2022 Rampage

[grinch]

They almost should make it a 2 day event, 2 mornings. Wind has been calmest in the mornings

Sent from my SM-A536W using TGR Forums mobile app

[Dantheman]

??? care to paraphrase?

Talking to himself in full overstoke mode the whole way down. I'm sure it will be a clip soon.

[grskier]

The size of the drop is very important to these judges. The chutes should get a little more score for my taste but the riding was very rad.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[toast2266]

They almost should make it a 2 day event, 2 mornings. Wind has been calmest in the mornings

Sent from my SM-A536W using TGR Forums mobile app

Agreed.

Rampage is awesome and the riding is next level, but the broadcast is hard to watch. Wind holds and long gaps between riders meant it was a 4 hour broadcast to get ~20 riders down the hill once. That's a bit much. Especially when the dead space is taken up by Sal Masakela blathering on.

Regardless, super fun to watch. The top guys are really on a different level.

[grinch]

Agreed.

Rampage is awesome and the riding is next level, but the broadcast is hard to watch. Wind holds and long gaps between riders meant it was a 4 hour broadcast to get ~20 riders down the hill once. That's a bit much. Especially when the dead space is taken up by Sal Masakela blathering on.

Regardless, super fun to watch. The top guys are really on a different level.

That long wait part definitely played apart in my thinking. Some amazing runs, Rheeder was very close to perfection, but the wait after dampened the excitement. I think they have cancellation days planned anyway so as is the actual day of the big show could vary. Itd be more likely to go off 2 mornings. The night after the first run gives the media plenty of hype clicks. Chances are the riders are even more dialed after sleeping on their 1st run

Sent from my SM-A536W using TGR Forums mobile app

[raisingarizona13]

Kyle Straight is up and walking! That was great too see that update from his wife on instagram.

[t.odd]

Kyle Straight is up and walking! That was great too see that update from his wife on instagram.

that's really great news! so incredibly scary to hear about unstable spinal injuries...I went through a multiple stable compression fractures in my vertebrae a lot of years ago and it was a long road back to normal.

[skinipenem]

Vibes. Were you a competitor?

God no. No where near that level mountain biking. However, I might have missed the sarcasm phone.

I am stoked that the riding is athlete driven at this point.

Two days would be better. The wind factor seems to come into play every year.

Hopefully Kyle Strait can make a full recovery.

It is utterly impressive how many years some of the riders have competed at rampage. Relatively, long careers for such a high risk sport.


Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

[fantastic_damage]

Kyle Straight is up and walking! That was great to see that update from his wife on instagram.

Sounds like he burst fractured the T6 and compression fractured the other 2 then. They get you walking pretty quickly after that surgery, I had the same thing happen with a T12 burst fracture that required surgery and I compression fractured 2 others about 7 weeks ago. They had me walking 2 days post surgery, I’m guessing he got sent to the same trauma 1 SLC hospital that I went to as most all the Utah spine surgeons have to operate there or U of U. He’s in good hands

[John_B]

Sounds like he burst fractured the T6 and compression fractured the other 2 then. They get you walking pretty quickly after that surgery, I had the same thing happen with a T12 burst fracture that required surgery and I compression fractured 2 others about 7 weeks ago. They had me walking 2 days post surgery, I’m guessing he got sent to the same trauma 1 SLC hospital that I went to as most all the Utah spine surgeons have to operate there or U of U. He’s in good hands

Thanks for the intel. You've got an incredibly appropriate user name to be talking about spinal fractures.

[cydwhit]

Agreed.

Rampage is awesome and the riding is next level, but the broadcast is hard to watch. Wind holds and long gaps between riders meant it was a 4 hour broadcast to get ~20 riders down the hill once. That's a bit much. Especially when the dead space is taken up by Sal Masakela blathering on.


Regardless, super fun to watch. The top guys are really on a different level.

Haven't watched the broadcast yet, but stoked to. Interesting to hear that about the pacing. From my perspective, the spacing between runs felt just about right for everyone to reset, and get the media circus moved from one vantage point to another. Much faster pacing and I'd be a little worried about folks not clearing out of the way fast enough, or missing shots. But it really is a circus, and it could be a lot better choreographed.

Friggin hyped on Stark's build team dragging out the rail, really made my day.

And Semenuk's drop was just absolutely nutty. There's such an interesting spectrum of features up there, from: "I would totally hit this with a few beers and a tow-in" to "never ever, ever, ever, not even on skis on a perfect pow day." And for me at least, Semenuk's drop in falls into the later category for sure.

[toast2266]

And Semenuk's drop was just absolutely nutty. There's such an interesting spectrum of features up there, from: "I would totally hit this with a few beers and a tow-in" to "never ever, ever, ever, not even on skis on a perfect pow day." And for me at least, Semenuk's drop in falls into the later category for sure.

