Stab high
Did anyone catch it ?
Yeah I did, wasn’t too bad though the repetitive format of the wave quickly became dull (take off, pump twice for speed then launch).
Production was great; lots of interesting camera angles, more than an ocean event because of the way the pool is built. Commentary was a little patchy - sometimes boring, sometimes very amusing. But stacks of replays kept me watching way more than a WSL event, and Waco certainly has the edge over the Surf Ranch for keeping punters interested, through the sheer volume of waves (one every minute, I think).
The $9 advertised price (purchased in advance) was a little misleading too - that was in US dollars, so after conversion and then a $2.75 booking fee, the total was AUD$16. Otherwise it was $19 to purchase on the day (with a booking fee on top I assume).
Good on ‘em for giving it a go. Will be interesting to see how many punters paid up to watch.
I agree with the sentiment that it’s a great move by Stab. You’ve got to wonder what it would have cost to produce. It’d be nice if it was viable and gave the WSL some competition.
Would the Waco pool suffice for an event with regular surfing or is it only suitable for airs do you think ?
Was the judging clear ,understandable and unbiased ?
Sam McIntosh said in an article that the event would cost around $500K, of which $100K was attributable to the webcast alone.
Not sure how realistic those figures are, but assuming they retained the full $9 per viewer (i.e. no tax or other charges), they'd need over fifty five thousand people to pony up.
Seeing that all but five of Stab's promo videos (uploaded to YouTube) achieved less than five thousand views each - without users having to pay - I'm not sure how to guage its success (or otherwise). And compared to the number of (free) WSL viewers per event, I would have recommended an event budget with considerably smaller targets (remember, Tahiti had just four thousand people worldwide watching the Finals via Facebook). Then again, Stab don't do things by halves.
Not to detract from the event in any way - it's a great concept and as per usual Stab executed it really well - but we're still in the early stages of PPV online, so it may take a succession of similar events over many months - or perhaps years - to get a feel for consumer sentiment/demand.
Re: Waco - personally, I'd love to surf it, but for competitions (and webcasts etc) I can't see it working for anything other than an air show. Surf Ranch is much better for more standard rail surfing/barrels etc.
Didn't really tune into what the judges were doing either, so don't have an opinion on it.
4000 people for Chopes !?
Is that the grand total of worldwide viewers ?
That’s an amazingly small amount .
Surf Magazines that went under were selling more issues than that weren’t they ?
That was concurrent viewers via the Facebook stream for the Final, though the rest of the event has similarly poor numbers (for a variety of reasons, poor surf being one).
Magazine sales/circulation figures - that’s a whole different kettle of fish.
I've seen a few highlights of it and was surprised at just how short the wave is...pump, pump and pop...and that's it!
I'd probably watch a 10-15 min edited wrap up of the event, not much more.
I can’t find any free video or highlights of the Stab High comp.
Does anyone have any links?
Event was PPV, so access to the event video is through user/pass log in.
Thanks Ben
I missed it but now wished I tuned in.