reach of the vast majority of kiters that it disconnects from what many want to watch. Didn't help that the PKRA looked like shock therapy at the epileptic ward for a few years there.

I gotta agree with the previous poster. That was the PKRA in 2004

Competition riding is never as fun to watch as a collection of freeride clips. Head to head heats can be like watching paint dry, where a freeride sessions can make much better spectating. As soon as you put it on a point scale its going to take away from the flow of great riding as the riders looking to win are gonna take all the chill smooth moves out of it and focus simply on setting up the big score maneuvers.



I think a competition should provide an insight into the depth and breadth of our sport. It should include it all. Plus competition needs sponsorship, and sponsorship is driven by how many people watch it, either live, the net or TV. This allows riders to ride full time and take the sport further. Don't believe me ask how difficult is it for say a lot of women's sports to progress. Then again who would want to watch that! Just joking ladies. :kiss: