Red Bull Rising Why?
 

I liked the Whirly-transfer by Breddas. Probably because I never saw it before. Seems like Red Bull and Unit want to see more inverts landed on high-density plastic. Or maybe they will just toss a quarterpipe after this bad boy like X-Games Big Air.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/12/images/ramps.gif

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I don't think this is a good direction for wakeboarding, but just like some college kids have a gay experience while away at school, maybe we just need to try this so we can figure out what we really want.

dude I just drank a lot in college..............wtf were you doing?

this may be the snowboarder in me, but i think it looks kind of fun...

I'd hit it given the chance.

Everyone likes to talk about the "direction wakeboarding is going". I could care less. These tangents are fun.

ahahaha exactly what i was thinking hahah

Regardless of whether this is sick/not...isn't landing at an angle like this much better for one's knees?
Landing perfectly centered though would be difficult IMO the landing ramp should have water constantly flowing on it...similar to a flow rider to help with edges on landing.

Unleashed posted an article about it http://www.unleashedwakemag.com/?p=7986

Why? More like why not?

I dunno how much "innovation" there will be, but the list of riders is pretty sick and the format for the competition sounds legit. Though I expect to see a ton of spins and less inverts since landing on your head would suck pretty bad...

You'd think with a landing ramp theyd make a bigger booter. Idk if its the angle but that kicker doesn't look much bigger than other ones used when landing on water

Might as well start making foam pits and air bags for wakeboarding too.

That actually looks pretty cool. He is getting up there so I would expect some big things off that in the future.

Looks cool. why does wakeboarding have to have a direction and people get all bent if they dont like something, who cares dont do it then

would water flowing over that just make it even slicker, or the opposite?

Water is a lubricant. Didn't you learn that in college? ;) So water flowing over would make it even slicker.

Flowing water would give you some much needed edge control. More legit because it actually matters which way your board is pointing, otherwise you could catch your edge and bail hard. Without water you could land like Michael Jackson and hee-hee all the way down.

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What I thought, slicker in a good way.

that looks incredibly fun ^^

It looks like either we were all on the same page to begin with or they totally took our suggestion of flowing water lol although what I had in mind would've been much more dramatic than what it is in reality.
https://vimeo.com/68940163

Am I the only one who thought the grabbed mobe was more impressive on that thing than a 1080? Not sure why, just seemed more impressive.

Are wakeboarders the new purists?

that honestly looks better than some of the landings i see riders take off the huge kickers at owc lol

I'd love a shot at that set-up. Super different.

So is this the direction wakeboarding is going in? Just a bunch of skateboard ramps? I've got an idea for the next wakeboarding contest improvement. They could put wheels on the bottom of the wakeboard.

I thought it was cool to see something different, but if this was a new angle to bring it more to the masses, then I say FAIL! I think the biggest fail was the tall knuckle on the landing ramp. It didn't give you any sense of how big the guys were going as they were never more than a few feet off the top of the landing ramp. It just didn't "look" as impressive and the danger factor was greatly minimized. Do the same thing but have a huge gap between the two obstacles and make the take off ramp taller and it would look much more impressive to the masses. Like that jump JD Webb did over the fountain in Orlando...way more impressive...and dangerous.

Eric, wakeboarding can go many directions all at the same time. Is every lake and wakeboard park going to have one of these set-ups?--probably not. Is it a cool concept/diversion--I think so.

" They could put wheels on the bottom of the wakeboard. "
You know someone is going to try this.

I thought it was cool. Red Bull is always trying to push what is possible. This event was no exception. While the shape of the takeoff/landing did detract to the visual representation of how big they were going, this was on purpose. This style of jump (basically a mellow step-up) is very popular in snowboarding, because it allows riders to throw huge tricks, without the deathly consequences of a huge step-down. Think of this as a way not to push the "amplitude" of the sport, but more of a way to push the technical side of the tricks. Raph's 1080 was one of the cleanest I've seen off a kicker. He didn't pre-spin like a lot of people do when trying them. (http://www.unleashedwakemag.com/wp-c...ning-Trick.jpg)

In summary, I respect this, as well as normal cable, boat etc. It's all fun to be had on a wakeboard.

I would love to try this. I bet its intimidating as hell cutting into but once your in the air it cant be too bad as it resembles a step up

Yeah fail.

Not just the knuckle that makes riders look like they aren't going as high as they really are, but they don't have to worry about catching their edge on plastic so in some ways it is easier to land on plastic than on wate. On the other hand, plastic can help you correct your landing.

Either way I'm not stoked to see this at Wake Open in Tampa.

And now James Windsor has a broken collarbone from this thing.

Some people just don't like progression because they fear being left behind. Let the haters hate.

I'm surprised that thing didn't eat any knees. Seems like rolling down it once would claim an acl. I've hit the ground once strapped in before and the knees did not love it.

Okay, maybe I am not following, but is it lame because it is dangerous or because it is too easy?

There is a head-on picture of this beast on alliance. Rolling into this would be terrifying, but I would do it in a heartbeat.

If your going to hate on this set up then why not hate on the use of quarter pipes in wakeboarding... At least on this set up the did all look like they were just trying to hang on and not slip out. It looked fun and different, I would have hit it.

didn't someone over shoot the landing and blow their knees out?

It just didn't have much visual appeal IMO. I watch anything and everything wakeboarding, but after seeing a couple of hits I didn't think it was that interesting. Sure, I would love to hit it though!

And can we stop always associating opinions with hate? Just because somebody isn't into a particular thing doesn't mean they are trying to "hate"!

G Q, yeah daniel grant overshot the landing but no blown knees as far as I know, here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=187352331432023