Yeah, semenuk's drop in was insane.

Like, everything at rampage is insane, but massive drops and huge jumps have kinda become standard. Semenuk's drop in was the only terrain feature from the last handful of rampages where I was just giggling and yelling holy shit at the TV. Tricks are cool, and rheeder made it look effortless, but terrain features like semenuk's are just on a different level. People say they want rampage to be less like slopestyle, and semenuk's line was exactly that - burly and technical.


Edit: also, I thought stark's rail was goofy. I generally don't agree with all the people that are saying rampage is just turning into a slopestyle course, but if people start dragging rails out there, then yeah. Kinda getting slopestyley.

[cydwhit]

Edit: also, I thought stark's rail was goofy. I generally don't agree with all the people that are saying rampage is just turning into a slopestyle course, but if people start dragging rails out there, then yeah. Kinda getting slopestyley.

Fair enough. If it had been anyone other than Stark I'd have rolled my eyes at that thing. But his whole attitude towards the event, and then that surprise rail, that I'm sure the organizers wouldn't have allowed if they'd known about it, felt really "freeride" in that raw, old school sense, where folks were figuring out what was possible, what was fun, what was attainable, and what was worth pursuing.

Like, it almost feels like there's a formula for Rampage that a LOT of people followed, trying to play this game for the judges where they figure out a line that has the right mix of burly tech and jumps they can trick. And Stark being super up front that he's scared of heights, and uncomfortable on the top of the course, but also being anti-establishment enough to smuggle an illicit feature onto the course that played to his background and strengths was pretty cool. IDK, I'm pretty into wildcard moves at Rampage, and at freeride events generally. Gap the on-off features, drag a rail onto the course in the dead of night and bury it so you can whip it out when it's too late for the rent-a-cops all over the course can do anything about it. Get weird!

[toast2266]

I guess. I dunno. Seems like every year at rampage there's someone who tries to do some sort of "outside the box" feature. There's been a few variations on an open loop sort of jump, various wall ride type things, etc. Some of them kinda work, most of them don't. And none of them seem to score particularly well.

So I guess credit goes to them for mixing it up and trying something different. But rampage is what it is for a reason. It's a venue that's all about drops and jumps and gnar. So bringing in a street course obstacle seems kinda silly. But then again, maybe inviting a guy that's afraid of heights and mostly wants to ride street course obstacles was also kinda silly. At least it went better than when they invited Rogatkin.

[jm2e]

Edited to make incoherent rant less painful to read:

The judging should be fixed.
It’s too slow and bogs down the whole event.
Nobody understands how it’s judged which means everyone’s constantly feeling robbed.
And make it a two day event.

[rideit]

Too soon?

[californiagrown]

Yeah, semenuk's drop in was insane.
Semenuk's drop in was the only terrain feature from the last handful of rampages where I was just giggling and yelling holy shit at the TV.

The fact that it was the drop into that super gnarly chute was what made it, IMO. The spectator footage of the drop in his comp run shows just how loose he got going down the vertical gnarly chute under the drop. if he slips a pedal on the drop in, he is tomahawking down the chute because of how steep and soft it was.

[muted reborn]

Edited to make incoherent rant less painful to read:

The judging should be fixed.
It’s too slow and bogs down the whole event.
Nobody understands how it’s judged which means everyone’s constantly feeling robbed.
And make it a two day event.

Good point. Also a gripe of mine is prioritizing putting on a scripted TV-style show over getting two solid runs in. We all know the wind picks up almost every afternoon out there, but the organizers don't prioritize getting two runs in as fast as possible. Which is what I want more than the course previews, backstories, etc - all of which can be in the edited TV show. And start an hour early, make the live event more raw, make the TV show for segments you don't have time for when live. You will get more views and increased 'length of watching' from viewers for your sponsors of Rampage to fawn over, if you have 2 runs for me to watch and rewind obsessively compared to 1 single run.

After a long wait for judging the next rider should drop in ASAP.

[toast2266]

Good point. Also a gripe of mine is prioritizing putting on a scripted TV-style show over getting two solid runs in. We all know the wind picks up almost every afternoon out there, but the organizers don't prioritize getting two runs in as fast as possible. Which is what I want more than the course previews, backstories, etc - all of which can be in the edited TV show. And start an hour early, make the live event more raw, make the TV show for segments you don't have time for when live. You will get more views and increased 'length of watching' from viewers for your sponsors of Rampage to fawn over, if you have 2 runs for me to watch and rewind obsessively compared to 1 single run.

After a long wait for judging the next rider should drop in ASAP.

