Streaming of Nautique Wake Games contests

[ers906]

One of the problems of living on the western side of the US is the lack of pro events to watch in person. I have become more and more involved in local boat and cable events as the kids have grown and taken an interest in such things, however with my work schedule and the cost involved of travel, I have been unable to make it to as many of the larger events typically held in florida (or elsewhere that is more than a few hours drive away from Phoenix). At a local cable even over the weekend, I was discussing this with a few friends, and how it would be great if there was a way to stream the professional's runs online, not just the winning or finals run, but all of them. I feel like there are a ton of good riders in the industry that go unheralded because they do not have the star power name recognition yet. I think being able to watch the prelim rounds instead of just the finals (when available) would help the sport as a whole, as well as allow the riders of the future to begin building their brand now. Anyway, is this something that people would be interested in? I have talked to a few AV and web guys (of which I am admittedly clueless in) and it seems that it is certainly doable. Please let me know your thoughts, and if enough people would be stoked by it, maybe we can put together something to present to Nautique, then who knows......

[NautiqueJeff]

I used to do this for some of the major tournaments through a company I created called Watersports Webcasts, LLC, including the Masters (I did 2004 - 2010), the WWA World Championship, a number of show ski tournaments, and the Big Dawg Slalom events. They still do webcasts of the Masters, and have been working with their current company for several years now. They use them for other events too, like the unveiling of the G23, etc.

I don't believe they have ever done a webcast of the Wake Games though.

[ers906]

I think that it would be a high reward/low risk ($) proposition since the numbers of wake boarders is growing exponentially, and it can be adapted to surfing etc. What do you think regarding popularity of it? Did the skiing webcasts seem to be popular?

[NautiqueJeff]

They were all popular, and the audience grew each year. It is hard work though, and the equipment needed can get expensive, especially the wireless video transmitters for the boats and the video processing equipment for the various cameras used.

[ers906]

One of the guys works at/owns a production studio in LA so hopefully the cameras will be an obstacle which can be overcome. I figure that if there was even a 12-24 hour delay in the postings at first it is better than what we have currently. If you don't mind me asking, why did you stop? time and life constraints? (seems to be the major cause of most of my ideas in my life)

[NautiqueJeff]

Yeah, pretty much. I am still involved in most of the events that we used to webcast, but mainly as a means of promoting this site and helping our sponsors. The industry is great!

[jonsquatch]

Eric if I had to pick one event to go to of the national events it would be wake games. Because of the team/draft based nature of the event and the fact its in Orlando the attendance (for all days of the event) of all the pro's is very high and the attendance of random people who know nothing about wakeboarding is low. Its great for the kids to get a chance to meet all the pro wakeboarders and to have them take an active interest in the kids riding for the points chase. Its a great chance to meet all the big names and great people in the sport past, present and future.

They usually broadcast ~30 minutes of Nationals and Worlds a couple of months after the events, the last few years they were on NBC. They did say that they were recording the final day of events at wake games for broadcast although I think they said on something Fox Sports related.

Having watched Dean Smith's winning run in person and again online I can see more detail online but I got a much better impression of the run in person. It is hard to get an idea of how big Dean goes from the video and its hard to appreciate conditions of the course and the weather. I would certainly watch online though If I had the option for events I couldn't go to.

[ers906]

Hows it going Jon? That was my thought as far as being able to see the different rides of each round of an event. If the camera was in the boat it may make it a bit better as far as getting an idea of the run, but I am sure it will take a whole lot of fine tuning. Just a thought as far as getting an idea of the interest. One of the guys from elevated clothing was asking me about it at the babeshredder event this weekend, so I figured this would be the best place to gauge if it would be worth doing