California Pro Am - August 23-25, 2024

[lkb]

1 hour ago, NZskier said:

Amen on how great it is as a fan to have live webcasts of most pro events! I volunteer to help at TWBC events every chance I get, and I’m not normally in the habit of donating my time to for profit companies.

 

 

For those outside of Kevin who maybe aren’t following the subtle distinction I’m trying to make, bear with me as I try to make an American sports analogy. Imagine it’s the final seconds of the deciding game in the NBA finals. Steph Curry is open outside the circle, gets passed the ball, and shoots for a 3-pointer that will decide the series. The announcer would never stop to analyse the angle of his elbow, or how he times his release. Instead a good play-by-play basketball announcer, I’m guessing, would say something along the lines of “10 seconds left on the clock… Thompson finds Curry in space.. one shot to decide the title… Curry shoots… IT’S IN! HE FINDS THE BASKET! … from behind the 3-point line… the Warriors have done it!”

 

 

Would there be in-depth analysis of that shot? I’m sure - in the post-match, in podcasts, youtube videos, you name it. But a good play-by-play announcer can make a moment like that engaging for everyone from the most avid basketball fan to someone like me that barely understands the game.

 

 

The point is if you’re reading this forum you’re in the top 1% of waterski fans in the world. You’re likely watching no matter what. And in-depth technical analysis is probably really interesting to you. As one of these 1%ers I’m stoked anytime there’s a webcast. I’d watch grainy end course video footage of women’s tricks with only nails on a chalkboard for audio.

 

 

That’s why I’m trying to play devil’s advocate and give constructive criticism. Because we only ever hear from the die hard fans that watch no matter what, never the casual fans that, I suspect, we’re not doing a good job of engaging. I think events can do better. There’s an incredible amount of work that goes into running an event like the California ProAm, in raising that much money, and I have to believe the organisers want to reach more people than the faithful few.

 

 

I think you did a good job announcing slalom at the nationals last week. I get what you’re saying but I think the faithful few are the only ones watching and I don’t see how’s that’s going to change any time soon ….i am just glad we have the opportunity to watch live skiing!

[MitchellM]

12 hours ago, lkb said:

I think you did a good job announcing slalom at the nationals last week. I get what you’re saying but I think the faithful few are the only ones watching and I don’t see how’s that’s going to change any time soon ….i am just glad we have the opportunity to watch live skiing!

I agree.  When you look at the totality of the broadcast for the weekend, you're not going to get wide viewership for these events.  10 hours of broadcast on Saturday and almost 3 hours on Sunday.  Who has time to watch all of this live?  I was busy skiing and taking others skiing.  I did go back through and watch quite a bit of both days in the evening.  I thought the commentating was excellent.  I particularly enjoyed that the announcers were content to have dead air time and let the video do the talking.  No need to constantly fill the time with fluff comments.

[Brokenstack]

You don't preach to the empty seats!

[503Kento]

What’s needed to appeal to a broader audience is a nice 1/2 to 1 hour recap episode that has background info, skier profiles, story line and drama building. I imagine this would require a lot of work and a lot of “b roll” footage so somebody with the passion and skill would be needed to pull it off well. 

[Horton]

@503Kento I think that's more effort than you realize. if somebody thinks they're time is worth money, it's a lot of money

[Kelvin]

5 hours ago, 503Kento said:

What’s needed to appeal to a broader audience is a nice 1/2 to 1 hour recap episode that has background info, skier profiles, story line and drama building. I imagine this would require a lot of work and a lot of “b roll” footage so somebody with the passion and skill would be needed to pull it off well. 

Unfortunately, very few watch those types of productions once they know the scores.  The WWS did a highlight video of their Austrian stop and it has about 1K views.   

[RobHazelwood]

12 hours ago, 503Kento said:

What’s needed to appeal to a broader audience is a nice 1/2 to 1 hour recap episode that has background info, skier profiles, story line and drama building. I imagine this would require a lot of work and a lot of “b roll” footage so somebody with the passion and skill would be needed to pull it off well. 