It kinda feels like they're increasingly trying to apply a standard TV formula to the broadcast, similar to the Olympics, x-games, etc. Which sucks for a bunch of reasons, but it especially sucks for an event that's very weather dependent where non-opitmal conditions increase the danger in an event that's already very, very dangerous.

[raisingarizona13]

Good point. Also a gripe of mine is prioritizing putting on a scripted TV-style show over getting two solid runs in. We all know the wind picks up almost every afternoon out there, but the organizers don't prioritize getting two runs in as fast as possible. Which is what I want more than the course previews, backstories, etc - all of which can be in the edited TV show. And start an hour early, make the live event more raw, make the TV show for segments you don't have time for when live. You will get more views and increased 'length of watching' from viewers for your sponsors of Rampage to fawn over, if you have 2 runs for me to watch and rewind obsessively compared to 1 single run.

After a long wait for judging the next rider should drop in ASAP.

I think they are tailoring the show for people that don't even mountain bike ride. Most people love backstories and some level of drama. It seems obvious that Redbull encourages the riders family members to be on set for that added drama. It's a lot like America's Got Talent or one of those big, mainstream shows. That formula freaking works!

I'm guessing they don't want the show to go on after the actual event or do heavy editing after the fact since the news of events would leak out before the show would get to actually broadcast.

[grskier]

run.

After a long wait for judging the next rider should drop in ASAP.

Yeah, we don't need every puff piece between riders. Get them down and back up for the second run.

[muted reborn]

It kinda feels like they're increasingly trying to apply a standard TV formula to the broadcast, similar to the Olympics, x-games, etc. Which sucks for a bunch of reasons, but it especially sucks for an event that's very weather dependent where non-opitmal conditions increase the danger in an event that's already very, very dangerous.

Yes, dragging out the show makes things dangerous and have to be frustrating for athletes that really need a 2nd run, like Tyler M.

I think they are tailoring the show for people that don't even mountain bike ride. Most people love backstories and some level of drama. It seems obvious that Redbull encourages the riders family members to be on set for that added drama. It's a lot like America's Got Talent or one of those big, mainstream shows. That formula freaking works!

I'm guessing they don't want the show to go on after the actual event or do heavy editing after the fact since the news of events would leak out before the show would get to actually broadcast.

I don't think you picked up on what i was trying to say. I'm saying do both not just the TV show, but differently. Make the TV show for people who don't bike and build the drama then, make the live stream quick and raw for us superfans in the TikTok era - just so they can get 2 runs in, that's it, get the content over anything else. There still can be time for some backstories in the live event, it's not binary decisions only, it's a creative field of industry the producers are in.

[Dantheman]

AFAIK the 10-minute window for each rider came from the riders, not the producers, and was part of the overall format shift after 2015 that was meant to improve overall safety. It was so they could drop when it felt right to them, wait out some transient wind gusts, etc. Red Bull is cool with it because it gives them plenty of time to fill with puff piece content.

I agree it would be better if they started dropping at 9:00 am, but a lot of guys are putting final tweaks on their line and doing practice runs that morning. IDK, I get the impression that if the riders drew a line in the sand and demanded that runs start at 9:00 am it would happen.

[toast2266]

AFAIK the 10-minute window for each rider came from the riders, not the producers, and was part of the overall format shift after 2015 that was meant to improve overall safety. It was so they could drop when it felt right to them, wait out some transient wind gusts, etc. Red Bull is cool with it because it gives them plenty of time to fill with puff piece content.

There have definitely been years where we saw riders waiting for a break in the wind, but this year it felt like the riders were ready to go and the organizers were holding them up. I think sorge was the only guy that I saw wait a bit after they gave him the go ahead.

By all means, if a rider needs to wait for 10 minutes for a lull in the wind, they should be allowed to do that. But if conditions are prime (like they were this year), then the there shouldn't be any unnecessary delays from the organizers.

[muted reborn]

AFAIK the 10-minute window for each rider came from the riders, not the producers, and was part of the overall format shift after 2015 that was meant to improve overall safety. It was so they could drop when it felt right to them, wait out some transient wind gusts, etc. Red Bull is cool with it because it gives them plenty of time to fill with puff piece content.

I agree it would be better if they started dropping at 9:00 am, but a lot of guys are putting final tweaks on their line and doing practice runs that morning. IDK, I get the impression that if the riders drew a line in the sand and demanded that runs start at 9:00 am it would happen.

I didn't know that. 18 riders x 10 minutes x 2 runs that's 6 hours. And looking back on the stream this year, they did run one in 2.5 hours, with a 15 min pre-game show included. not bad actually.

Kinda think they need to reduce riders, or reduce the in-between from 10 to 5 minutes (unless the riders need more time) or just keep on doing what they do as-is and consider a 2nd run a bonus and not a run any rider should count on.