Here are the finishes for the Voyager Foil race today. The start of the Hawaii race season.
Quote: The backwash was insane. Elite DWers were falling and taking 10 minutes to get back up. Bumps were like 3 times my size and the backwash was similar height.
One of the guys near the back put up some 1:51 KM splits. So it was pretty fast out there.
Some real shockers!
Why only small crew on the North shore race?
I don’t think the north shore race was part of the koa Kai qualifiers. So maybe less people for that reason.
For the voyager race nearly everyone had at least one fall. Coconut WhatsApp says @KDW was leading but had a fall.
@shep posted dates for us.
Voyager/Wetfeet - ?July 1st?
Paddle Imua - July 14th
Maui 2 Molokai - July 19th
Molokai4Molokai - July 20th
M2O - July 21st
M2m on 19th and m2o on 21st are fast back to back. I heard people on Molokai don’t love Foilers flooding in. Maybe the races are so quick back to back so that less time is spent on Molokai.
I bet eventually there will be a Maui to Oahu race that skips Molokai all together.
@shep you’re one of the few that ventures off of Instagram and posts here. I know at the races it feels like dw is bigger than ever. But from my end it seems like there is no interest in the races. The people who care are there. No one else even discusses the races. How do we fix that?
I think it’s coverage. Not Instagram coverage either. YouTube or the like with proper commentators so we know what is happening. Why does no one drone the finishes of these races then commentate them? It seems like the obvious answer.
If you saw the latest voyager foiling youtube video, it looks to me like they started well up around the north shore cliffs of Molokai, which in theory could be connected from Maui. I did wonder if that was a recon mission to see what that leg might be like combined with a warmup for M2O. Though I think it would be more likely to connect around the south side of Molokai.
I tend to agree - many brands are commissioning fairly lengthy professional edits of their presence, but none of them show a top down shot of the path the riders take, explain the history, and put some context around why this should matter to the athletes themselves, or how it might extend to the casual or even dedicated rider.
F1 did it, and their US fanbase exploded.
I think there is pressure to edit the footage that is shot, but when you do that, you often end up with footage of someone literally assembling a foil in garage, telling inside jokes in a minivan, and the breathlessly talking about how epic it as at the takeout.
The backwash was insane. Elite DWers were falling and taking 10 minutes to get back up. Bumps were like 3 times my size and the backwash was similar height.
I’ve never ridden in Hawaii or attended one of these races, what does this mean? It sounds interesting!
Pretty much this, if you care enough you’ll be competing
I think with instagram brands only get ROI from sharing a viral clip, and they don’t need 45 people watching a live feed to achieve that. No one is incentivised to do it, but if someone did do it they’d get quite a motivated audience.
It does seem crazy that one kid with a top end drone and someone with them that knows who is who could do a very good livestream for under $500, and yet no one does it.
I look at the downhill skate which is an equally fringe niche interest sport, they’ve turned it around by commissioning a sports management company and broadcaster to cover all the races, and it’s a bit comical because they seem not even to manage 30 riders, but that doesn’t matter because they get 30k likes on posts that go viral, but the key is that the sports company makes it look way more professional than it actually is.
I don’t think downwind needs too much governance just yet, but media coverage would help things move along in that direction
I wouldn’t say that’s the case here in Sydney. We’re all interested in the results, and watching the dot trackers when the race is on (the whatsapp groups light up!). We talk about the results of the lead-in races, and enjoy hearing from our friends that are there about who is fast and what the conditions are like. But it probably helps that it’s our friends competing. We feel connected to it.
I also think our DW culture here is a bit different too. Obviously there’s lots of people that just wanna cruise and turn, but there’s a large number of DWers here that are comparing splits and trying to keep up with Perth, Casey, Josh, Jake et al.
