what caught your attention about the Swiss Pro?

[Horton]

Skiers, the webcast, the officiating, whatever. What caught your attention? What do you think was interesting?

[TonyLightfoot]

Here's some thoughts from a few of the skiers that were interviewed after the award presentations - the latest TWBC Podcast Episode:

 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4GjZ0xBdfNRSqJKIYFUpqW?si=PkFPVfN7Q4OopW4cizn8CQ

[UWSkier]

The follow cam on the drone was awesome, though I would suggest that it just follow the boat rather than the skier. I love the vantage point but the back and forth motion was a bit much to track on my big screen TV.

[mylemsky]

Thibaut on a Monte Carlo…no more Connelly? Looked great.

Dane on a T factor, still awesome to watch.

Regina is jacked.

Awesome job by TWBC.

Benny’s green syndicate looks sweet.

[slow]

Nate and Regina on top of Slalom for a decade. How long will it continue?

 

[Dacon62]

Everything is well done!

So appreciate that we can have this level of coverage.

Always enjoy it.

Thanks to ALL involved.

[dave2ball]

How about the video quality and the shots through either the drone or water water cams. Any review was done quickly with what seemed the correct result with all the camera angles available

[ScottScott]

8 straight swiss titles. Not much more dominant than that. She's back and as good as ever.

[Cooper_Trelawney]

Freddie skies great, so did Will. It wasn't a cake walk for Smith.

Whitney running 39 and tying Regina for a runoff was fantastic.

Missed seeing Manon, Jamie Bull and Adam Cord.

Charlie Ross skis and interviews like a seasoned pro.

Did the ropes create any drama? Didn't seem so.

Jakob Bagne can ski!

Great webcast! I enjoyed commentaries from Kiwi and Rini. Tony was solid as ever.

[LeonL]

As usual, so thankful to have a webcast and of such quality!

[Jordan]

1) the quality of the webcast keeps improving.

2) the number of really really good young skiers is truly impressive

3) Regina's run in this event is astounding

4) Nate is a robot. He almost always can get 1 more buoy than the "current leader"

[MitchellM]

Great broadcast. Need a new drone pilot. Nobody wants to see drone footage of you trying to follow a skier at those speeds. Just stay straight down the boat path. Some viewers in my home needed to look away during those segments!

 

I'm not sure about the buoy cam. It looked like Whitney had to swerve to avoid that unexpected obstacle on her last run.

 

I enjoyed the round when they had Jodi Fisher up on the broadcast table. Great commentary and insight. Perhaps they could have more former champions join them for segments in the future.

[KRoundy]

I think 2022 is going to be amazing for the Pro Tour. Loved the webcast and the coverage. It is so exciting to put this type of world-class coverage up on my TV and watch it live. Thank you all the sponsors and TWBC! Great job. And remember that this is just a warm-up first-of-season type of event. Things only get better from here!

[Lars]

Loved seeing Jodi Fisher on there.

[Interjon]

Webcast was excellent. Good looking Nautique tow boat.

[Than_Bogan]

Really good officiating. They reviewed where needed and got it right quickly.

 

Regina and Nate are absolute marvels, but it'll be a little more fun as a spectator if some folks truly close the gap on them. I wonder if maybe Jamie Bull can be The One. She's a lot younger! On the men's side? I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see it. Yes, there are several who can beat Nate, but he's still gonna be a big favorite every time.

[jhughes]

I also caught Dane on the T-Factor. He was using rubber boots in college but I thought for the past few years he was on a hardshell. Cool to see that as a T-Factor fan and user.

 

As usual, great coverage. We watched it all day.

 

Whitney right back into 41 after Worlds, fantastic, great mental game.

 

Regina's 39 was really smooth, less tip rise.

 

Freddie's skiing stood out as really really good and smooth.

 

Jakob's skiing, awesome. Really curious as to the actual pronunciation of his name. Tony always said YAAH-cob, everyone else said JAY-cob.

 

One thing I really noticed on every single skier was a straight line from their torso through to their knees. Zero hip bend unless they were in major trouble out of a turn, only then would you see a little crush. Really collectively the good alignment as well as a very consistent and reasonable "lean" was extremely obvious among all of them, maybe moreso than ever. Good reminder for this season.

[dbutcher]

I think I saw some of the tournament pulled by a 200. The Ski Nautique pulled the rest. If that is correct, I'm curious as to why that was done and whether the skiers had a preference.

[ral]

How experienced, confident and mature Regina is, by chosing a runoff instead of risking 2nd place trying to turn 1.

[Broussard]

@dbutcher I am 99.8% positive the entire event was pulled by the Ski Nautique.

