Fiji 2012

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mical
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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by mical » Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:02 am

el rancho wrote:Jake Paterson is ok sometimes, although he is a loose cannon and clearly hates Brazilians.
You say that like it's a bad thing :?

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by el rancho » Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:34 am

mical wrote:
el rancho wrote:Jake Paterson is ok sometimes, although he is a loose cannon and clearly hates Brazilians.
You say that like it's a bad thing :?
well it is true that most of the brazzos on tour make me queeze, with poo-stance style, shitty claiming and praying, idiotic cheersquads draped in flags etc etc.
but I dig a few, like Heitor Alves and Alejo Muniz, who just seems stoked to win heats.

But it seems Paterson's attitude borders on being disrespectful, but maybe I'm wrong and he is a monkey when it comes to learning 'foreign' looking names.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by northeasterly » Tue Jun 05, 2012 3:00 pm

The commentators can say whatever they want. Volcom is paying for the webcast. When i don't like all their jabbering I turn it down or take off my headphones. I can still watch perfect waves.

I've always been a bit confused about why people get so pissed off with the contests and the commentators. For now at least we don't have to pay a cent to watch the world's best surfers going hard at perfect Cloudbreak, or other locations for that matter. Someone else is paying for all this - not me. In my mind that doesn't really give me a right to complain.

And when it comes to what "outsiders" think of surfing - I don't care. They already think it's a bit silly so 'good' commentary isn't going to change that. Add to that, they don't really know what they're watching and, unless they take the time to learn to surf, never will.

As for the fiji pro, it's just started and it's already been great. And the best is yet to come. Bring on 8ft restaurants.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by Nick Carroll » Tue Jun 05, 2012 3:43 pm

hey neasterly, I dunno about the others in this thread but I'll tell you why I'm making calls on the webcast commentary:

a) I've done it, it can be done way better than this, I have seen it done way better than this, I would like it to be done to a standard that matches the waves and the competition.
b) I feel for whatever reason that I have a stake in surfing, in the sport that I've been doing most of my life, and my commitment to the sport and its top performance levels, and I feel like this grounds me in making judgements about stuff like this.
c) I also feel I'm having a kind of a fun conversation here with various fellow surfers, a bit like being down at the pub but without communal beer drinking, and commenting on our sport and how it's shown to us and everyone else.

hope that clears it up for you a bit. have fun watching with the sound turned down.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by adje » Tue Jun 05, 2012 3:56 pm

Is it ok to deviate from this commentary thread to Khloe's board snapping tanty after losing his heat.

That is one determined boy, punched his board several time (it didn't break), stuck his foot into it to try and bust it and succeeded in breaking the back of it but he obviously didn't think he'd done a good enough job so he gave it a few extra jabs and hooks to finish the job. I'm sure pulling those glass splinters out of his fist wasn't the funnest way to spend the rest of the arvo.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by BA » Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:01 pm

Just watched the round 2 highlights show on Fuel. How many times did they say " come out, come out " when someone got a barrel. FFS.

At least a lot of the commentary gets cut out on the highlights show.

Great heats before it went shit. Trav Logie must be spewing.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by swvic » Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:04 pm

Shit commentary is part of the sport within sport. We have opinions of who is and who isn't good at it, and we express them. When we don't like someone, it makes us feel better to have a bitch. Human nature

noreasterly, you do have a stake. Unless that is, you've never purchased anything from any of the companies associated with the event/s. Not just 'surf' companies either. Ford at Bells. Jeep have been somewhere I can't recall and I know there's many other examples

The other way in which you have a stake is the fact (maybe not) you surf. Even those among us who are seriously anti-tour have at some stage contributed to it. Remember the hottest of your mates when a grom? They're the people who progress the level that feeds into the pro tour. Yep, I think I've just convinced myself that we're all a part of it
marcus wrote:and that vicco dude, whatsisname?

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by northeasterly » Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:42 pm

Nick Carroll wrote:hey neasterly, I dunno about the others in this thread but I'll tell you why I'm making calls on the webcast commentary:

a) I've done it, it can be done way better than this, I have seen it done way better than this, I would like it to be done to a standard that matches the waves and the competition.
b) I feel for whatever reason that I have a stake in surfing, in the sport that I've been doing most of my life, and my commitment to the sport and its top performance levels, and I feel like this grounds me in making judgements about stuff like this.
c) I also feel I'm having a kind of a fun conversation here with various fellow surfers, a bit like being down at the pub but without communal beer drinking, and commenting on our sport and how it's shown to us and everyone else.

hope that clears it up for you a bit. have fun watching with the sound turned down.
I hear you. And I've heard you when you're commentating. Your commentary at Chopes, the Eddie and other contests has been great. And there's plenty of other commentators that I rate. I actually generally have the sound turned up.

I suppose I understand how much effort goes into bringing one of these contests together. They are a logistical nightmare. There's a lot of people investing their time and money into bringing the best production together. Maybe the fact that the whole contest and the ASP is judged on the commentary isn't fair to everyone involved.

Of course it's fun to rip these commentators to shreds. I've done it myself at the pub. But with the whole "bring down the ASP" twitter crap that's been going on, and the hatred that's 'brewing' online, it just seems a little bit like another chip at the sport - a sport that I have a stake in (emotionally, not financially).

True - better commentary would be great. But how good can it get with a sport that suffers 20 minute flat spells? I hope one day I find out. And I'll even pay to hear it.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by booradley » Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:29 pm

oldman wrote:
Natho wrote:But to sit there and watch entire heat after heat. I would fall asleep. I'd rather go surfing, or stick pins in my japs eye.
Natho, I'm with ya, I'm with ya, except..........................

A surf contest is absolutely the perfect thing to be doing while you are at work.

Internet on, webcast on, earphones in ..........................

