Hating on Inverts

So I was watching this video over at Alliancewake.com
http://www.alliancewake.com/wake/aqu...bama-winching/
If you read through the comments, and kinda ignore the raging hatorade drinkers, seems like Mike Ennen's inverts at the end take a lot of flack. Since when is that not cool? Personally, I thought it was one of the coolest tricks in the video, but not a single comment defends it. Are inverts down drops the new spinning on rails?

i just dont think inverts look as cool on waterfalls as they do on boat... i would deffinately prefer a gnarly lookin bs 180

A trick is a trick. Why would anybody knock somebody for doing a trick no matter whether it was easy or not. At least they are doing something with style. Who decided spinning on rails wasn't cool? I remember years ago air rolls were uncool as well as tumble turns. Those are the tricks that got a reaction in the boat because they were unexpected. I am sure watching the video you weren't expecting an invert off a waterfall. I have a friend that does a TS backrool re-entry it looks really cool but would probably get thumbs down by "cool trick" police......

100% with you Greg. I haven't seen an invert off a winch since a video with Phil Soven months ago. I didn't see it coming at all. All I'm used to seeing from these winching videos is some INTENSE grinds, bonks and, yes, extremely cool 180's and 3's. Being able to do a air roll over a gap/falls shows some crazy line control, coordination and some serious b@ll$. I thought that was super cool of Ennen to throw it in there. Mixin' it up and doing things that not many other riders do, that's how you define style.

Those inverts are awesome! I haven't seen anyone throw a tantrum or roll to revert ever off of a 6' high waterfall. Very nice.

The flips are definitiely unique... I think they just look kind of weird coming off of a ledge because no other extreme sport really does inverts off of objects like those.

Since the sport began, some have proclaimed that to be stylish and legit it must look like other board sports. So ...too many inverts are kooky,spins and grabs are king, raley's suck, mobe's suck, waterski's suck, kneeboarding never existed and everyone needs to dress like a skater. Woh...flash back to 1998.

I think they just look kind of weird coming off of a ledge because no other extreme sport really does inverts off of objects like those.

Wow, I hope that was sarcasm cuz there is nothing that makes wakeboarding look weaker than those that do or do not do something because they are using another sport as their guide. Talk about lame! Wakeboarding is wakeboarding. Wakeboarding is not snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, etc. It's different. Therefore, some of the things we do are different. I'm gonna go grab tindy now!

LOL! Agree & good one, Dave!

I dunno what the commentors are talking about. I'd go as far as saying his last 3 tricks and the gaps made this video.

I would like to point out the fact that Snowboarders do inverts off cliffs all of the time. I think its impressive. I definitely am not that skilled.

Im not hating on it, I was just providing a possible reason why others might. Although I do think a flip off of an object with no lip/kicker does look weird, along with a flip off of a rail/flat water, I'm not saying people shouldnt do it , that I wouldnt do it, or that its gay. That is just my opinon however, so please dont freak out and resort to grabbing tindy.

I also dont see whats wrong with using other sports as a guide... I like to appreciate what other board sports do and try to incorporate a similiar style into my riding. For example, a lot of snowboarders I know have a very loose style and often do a lot of flat land butter tricks that also look really neat when perfomed on a wakeboard. But whatever, to each his own I suppose.

I think winching inverts look BADASS! In my opinion it is exactly what winching was missing. Don't get me wrong a huge BS 180 down a gnarly gap is insane and steezy but just imagine where this is going. The guys will be tossing a mobes down a waterfall soon! It's all good!

Hating on a R2R off a Waterfall? Get real! That is a sick sick trick. It looks like a frontside rodeo on a snowboard. Personally i thought it was awesome.

I just can't undestand how people could hate on someone doing something totally different and new like flipping off a waterfall? It just doesn't make sense. There are a million videos of guys online now doing a press at a cable park on a big box, but no one hates on them. Rails are fun and all but I think doing what ennen did takes things to kind of a new level. I agree that a BS180 is one of the coolest tricks but it has been done many many times, while this is just different.

Oh well, I guess there are people who only like flats spins both on water and snow who are gonna hate on anything inverted.

Wow those are some IMDB or even YouTube-level-of-quality comments on the page, after some incredible riding. Including the tantrum and roll to revert.

If we're going to criticize a wakeboarder for doing a flip off of a gap, let's tell snowboarders about that and see how they feel about it. Seems to me it's still cool over there!