This is what I try do with the VLOG’s on HO’s channel, very team based but shows a lot of the behind the scenes. The European VLOGS will start to be released weekly as of this Monday 🤘

[MitchellM]

14 hours ago, 503Kento said:

What’s needed to appeal to a broader audience is a nice 1/2 to 1 hour recap episode that has background info, skier profiles, story line and drama building. I imagine this would require a lot of work and a lot of “b roll” footage so somebody with the passion and skill would be needed to pull it off well. 

I initially thought of the same idea, but then I realized there would be no audience for such a production.  Who would watch after you already know the outcomes?  Limited viewership coupled with significant editing time, effort and cost make this concept unlikely.

[503Kento]

@RobHazelwood love your vlogs, looking forward to the upcoming episodes..

 

@Kelvin great webcast this year, disappointing that the WWS video got so few views.  I guess I’m 1 of the 1K. The conclusion I would draw is that it’s only be watched by people like us. The question is how we get casual skiers to watch?

@Horton yea, it’s definitely a passion project 

[als2104]

I don’t post here much but wanted to give kudos to Rob Hazelwood.  You don’t know me but I have 3 teenage boys who have caught the slalom bug from watching your Vlogs and filling your instructional videos.  They went from skiing sparingly to multiple sets a week and running 28 off in one season. I think it might just be that they like the way you pronounce “buoy”.  But I’ll tell myself there’s more to it.  So thanks for doing what you’re doing.  Cheers.

[NZskier]

On 8/29/2024 at 8:13 PM, Kelvin said:

Unfortunately, very few watch those types of productions once they know the scores.  The WWS did a highlight video of their Austrian stop and it has about 1K views.   

I suspect you're generally right, but as a counter example look at the 2021 World Championships. TWBC's live webcast of the final day (slalom & jump finals) has 19k views, the edited highlight videos of the men's and women's slalom finals, released in April of the following year, have 86k and 82k views respectively (more than any TWBC webcast ever).

I don't know what the right video format is, but I'm aware of no other successful sport's broadcast in the world that doesn't utilize some kind of play-by-play announcer role. Yes I'm extremely biased, but if you're trying to put on a show, I think it should be one of the first priorities.

There's a lot of variability in intended audiences for pro events, some like Moomba (or on a much smaller scale the Canada Cup last week) are all about the in person crowd, some like the Swiss Pro Tricks/Slalom are clearly all about the webcast, and others (without naming names) remind me of stories from @Horton's brother about being flown out to put on a personal jump display for the Sultan of Oman.

I started this provocative line of questioning because I wasn't sure which one the California ProAm was trying to be.

[Horton]

King Hussein of Jordan

[bishop8950]

@NZSkier, I have received overwhelming positive feedback from the pro skiers, their families, fans of the sport and so on.  Many of which actually stated a preference for our broadcast vs others.  While I am open to input and have taken yours into consideration, I am over this conversation.  Let’s leave it at:  You do yours your way, and we will do ours.

I will also say I believe its unprofessional for one broadcast organization to openly criticize another organization on a public forum.  You made your point and are now just repeating yourself.  Instead, maybe free up some time to get some slalom rides in?

[NZskier]

@bishop8950

Point taken. Sorry.

For the record I do not represent any broadcast organization, this is simply one hack’s opinion. But I understand how it may appear that way take your point that this discussion is probably not appropriate for a public forum.

If that last comment somehow came across as a criticism of @Kelvin (as the other broadcast organization) I sincerely apologize, there are very few individuals I have as much respect for in the waterski community as him and I hope he knows that.

I care a lot, that’s why I’m on an online forum offering (unwanted) advice on how to present pro water skiing. Not because I have a desire to tear any one down. But I’ll leave it, you’re probably right I should stick to skiing. Slalom, unfortunately, is out of the question for me though.

[VONMAN]

Great broadcast, but why is no one talking about Nate being the only one to run 41 off and have a peak at 43? In the first round he let the field know he was there to play.