I was at the contest in the morning, and then suffered through watching the webcast for the latter part of it. The constrast between being there and the online broadcast was so striking I had to write more on it at my blog. So, if for some tragic reason you are not outside on this gorgeous sunny national holiday and want some reading to break up your work day, click the link.
Pipeline Masters and the Eddie both had excellent internet broadcasts this year. Understandable live scoring and good non-stupid commentary.
Why was it so difficult for Mavs guys to do the same? They've had 2 years to prepare.
There's not excuse for the commentating (although the ripping on the "sweepers" stuff was funny), but the scoring and communications gear got taken out by that "rogue" wave.
Shoulda read the article before posting. Those were some very good criticisms. Hopefully the organization takes heed.
I agreed with one of the commenters on your blog that the view from the channel was amazing! I had the AM shift on the boat and it was breath taking to see. There were cameras out there on the boats taking video and I suspect that the "rogue wave" might have totally messed them up. But that does beg the question why you'd put that stuff anywhere near the water on the on land side... Also people on my boat were on their cell phones. Even some commentary from "out there" via cell phone patch would have been good along with the views of opening waves... For that matter you could have done the same from the judges and gotten a way better sense of what was what... I know they had cell phones cause I could see them texting during the event on the webcast...
Having gotten off the boat and driven home I expected the webcast to be way better than it was and tuned out in about 5 minutes. I was on the same boat as the Sierra Nevada guy (sponsor rep) and the fact that Randy could not figure out why to ask him how he was connected to the contest was laughable! (product plug stupid) As he had not really been around surfing just asking him more about what it was like out there would have been way more interesting than watching them try to do math...