[MISkier]

The lake seemed to have more rollers than I remember from watching previous events. Either that, or they were running the wait timer really short (at least the rounds before finals) to try to fit it all into one day.

 

Agree on the camera panning on the drone. A bit too much visual chaos to be able to focus on it.

 

 

 

 

[Jody_Seal]

noticed lack of spectators on shore..

 

noticed judging performed in a efficient manor.

as well as accurate calls.

 

noticed drone coverage pretty cool.

 

noticed how clear and well defined the production was. casting from a phone to a hi def TV the picture was very good.

 

noticed I did not see any porta Pottys on screen in the background...( pet peave)

 

 

[dave2ball]

.

[Fastguy888]

Watched almost the entire thing. Thank your TWBC!

Tossed salad in the ski spray @Gloersen was wondering if this was effecting anything.

Love the rear drone footage, but agree trying to follow skier was too much.

If you had to take a shot every time Tony said "Wades World"?

Would be cool if TWBC could cut to some pre done edits about the athletes, other venues, training, boat tech or anything to break up the visuals. Wade doing a great job on the doc but would be super classy to cut from live interview of athlete to short pre-packaged edits.

More venue shots and wide establishing shots would help.

[mfjaegersr]

I noticed:

 

Regina’s yellow champions’ bib said ‘Undefeated’ on the back. Priceless.

 

A new prominent, household-name sponsor*, which should be a positive indicator for wider audience acceptance/appeal? (*Logitech; I know a few former colleagues still there).

 

 

[RAWSki]

Great broadcast by TWBC again

Agree that the drone cam needs to calm down and follow boat path.

Audio issues could still be addressed and levels smoothed out but that probably involves yet another person

I wondered if the lake was higher than normal it was right at the level of the starting dock?

The on camera crew in matching TWBC shirts is a nice touch and producing over 11 hrs or coverage is very impressive---

Looking forward to the next broadcast!

[CBR51]

Jakob Bagne looked great. Good to see another newcomer on the scene. Also I thought Freddie looked better. Maybe new ski is working better for him?

[Stevie Boy]

Will Asher, still at the top, Style and Technique, So Smooth, what a Great Athelete and Ambassador for the sport.

[Slalom.Steve]

Overall amazing skiing and amazing broadcast, thank you to everyone involved and especially TWBC! My comments:

 

1. I concur with the difficulty of watching the drone video swinging left and right, it's a very cool angle but better to have it stay flat.

 

2. The quality and stability of the in-boat video seemed not great? That's really the most important part of the whole broadcast, and I know more stable, higher-quality ski recordings can be achieved, like

. But maybe there's a quality limitation with having to send the signal over air from the boat to the broadcast booth in real time? I have no idea. For stability, I'm no camera expert, but I believe some kind of camera stabilizer or gimbal could be super helpful, as long as it can pan back and forth fast enough?

 

3. Even if more overall stability is achieved, I think I'd also prefer a slightly less-zoomed-in video from the boat. The high-zoom shows more of the skier, but it also makes for a lot of intense back-and-forth screen motion, which can be fatiguing on the eyes and brain (similar to the drone swinging, just not as extreme). Again, something like that Denali video seems like a good compromise on the zoom level. You could maybe even run the live feed a little wider and then slow-mo replays more zoomed in (if the broadcasting software can do that), since slow-mo would make the screen movements slower as well.

 

5. Was Travers's handle rope fraying? It looked like something was dangling right about where the handle rope attaches, and then he snapped the rope a couple times at the end of a pass, maybe to try to break it all the way? (would he get the chance to use a different one then?)

 

5. And wondering like several others - in a sport where a thousand of an inch in the fin makes a difference, how could running over a good bit of lake vegetation not be disruptive?

[liquid d]

Use a little less wing angle when taking out Lilly pads...1/2 degree.

[Jody_Seal]

@liquid d at least the the green wall is gone..

[eyepeeler]

Great job Tony Lightfoot!!

[Fjeff]

I was home all day with Covid and was able to watch the majority of the webcast.

 

The visual quality was phenomenal; however, I wasn’t a fan of the drone shots, in my opinion it was too far behind the action.

 

I notice that there seemed to be some backwash issues due to the quicker drop times; however, the biggest problem with our sport is the lag time between skiers and passes and the time it takes a slalom skier to get to the money pass.

 

Tricks has become painfully slow with only 20 seconds of action followed by a ski change, rest, approaching or leaving the course and picking up a new skier.

 

I enjoyed the shorter time between passes and question what is the shortest rest time/drop time between passes that the skiers could handle and still compete at a high level?