I mean people definitely care (myself included lol), so much so that even a random blog gets a few views, but the effort vs rewards for this isn’t there for me given how little insight you can get from a distance. These were some of the most viewed posts I did
I think @hdip’s point is correct that it should be broadcast, and it’s a fail that it isn’t. There are 10,000 pump foilers across the world and if they know it or not, this is the pinnacle of their sport, and they would surely care to follow along.
The swell reflecting off of the shoreline and traveling in cross/counter direction to the main swell.
No one does it because it’s not that cheap/easy or simple to organize. For example I learned the hard way last year that the shoreline at the start of m2m is geofenced against flying a drone.
For sure it can be done but to say all it takes is a kid with a drone and $500 is not realistic. This same narrative popped up around some of the pipeline surf events that were not live-streamed last year and a few tv/live stream pros broke down the actual costs for one of the surf magazines and it was a lot. And that’s for a stationary stream and field of competition. These are moving competitors on an undefined “field”. Take even a Maliko run for paddle imua one of the shorter and simpler races, between the inside line and the offshore line it probably gets to be a mile of separation, so which competitor do you follow? Do you get a second drone? Attempt to cover both?
I’d love a livestream and would pay for it even if I was at the event to support but it’s not easy to organize.
3 drone operators on china wall. Alternate who is flying at what time. Commentator tells us who is who and why we care.
Live is best. Recap is acceptable.
The best we get is Ku’s recaps. But we need better. It was better the year Kai Lenny won. That’s my annoyance. It’s already been done like this. It was amazing. It’s the reason we care. Then they lost a drone the next year and was never attempted again.
It’s seems like a big investment ($25-100k) that only really works if the brands pool resources to have a comp-wide asset.
IMO it’s someone at the finish with a cohost as the main speaker providing context (similar to Chris MacDonald’s broadcast at GKA) or producer panning across the dot-vision, and inter-splicing video from the boats.
My perspective is that this is still too down-funnel — even if you had a killer broadcast, the interest is not there today for anyone to log on. So until someone does a YouTube video that says “These are the races, this is why it’s gnarly and historic, here’s some drama and heartbreak…” it’s hard to see why it won’t just sorta thud.
I don’t think the interest in DW racing crosses over that well with your average dock pumper.
I think a live stream would be too much work for the viewership you’d get. I think a nicely done 8 min edited video would be great though, especially if they have drone footage. Think about seeing first place crashing then frantically getting going again only to get passed by 2nd place near the end. That’s entertainment.
A little on the nose re: 2023, hahaha!
How, when, where do we follow the dot trackers? That would be awesome, but I have seen nothing promoting access to that. Thanks.
DotVision are one of the event sponsors, so presumably the links will be on the event website when they hit the go button.
Obviously it can get more complex, but realistically, it would be an improvement. At the moment the best live feeds are coming from Edo’s friends which is great, but sets a low bar.
Look at the Aus coverage, the drone footage was amazing, and adding that to a feed I’m sure isn’t rocket science. Put it this way - it has never in history been cheaper and easier to do a drone live feed. Just need some way to pay for it.
To be clear, I don’t expect it to just happen, I’d only expect it as part of a media package of a more organised race series, with a sponsor footing the media bill. Otherwise where is the incentive.
Agree, it will thud initially, without a doubt. See it as an investment into the future, sponsored riders and sponsor should willingly pay for this, otherwise the thing will fade. This thread has 400 views, IG posts get around 200-500 likes, Oskar Vlogs get 3.5k views, this gives you a sense for the relatively limited interest (compared to a parawing review..).
What is important, is that the content then gets reused to build out the story across years, Netflix mini-doco style, building for the next season. This is without doubt the only way to build interest.
Yes that was why I said they don’t know it yet. Point to the “pro” pumper who didn’t start chasing bumps. It’s like a process of self discovery. Pump->wake->downwind almost without fail
I definitely agree and wish that there was more coverage. Every year I find my self scouring looking for something. A few live feeds from boats and constantly refreshing the tracker pages getting excited over little dots….
Really is a shame because as stated by someone earlier, that is what helps grow the sport.
