2007 Panasonic Open FMX Finals Webcast-- Recap and Thoughts
Jun 28 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
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- The whole finals webast clocks in at 91:27. I must admit I skipped ahead a little. No offense to Potter, Buyten, Fulmer, etc. I knew who the top three were and when they were going. I wanted to check them out. So you can make it through in considerably less time if you skip around.
- It wasn't a bad field, but we missed seeing Twitch. Would have been nice if he made it to the finals but I guess it's just too soon. Surprised also that Beau Bamberg didn't make the cut, but there's always Cleveland.
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- It was actually a pretty interesting competition, with Nate Adams coming through on his second (and winning) run with some great tricks like a no-handed backflip with a one-handed lander, lazy boy back flip, superman backflip, cliffhanger backflip and a cordova backflip. Unfortunately the camera (and Floyd) missed the cliffhanger -- so we'll take Bartram's word for it. See a photo gallery of the finals here, including some shots of Adams (left)
- Mason and Williams couldn't keep up with their second runs -- Mason stopped his run after a blown trick ruined any chance of his surpassing Black Williams (Bilko) and Adams and didn't make a mistake like Bilko and try one more trick for the fans -- something that knocked Bilko out for probably two months.
- There wasn't a very good angle on Bilko's crash so it's hard to see how he broke his foot/etc. But it looked like it could have been a lot worse, so at least that is something fans can be thankful for!
- Kenny Bartram did an okay job of co-commentating, as most of his fellow athletes did in the other broadcasts. Robbie Floyd and Bartram didn't address why Bartram was opting out on competing (that I heard). Would've been nice to just say he's retiring from FMX, etc. or whatever. Heck -- he won the Dew Tour in '05.- My favorite part was actually near the end, right around the second run of Bilko (Blake Williams), there was an extended period of confusion, with Robbie Floyd repeating various transitions (then asking should he do it again, etc.), some dead air (with crowd shots) and some background discussion (ostensibly) between Floyd and Bartram about what should be on air, etc. Might be expected during a live webcast, but this thing was done Sunday -- plenty of time to QC it.
- One last thing -- the first five minutes had a couple of funny moments as they introduced the riders -- the camera didn't know who was who, so it was on Mike Mason when Nate Adams was being introduced (after Mason pointed over for a few seconds, the cameraman got it) and then had trouble finding Adam Jones. I guess it's because they lined up wrong or something. Still, funny.
But that onsite public announcer Brad Jay -- I was at all five tour stops last year and I don't remember the whole "Mileeeeeeeeeeeeeeees RICHMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONDDDDDDDD!" "WILEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY FULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLMERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" intro... I saw it in other events, too, but here it was just too much...
Anyway, that's what I thought.
Click here for the full results from FMX
- Greg Baerg