 

The mandatory shorter line length start was a welcome addition. I wonder, with multiple rounds in a day, if the format could change where at the start at the day women could start at 28 and men at 32 but by the end of the day women would start at 35 and the men at 38? How short is too short for the top 8 skiers in the world to start at after already skiing earlier in the day? We saw all the men in the runoff at the worlds start at 39 and run it.

 

In my opinion, Freddy Winter has been the best webcast co-host. He always critiques the skiers' style and allows the weekend warriors to learn something throughout the webcast.

 

TWBC does a great job filling airtime throughout a very long day but why not have the skiers submit a bio to be read on air/worked into the content throughout a competitors’ set instead of having to rely on how well the commentators know the athlete?

 

[APB]

Will Asher stood out. Freddie was great. The women's scores being so close to the men's was awesome! Cant wait for Dane to find his seasonal stride... Love to see J. Bull ski.

[jhughes]

One more thing– in general I just felt thankful that everyone involved from the competitors to the organizers are out there doing this stuff, pro skiing, basically for little to no financial benefit. This is a sport really driven by people and passion and it's awesome to see.

[DW]

Water 82 F, Air 78 F. I'm jealous with temps half that in my neck of the woods.

As usual, great skiing by the competitors & enjoy the fact I can watch a water ski tourney live or for delayed viewing.

[UCFskier]

will Ashers fight back after a difficult 39

Freddys unwavering strength

Charlie Ross' dominance as a U17 and Mens Pro

Danes style. just looks so solid!!

 

drone footage was great to see!! good job to all the CREW!

[ALPJr]

The TWBC Swiss Highlights Recap - ready for Primetime!

[prk]

one little thing no malibu sticker on asher's ski

[lefty]

Thought it was great all around sports entertainment, only thing missing was J Bull in the lineup.

[Mastercrafter]

Asher, Travers, and Stadlbaur all had new, different Syndicate skis.

 

Nate Smith appears to be a robot.

 

 

[Keith_Menard]

I love that I can watch such great content on waterskiing. I love that you are continually trying to improve and take risks. I thought some of the camera angles shows just how fast the speeds really are. Would still love to see a boat drivers perspective view to get an appreciation of that it's like to drive someone at short line.

 

Couple quibbles: As some one who gets sea sick on dry land, the drone was a bit much. This one is going to be the hardest....with the same competitors year after year, how do you keep the commentary fresh? Allie is light, Regina is a compound pharmacist, Nate....nm. You get the point. I don't know the answer because at this point it's like watching Tom Brady...hey Tom, ummm...what haven't we asked you in the last 40 years you have been winning super bowls?

[Keith_Menard]

Question for Tony...you were totally trying to bait Rini into saying something nice about the Goode ski, right? :)

 

Tony: That Goode ski looks like it sticks to the water no matter what

Matt: Regina is a great skier!

[lpskier]

The low/inconsistent scores notwithstanding top drivers and stellar conditions.

[VONMAN]

Lack of Spectators, but video coverage was Great. Need to trim the weeds in the course, its got to be distracting.

[MISkier]

@lpskier, I think the short wait timer and rollers at the beginning of the course were a factor in the scores. I don't think the skiers were getting the start they wanted, due to that, especially at -39 and -41. It appeared to me to show up at 2 ball, with a number of skiers running it over or at least cutting it very close to try to make up for the start.

[lpskier]

@MISkier Maybe you could see something on the webcast that I couldn’t see (or just didn’t notice) on the shore. Most of the time i was just down course from the judges tower so i could see the second half of 39 and the first four turns of 41. The drone video probably has a superior view. I’m friends with several of the skiers. No one I talked to mentioned short wait times or busy water as an issue.

 

What was the wait time? 45-50 seconds should be fine. Unless longer waits are needed for conditions, anything over 50 seconds would be considered long.

[Wish]

Maybe I missed the last web cast but the graphics intro that TWBC had at the beginning was ESPN quality with highlights from last year fused in. Made me feel like it was more then just a web cast. It just gets better every year. Hats off to TWBC.

[B_S]

@Keith_Menard ya Tony making that Goode comment had me laughing. I'm sure he did that after Matt's little Radar commercial during Whitney's prior run! Awesome sauce!

[MISkier]

@lpskier, there were some shots of skiers pulling out and into their glide where there were rollers. I think I was noticing it mostly from the starting dock end. I'll have find time to go back through the video to get an example and also check the wait timer, which they did show a few times. I had thought it was 40 seconds or less in the preliminary rounds. I'll check.

 

Edit: Found the timing reference for round 1 of both men and women. I was apparently looking at timings when many seconds had passed. Looks like a 52 second wait, which seems more than reasonable. Will look for roller footage.