I'm going to stick some comments on here, whilst thinking there's no reason to take sides, or to knock the PWA or the IWT.
1) The wave tour has been great this year and the best for a long time, simply because there were several events at a huge range of locations. We can thank the IWT for that, although the cost to the sailors was to accept less prize money.
2) The IWT tour is effectively an amateur tour, for people with the money to do it, but better to see that than just two events per year at flat water locations.
3) This last event, the Aloha Classic, should have provided the best finale, and the stage was set for that, in terms of the sailor rivalries, and with a 12 day window set to ensure good conditions. It only went wrong because those conditions didn't reliably turn up for the 12 day window.
4) The lack of predictable conditions then meant it was hard to get the livestream budget to work. They could only compete on five days out of the 12 - under their license - but they could only film on four days because of the costs, I think?
5) It was only later that someone worked out you could film the Ho'okpa event from the hill side with your phone, if need be. But the problem remains with how you then broadcast that. The IWT have apparently filmed the last day's action, and will edit that and post it up on YouTube at some point.
There are lessons to be learnt, so I'll continue.
6) The IWT communication was appalling, and no-one outside the event site knew what was going on. The PWA were clearly embarrassed by that, given they were still connected to this last event. But this issue is simply one that needs sorting for next year. Even the PWA resorted to posting live clips on their Instagram page, but then told nobody about that. If you happen to favour Instagram as your social media platform, then fine because you're already inside that closed information bubble.
7) The IWT have all season used Facebook live reels to post their own updates, and again they told nobody about that. The way my busy Facebook feed works is that I don't get shown reels until days later. So once again, as a fan, I'm forced to go and look for stuff, and generally have no idea what is happening.
8) We fans now 'expect' a livestream, but of course that does cost money in terms of Starlink connections and bandwidth time, and then you generally need to pay a lot for cameramen, drone pilots, and studio editors, plus commentators. And the media budget needed then detracts from prize money and other staffing issues.
9) It is however important to realise that a livestream serves your sponsors the best, and can build a loyal world-wide audience that then brings in more sponsorship. On this occasions we, surprisingly, had very few ad breaks.
10 I've been critical of Kai Katchadourian's macho commentary in the past but he is much better at focussing on the heats now, and he and Simeon did a very good job at this event when paired up together.
11) One way forward with the livestream might be to keep the broadcast free, while allowing viewers to contribute money where they/we felt able to. That would create ask additional income source, on top of sponsorship money. Drone footage also helps to build an audience.
In the end, we got a disappointing final event, both for the sailing conditions, and for the coverage. So I guess tthat's why a a lot of people are shouting.
I'd actually like to thank the organisers for bringing us this tour and this event.
The event has also produced some worthy champions, both for the local Aloha Classic crown and for the world rankings.
Let's keep all these events going next year, please.
Regarding how you follow IWT/PWA on social media, it wont take long to set up a userid on those platforms just for that purpose. It doesnt take much effort to go looking for it either.
I think PVB (or someone in the comments) said on Ben's program that a lot of people expect too much these days, are impatient, are too used to watching videos on YT to appreciate the work that goes on to produce them. I remember watching these events on Trans World Sport on the TV, about a fortnight after the event.
Hopefully the slalom finale in Japan gets some wind and coverage is good.
Seems to me the wind gremlin's have not been kind to some of these wave events especially the aloha classic the past couple of years. I have nothing against float and ride but it does put the bigger guys at a disadvantage especially when the waves are smaller anyway that's my little rant for the day
Fingers crossed for you and all the people that contributed along the way. I think you've all proven yourselves, changed the rules and done it with little in the way of resources.
In the last 10 years there have only been 3 or 4 counting events per year, with the exception of 1 year with 5 events.
This year the combined PWA/IWT had 7.
Japan (5*) only had the 1st round done. =1st scored more points than a 4* win which is odd, but never mind.
I think the combined effort been a success.
www.pwaworldtour.com/index.php?id=2292
I was expecting an upload of the whole day's sailing and having to FFWD to the best bits. This is a good roundup of the day's sailing, picking out the best waves of the heats with scores and after heat interviews. It must have taken hours to produce and well worth it. Cheers.
Looking forward to part 2.
Looking back at this event, it was successful in the way that it produced results and drama. So well done to the organizers and volunteers that made this happen.
I think there will be a debrief and there is going to be a lot of leaning to be done from this. Communication (is it on?) was dramatic, this could be easily fixed. If developing an app (as suggested by Ben) is to expensive, just make a mailchimp mailing list. Anyone that is interested can subscribe and when it's on, one push of the button and everybody knows.......
The live-streaming is another part which was dramatic, I don't know where this went wrong but I am sure that the organizers are going to have to have a good look at this. Previous Aloha Classics had live streams so we know it can be done, especially as technology has only improved over the years. The IWT advertises the Aloha as the Superbowl of windsurfing, and however small is the current windsurfing community, there will be eyeballs that will want to watch it. Especially this event, I would think. Inform the people, are you going to do a livestream? Great, but then do it. When for whatever reason you can't, pump out good recaps. But don't leave fans thinking there will be a stream and then all of a sudden there isn't.
Again kudos to all the people who made this event happen and hopefully they will take away something from this to improve next years (if there will be one at all).
I know it is easier to be critical than to be constructive when giving feedback on the Aloha 10 x Goitre Challenge I especially love the portrait mode rider interviews, with associated awful varying audio quality all over the shop.
Just perfect to mix in with the "proper" landscape shot action. I feel the editor's pain.
(oh god I hate vertical video so much ) and the "oops forgot to take the nd filter off " nighttime windsurfing shots. Not a single drone shot could be sourced? - even for the finals. Just a few dronies would have been easy and nice in the highlight video. Was there an issue with drone flight clearance or angry local surfers that I am not aware of?
With so many drones around it just seems inexplicable.
These are issues that shouldn't be happening on an event of this importance. But it was good to at least get some images from the event.
But here we are , yet again, re-learning the lessons time and time again.
Trying to create a live stream, under-resourced and in difficult circumstances to be fair, just compromises everything else.
I know a vocal self entitled minority will scream for a live stream - just tell them "hey, we don't have the budget for live streams, or "we prioritised prize money to competitors over a live stream - but the highlights will be out hours after the event"
I am sure the world doesn't mind waiting for quality coverage and daily highlights.
With an agile editor and a strategic and targeted approach these can go out pretty quickly.
- my advice - do what is achievable and do it well.
I enjoyed the entertainment value of Ben and Paul chatting. They have a great chemistry (does anyone else call Ben "Benny"?). If it's going to be done on a shoestring then it'll be hard to beat those two.
Agree. They make me laugh. Pvb behind the scenes at fiji was excellent too. As a punter that made me feel like part of the event.
Iets not forget kai.. hes excellent too. I like what he says as much as ben and pvb.