So i\'m at work and currently watching the billabong pro at J-Bay. I love the coverage online that they provide, but why cant we Televise this!!! I just dont get it! There are a million channels nowadays and it just frustrates me that I cant just flip to the contest on TV. In many other countries surfing is up there with all the other sports. Why do we get no coverage in the states!! We get to suffer and watch WNBA highlights, even the freaken spelling bee, but no surfing! Can someone make more sense of this! Unfortunately I dont get Fuel TV and it kills me.....
Probably a mix of quite a few things. Downtime between waves, when you\'re watching a couple of guys just sitting there, would probably frustrate some. The scoring system that would make some individual\'s brains fry attempting to understand it. Surfing just doesn\'t televise all that great if your not into it. Not everyone lives near an ocean, let alone seen one, so the idea of watching it probably doesn\'t excite them. Although we are all stoked on surfing, there are always individuals that probably wonder why we sit on pieces of foam, in an ocean, for hours on end.
The anwer is simple, no advertising dollars and scheduling is difficult. . Billabong, Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Hurley etc do not want to pay for advertising, they get free comercials online by paying / sponsoring the event. The only way it would work here in the states is if they had "TV timeouts" where they delayy heat starts by 2 minutes 20 seconds so they could show enough local commercials.\ I agree comletely I love the contest footage and would love to be able to set my DVR on fuel and watch the whole contest at my convience. Even if they just did it on fuel on the east coast and the west coast. I would do pay per views honestly if it meant i could record an entire contest that started at 2 a.m. Eastern Standard everyday . FUel in Australia and Oceanic Cable in Hawaii air every contest. Fuel should air it in the states, they now air the motocross nationals live every saturday now, there are as many surf fans as MX fans Honestly if the contest websites would just allow you to watch the recorded broadcast i would be happy. I would love to be able to watch an entire heat with commentary, not a 2 minute highlight package showing each surfers scoring waves, i like the strategy and drama a heat can produce, like if surfer A is needing a 6.75 with 3 minutes to go but surfer B has priority tahts what contest are all about. If I just want to see somone surf i I watch taht anywhere. I want to see the pressure the guys are under when they need a score, thye may need a score to stay on tour, or to have a shot at the title.
Be glad that there is not enough demand for the event to be broadcast live in the USA. Can you imagine how crowded it would be then? I am happy to watch the events online. For the most part they give me something to do at work during slow times. The J-bay contest sucks cause it is in the middle of the night but otherwise I like it. I can even hook a HDMI cable between my computer and TV and watch it on my big screen.
Hah! True, compared like that there isn't really a reason why it's not broadcast. Like bushwood said, it certainly produces as much drama/strategy as any major sporting event. Anyone watching Dusty and Mick's heat at Pipe would have been on the edge of their seat.
