Live: Natural Selection Surf // Finals Day
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Comments
This is sick.
Just watched a snippet of some the first heat. Looks exciting.
Take note WSL?
kirra wins
Is this the same wave JJ and Nate surfed?
Sure does look like it.
Yeah. Beran Island, Dalys resort.
I missed opening day- guess I just check in now to Finals day?
May the WSL rest in peace...
Yeah, nah. Think there's room for both of them.
Besides, at less than 3K viewers on YT and no sponsors, NST is hardly threatening the Woz.
The concept has merit - similar to the old Billabong Challenger events.
I'd pay to watch this over the tripe the WSL have been dishing up of late.
But would you actually pay when you can watch all the YouTube vlogs/edits/videos for free?
Soli on fire!
Love that more of these events are springing up, I assume as costs come down with tech advances, Starlink etc. Especially as the WSL declines.
A bit underwhelming for me, seeing as the first day was heavy, raw and some pretty sketch and insane barrels. Today now looks smaller and meh. I would have thought they would have tried to climax in epic conditions?
I'm with you boss, I was left thinking is this it ? The hype vs cross shore left me sad along with the post production editing. Have to start somewhere but
I’ve been so keen for something like the old Billabong Challenges. There’s been so much talk about the waves being the stars… and we get a lumpy, wild but shutting down big day, then this smaller day.
Guess it’s pretty bloody hard to have a purple blob tour. Must be a nightmare making the call to mobilise, spend a ton of money and not really score.
Why this talking in the studio? PA said there were three minutes between heats yet in this delayed telecast they've stretched it out to more. This isn't an improvement.
Bit disappointing now the waves aren't maxing - the best surfers at putting a 4-5ft wave together are all on tour so it's never going to compare.
It's a bloody windy joint. Does the wind ever ease?
Yeah in the non-swell season unfortunately. Or in a Midoki Nino situation perhaps.
Lol , that's pretty much a hard no .
Fuck hows Barton's beard and locks.. legend..
Yes - has anyone ever seen Santa and BL in the same room together?
Hope I'm on his nice list for this year.....
Soli is too good. How was the wave that came way after the hooter and celebrations!
I'm so confused. Is it actually live surfing or pre-recorded?
It's a bit weird. It was filmed a few weeks ago, edited into a slightly shorter package, then played with commentators who spoke as if it was happening in real time - which it wasn't.
Not sure the format works. I already knew who won and the shift between fake real time and long periods of studio talking - which was utterly unnecessary - made it lose all drama.
Lots of room to improve.
That's exactly how it felt. Weird. It's a big no from me. But the wave were epic on the first day.
Haven't watched the final day yet, but for the first day I watched it after the "live" stream had finished and skipped through all the crap.
Liked the format, and there's something in the idea of pre-recording and releasing with lulls etc cut out, if you could somehow prevent leaks!
Day 1 was unreal. Such a refreshing format and commentary. And judging. And of course the waves were insane. Compared with recent tub event I totally bought in to this and know what I’d rather watch
You reckon there's legs in the idea, Bisho? That it could sustain a tour?
I've no idea about the commercial model or viability, but from a pure spectator perspective I was hooked on Day 1. Condensed format helped as did the novelty of a remote, dream tour type location and heavy waves. As a tour ? Maybe not but if held a few times a year I'd be all in !
Don't think it could be a full tour, just the odd event. And to hell with the studio blather; live, off the cuff comments from judges and competitors' boat enough. Gerr was great freestyling in his souwester.
And I loved watching great surfers performing under a slightly looser format; HP ripping, but in a slightly different style.
Think it needs proper pumping waves that are heavy, scary, hard to surf to make it exciting. Like the first day.
Anything less and you’re watching them do turns, and while they surf great the wsl guys and gals are leaps ahead in that department.
Needs to be people really going for it in waves that the average pleb like me aren’t going to surf well/at all…
My 2 cents…
Maybe better being a single day strike?
This. Riley's.
Yeah I agree. Like day 1, or Pipe day 3, or Caper Fear 2016, CB freesurf..
I think if Nathan starts inviting more big names like Medina & Kelly, continued to strike amazing venues, and switched to live, the real kind, then I reckon that's the recipe. You just need amazing waves streamed live, with quality surfers pushing each other. Not even sure you need the competition bit
Yeah for sure I think.
But then how do you tell the 20 locals out that day that they can’t surf?
Reckon they had a permit for this one?
Not many locals on xxx Atoll.
No locals I reckon
Brad Gerlach’s Aussie accent and manner was insanely good!
much better judging than WSL with their mystery judges/
cool to see Pam included
My take........I'm a believer ..... after watching the comparisons between the free world tour snowboarding events and NS events it's a no brainer for me. The quality of snow, locations, timing of actual filming that coincides with Mother Nature and production is off the chain.........
Due to perhaps budget or other factors they obviously got a little skunked with the finals day but still ...... they ran it in entertaining watchable conditions, in a unique & unreachable for most area, where we've never seen a comp filmed.... yes theres a lot of bullshit commentary and its pre recorded ..... I got past it ... main reason being is that you get to watch premium quality surfing .... you can skip through parts u don't wanna watch .... room for improvement? Hell yes ... But ya gotta start somewhere..... Surely they're going to analyse and improve on the product if they wanna continue with this product......hopefully they'll improve and give it another few spots next year ...
Not sure why they are claiming it's in Micronesia, perhaps so they can act as if they are protecting the wave from an inevitable onslaught of kooks and instagram plebs by doing so?
It's so isolated, there's only one, very expensive way to get there and one place to stay that just happens to be even more prohibitively expensive to 99.99% of the surfing population.
Oh, and it's nuking side-onshore almost every day given its orientation to the trade-wind belt and location relative to the mean ridge axis during the Boreal winter.
@Tane ,
My pacific island count is about 18
Tradewinds and coconuts.
Hot n bothered and freezing gd cold
No more searching , it's been found
It's called hawaii !
cos the marshallese staff are micronesian? to make it seem a less chucky-cheese location? to get people excited about 'discovering' it online? to avoid being accused of it being a resort advert? I can't imagine the joint attracts anything but cashed-up kooks, and cashed-up pros (so the rumours go).
Looks like death on a stick. Like, literally where you'd go to die. Like a Disney paradise with flatscreens, entitled guests, servants, no indigenous culture within coo-ee, relentless wind at sea, absurdly tedious dinner banter... the cumulative effect would be that kind of aggressive boredom marc maron gets when he listens to dave matthews band. (I do like that MD blisses out on shell-collecting.. that has a certain depth to it)
unreal they got to showcase the right point cranking on day 1.. rare apparently, but impressive
UnATURAL sELECTION
The Kashless Kook Klub may aspire to something greater ...or easier.