And - I've always wanted to ask - what's with those oddly placed fins you see on some wakeskates - like what Walton has on his (I believe that without them the locked noseslides would be very hard to get with that level of precision - and the nose manual he does is aided by them too). The first I ever saw something like that in use was on an old photoshoot writeup with Aaron Reed - a WBM article. It looked like he had 2 small metal fins set back about a foot from the nose of the wakeskate. My guess was that it was for grinds. Doing blunt stuff and smiths and tricks like that on hard surfaces (it would destroy a standard slider or platform in seconds... I bet you CAN'T use those things at OWC for example ).

After I saw that writeup, I half expected to see these sorts of wakeskate mods all over the place after that but it seems like the trend never picked up steam. Can anyone comment about that? Is it something that a few of the guys just do as a customization or are there some boards made for it. The fins looked a lot like slalom ski fins, shaved down a bit and mounted backwards. Seems like an interesting place for the sport to go. Can anyone talk about this?

I thought it was sick. He grabs them too. Im so sick of the freakin cool trick police. Apparently the comments on alliance are rubbing off on the staff because now apparently "mobes" dont exist in wakeboarding. Really Alliance? What is their deal...the term has been around for, what, 15 years? Now they just decide-well we never cared until now but its officially a rodeo 1080, not a mobe 7. And while we are at it, the term mobe is stupid and alliance hereby declares it as lame, so everyone start doing your toeside fs rodeo 7s (crow mobe?) and fs/bs rodeo 7 (kgb?). I seriously couldnt believe the stuff I was seeing in alliance in the "The List" issue and photo issue. They still have the best photos and some good content but the last two issues were just non-stop hating on everything besides the Pointless Crew/Chris O shea/Shredtown. Every letter to the editor was laughed at, mobes all of a sudden arent cool, and everything in "The List" was hate directed at the online wakeboard community.

Sorry for the rant, but it really pissed me off. Alliance has always been great but what is their problem recently?


If you like inverts off waterfalls, keep doing them. Dont let the trick police ruin your fun

Erik, the lock in fins started in 2002 with Thomas Horrell and Cassette wakeskates. He was way ahead of his time doing backside and frontside noseslides on docks properly locked in. Now they have become more mainstream and most wakeskaters that hit rails now incorporate it into their riding. They allow tricks to be done that were before impossible and the tricks are a whole new difficulty. It opens up the door to a lot more skateboard tricks like crooked grinds, feebles, smiths, noseslides, tailslides, and blunts. The lock in fins dont make it easier or cheat anything, you just cant do the tricks without them. Skateboarders have trucks and wheels to lock in, wakeskaters have fins. Rail riding with wakeskating is limitless. you can do so much more than flex your board and spin around a million times.

Mitch, before that last comment gets super flamed, I hope you can still appreciate the difficulty of Jimmy Trask's little video on the WW homepage, let alone some of the stuff guys like Raph Derome, the Shredtown crew, and AJ Racinelli (to name only a few) can do. Its nice to see almost everyone agreeing with me here.

Ben, its just seems that winching with a wakeboarding just limits what you can do. doing a boardslide on a wakeskate is the same as on a wakeboad, but then after that you can do much more. i dont know why someone would want to limit themselves

I think the funniest part on all the wakeskate/wakeboard hate is that not 1 pro wakeboarder or wakeskater cares. Pro wakeskaters don't mind that wakeboarders are out doing what they find to be fun at a winch spot. And pro wakeboarders don't care about the hate on the internet from some amateur wakeskater who wishes he was getting paid to go winch. The pro wakeskaters are pro for more reasons than just their riding ability. No company wants to pay a wakeskater that is out there throwing hate on the internet. Even if they hide behind fake names it is pretty easy for webmasters to look up ip addresses and more often than not these crybabies will slip and spew their hate around people verbally in a small industry and no company wants that on their roster.

I'd like to see some wakeskaters winch this spot

the back rodeo / roll to revert is nick's signature move. around 1 min in look familiar?

Mitch, in my eyes its just different stuff. Sure wakeboarders cant flip/shuv on and off of rails, but you dont see many wakeskaters doing big transfers, flips, or more than 5s down gaps. Its all impressive, its all different, but I wouldnt call it limiting in any regard.

Cant we all just agree to do the same tricks with the same style in the same spots and never mix it up? That would be awsome. haha

Yea board sports are formed, progressed, and influenced by other board sports. So using another board sport as your guide definitely helps in the progression and style of our sport. If surfing wasn't formed, skateboarding wouldn't have been formed, then snowboarding, then wakeboarding, then wakeskating, and mountain boarding in there somewhere.

If you want to make rules, go back to playing baseball for your parents. That's the beauty of alternative sports, you make your own rules. Your feet are attached to a wakeboard, so go for and do whatever is fun. Why try to make it something it isn't?