There is nothing wrong with this...and there is no way I could do any of it...but it never really looked too fun to me. In other words, I never look at one of these photos and say to myself "I want to go do that".
Other riders follow a more traditional style. When I first saw the photo of the person doing a one handed 360 (see below), I thought "man that looks like it feels good". I think that may be a little hard to explain....but the feeling that the photo gave me was my inspiration for this post.
It also made me think "I want to do that"...which I did yesterday at the skatepark for the first time. It wasn't as cool looking as this one..but it was good enough to give me that rush.
When it comes to contests, the x-games style wins every time....except for one famous example. Mike Aitken, known for a more traditional style, won the 2008 Dew Tour Dirt Finals in Salt Lake City and never did a tail whip or a back flip. I always felt this was an example of an underdog winning by doing what he loves to do with a lot of style and finesse, and not someone winning by doing a technical trick that no one else has mastered yet.
Many people feel that technical tricks like flips and whips are a result of progression, and that this is worthy of winning a contest. Maybe so, but I do what I do (surf, jump bikes, etc..) because I enjoy it, not because I can "one up" someone else. That's why I prefer Mike's style over the others... and probably why I don't really like contests in general.
Surf contests don't always rely upon "unique tricks" but they do have "priority rules"...and some successful contestants use strategies to keep their opponent from catching the best waves. Where is the fun in that?
Watch Mike's winning runs at the Dew Tour below. Now this is something I wish I could do...