Email open, spreadsheets doing their thing, database working, waves coming - oh quick to the webcast, wave done, back to the spreadsheets.

It's farking made for work, but I agree with ya, I could rarely sit down and watch it if I wasn't already stuck at my desk.

The Eddia Aikau from a few years ago, including Nick Carroll doing some commentary IIRC, was one of the best days I have had at work.

Seriously.
Totally agree. Was doing that just yesterday while marking some essays...just have to check that it doesnt creep into the comments - "...your analysis of the Romantic Movement was well handled as was KP's pigdogging" :lol:

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by buzzy » Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:44 pm

The ASP should take over the webcasts and get the sponsors to contribute a fee per event for production costs. Even make it a standard fee so inexpensive webcasts cross subsidise expensive ones. Then the disincentive to do events in remote locations will be reduced a little as all the industry would contribute. For the greater good and all. Then engage a vote stable of commentators supplemented by sponsor favourites.

This webcast commentary is the worst ever.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by pirate_agenda » Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:28 pm

Agree the main clown commentating fiji has little idea of surfing. He sounds like an out of season NFL commentator. I lost count of the amount of times he said "x surfer needs Y score" when Y was the 2 wave total the surfer was sitting on.

My favourite commentator is Doherty. Turpel is ok, except for when he talks for 3 minutes non stop without a breath in his monotone cal voice about nothing. At those moments i want to jump into my 40" flat screen and rip his throat out. Sometimes less is more. It's nice to have ex competitors, but they should be paired up with some of the more polished personalities. I like occy, egan etc when they are paired with a doherty, NC or turpell, but when you get occy egan or snake together, it's a shambles.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by Nick Carroll » Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:46 pm

northeasterly wrote:I suppose I understand how much effort goes into bringing one of these contests together. They are a logistical nightmare. There's a lot of people investing their time and money into bringing the best production together. Maybe the fact that the whole contest and the ASP is judged on the commentary isn't fair to everyone involved.

Of course it's fun to rip these commentators to shreds. I've done it myself at the pub. But with the whole "bring down the ASP" twitter crap that's been going on, and the hatred that's 'brewing' online, it just seems a little bit like another chip at the sport - a sport that I have a stake in (emotionally, not financially).

True - better commentary would be great. But how good can it get with a sport that suffers 20 minute flat spells? I hope one day I find out. And I'll even pay to hear it.
Well yes these events are a massive effort...but everything's a fcuken effort mate. Try making an exceptional magazine with two other people.

In the end these contests are about the surfing performance level, the waves, and the world championship race. All these deserve the best possible public representation.

That twitter shit is just that, shit. Just irrelevant babble. I know how easy it is to get irritated by it, but it's just pissing in the wind and doesn't carry any of the weight of the above (surfers, waves, world title race).

The best way to gainsay it is by doing a broadcast job worthy of the sport.

I think the 20 minute flat spells are custom built for:

a) good pre-shot cuts, especially from previous events (oh god! no! can't feature a cut from say Bells at Fiji hey?? even if it tells a fascinating back story? Probably the single biggest problem with the fractured media rights in a public presentation sense is the way it blocks visual references to prior events)
b) intelligent interviewing (yeah I know)
c) good content from a roaming camera/reporter (including interviews with the head judge, with the event director, with some hilarious local identity, on and on, think Paul Fisher without an x rating)
d) ride analysis, like actual for real ride analysis

There is so much shit out there to fill those gaps it's almost embarrassing.

If you're in a place to influence any of this, go for it. 'Cause they aren't gonna listen to me.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by buzzy » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:05 pm

Industry for these purposes is/ are the event sponsors.

Inexpensive for these purposes means the least expensive of the events to mount a webcast.

Definitions now settled I hope ;).

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by Nick Carroll » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:16 pm

reginald wrote: The people that do those jobs get paid good money.

Thats why you'll never see a professional quality broadcast at an ASP event.
Yeah but that's the thing.

If you coalesce the media rights, they would generate enough money to support that kind of skill and that kind of team.

Oh god why am I even thinking about it. The ASP Board has no desire to coalesce the media rights. They don't even know what the pluses would be really. The Board is still pretty much in the hands of the event franchisees and they think they are in competition with each other; they don't realise they are in competition with every other pro sport on earth. I think I know too much about this for my own good.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by mical » Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:10 pm

Nick Carroll wrote:c) good content from a roaming camera/reporter (including interviews with the head judge, with the event director, with some hilarious local identity, on and on, think Paul Fisher without an x rating)
Good god Nick, did you just use the words hilarious and Paul Fisher in the same context?

We need to talk, seriously.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by steve shearer » Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:52 pm

I realise this is a minority viewpoint but it's precisely this shambolic, shamateur, grainy VHS-porn quality to the events that I've come to enjoy.
And I think the future in this hyper-commercialised but cash scarce world is to continue in that direction, but far, far more so.

They have to dispense with the idea of professionalism at all and embrace the self-evident fact of WHAT IS.

It's never gunna be some kind of slick package deal sport, hell, it's backpeddled so far from that already.

Let it follow it's own course and embrace the chaos.
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scot
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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by scot » Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:16 am

I think the best commentator I have heard was Phil MacNamara at the Burleigh WQS comp i think. Phil is very experienced coach and he had some great comments about technique, wave selection and heat tactics that I found much more interesting than the usual "fwore, he's going to town" stuff that usually passes as commentary.

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Re: Fiji 2012

Post by Buff_Brad » Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:16 am

Luke Kennedy (Tracks Ed) is a pretty good commentator.

You basically get what you pay for.........

.........pretty amateurish stuff.....but that's the surfing industry. Do we all want to grow up?

What do yas want.....a slick CNN style wankfest??

All their idiosyncrasies and nuances are quite endearing really.

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