Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, Surfing - New in 2021!

[JTMacc99]

Your topic to discuss 2021 demonstration sports Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, and Surfing!  

Other demonstration sports in 2021 are Baseball/Softball and Karate.

[SnideAsides]

Full sports, not demonstration sports. (There haven't been demonstration sports since 1992.)

[hjmugillecuty]

Can anyone recommend a glossary of the tricks? I’m enjoying the skating but have no idea what’s difficult.

[Bill1978]

I'm one of those people who were like 'Skateboarding at the Olympics? Really?' But sitting here watching the Street event, I'm hooked. I have no idea what's happening but I'm enjoying. I at least know in the trick component you can't fall off. Which made me exclaim loudly 'NO!' whenever the Aussie contestant didn't stick his landing. I like the way it's the Top 4 scores across 7 goes towards your overall mark. Means you can still score highly if for some reason you stuff up both runs. I think following the score online has helped add an extra level of excitement with each attempt. I feel the Street event will be the Skateboarding discipline I will enjoy the most as I'm not a fan of halfpipe events at the Winter Olympics and that's what Park seems to be to me. But I'm happy to be shown I'm wrong when I tune in.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Bill1978

[galaxygirl76]

Watching the skate boarding and I'm underwhelmed. I guess I was expecting more spectacle like snow boarding, which I do love watching, this is just boring to me. Doesn't make their skills any less impressive, I just don't think it's for me.

[SophiaD]

The announcers really need to cool it with the superlatives.  Every time they start going on and on about how great someone is, the poor guy falls off of the board.

I'm happy for the skateboarders that they finally have their Olympic events, but I'm not sure I know enough to understand what makes one run better than another.  Other than falling off, of course.  I'm also used to seeing people doing these kinds of events wearing helmets, so it's making me nervous.

[SophiaD]

Oh, thank God.  The last two guys stayed on.  There were some scary falls going on.  Also, I understand that one of the competitors is competing with a BROKEN WRIST.  I cannot even imagine.  Apparently, he just told the interviewer that it was incentive for him to stay on his board.  

[emma675]

This is...not what I was expecting. Although, to be fair, I'm not sure what I was expecting. It's weird to see these guys in seemingly random outfits skateboarding in a giant concrete park, without elbow guards, helmets, knee pads, or any safety equipment. I'm happy these guys get to compete but it's an odd sport to add to the Olympics, imo.

[Chaser]

I expected there to be a lot more to it. Right now it doesn’t seem that much different then what I see going on at the local skatepark everyday. 

[emma675]

Geez, these guys wipe out hard. I'm amazed they aren't just giant masses of raw skin and bruises. The tricks look better in slow motion, it goes too fast in real time for me to see the skills they do.

[Bill1978]

Just out of curiosity does the sport of skateboard have any racing events? I know Snowboard Cross and the Slalom event helped me get on board snowboard train.

41 minutes ago, SophiaD said:

Other than falling off, of course. 

That's all I've learnt from watching. Don't fall off when doing the trick component. The rest I see moves and I think that's it?? And then laugh cause I'm lucky to keep balance just standing on a skateboard.

[SnideAsides]

No it's just Street (ie, the one that's on today, with the rails and ramps) and Park (ie, the halfpipey bowl thing) disciplines.

Yes, I had to Google the difference.

[BlackberryJam]

Well...I watched but the announcers explained nothing about the tricks but I understand the scoring.

One round was such a splatfest it reminded me of figure skating at Sochi.

[emma675]

I'm sorry, but any sport where an athlete is on his phone half the time during the competition (looking at you, Jagger Eaton) is not Olympics worthy, imo.

Yes, I'm old. You kids get off my lawn.

[Bill1978]

13 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

No it's just Street (ie, the one that's on today, with the rails and ramps) and Park (ie, the halfpipey bowl thing) disciplines.

Sorry what I meant by my question is outside the Olympics does the sport have any racing events? For someone who doesn't really understand scoring of judged sports (even gymnastics) except for oops they fell or went splat, just curious if there is anything in skateboarding that allows for first past the post results.

[legaleagle53]

4 minutes ago, emma675 said:

I'm sorry, but any sport where an athlete is on his phone half the time during the competition (looking at you, Jagger Eaton) is not Olympics worthy, imo.

Yes, I'm old. You kids get off my lawn.

Yet he still won a Bronze medal today.

[Bill1978]

21 minutes ago, emma675 said:

I'm sorry, but any sport where an athlete is on his phone half the time during the competition (looking at you, Jagger Eaton) is not Olympics worthy, imo.

Yes, I'm old. You kids get off my lawn.

Glad I'm not the only one who was annoyed by that. I'm so old it also annoys me that the competitors are allowed to use airpods (for music??) while performing. It annoys me with snowboarding events as well. I know it's part of the culture etc of the sport, but if a marathon runner can get through their event without music surely an athlete can survive 45 seconds or less without music.

Most of the outfits also annoyed me, it looked they were just out for a walk with their board and decided to pop in and have a go at the Olympics. I don't think it's the patriot in me, but something like the Aussie outfit made it feel like I was watching a professional sport as opposed to kids in the local park having fun.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Bill1978

[emma675]

9 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

Yet he still won a Bronze medal today.

And he should be really proud, that's great for him. But for me, a sport where a guy basically is in the middle of a call, tells the person "hang on a sec", shoves the phone in his pocket, skates a trick, and then gets back on the call ("so I says to Mabel, I says..."), is not an Olympic caliber sport. Not that I could do a single thing those guys did. Except fall on my ass spectacularly. I could definitely do that. 

[Bill1978]

.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Bill1978
I'm a old idiot who doesn't know the difference between edit and post

[Chaser]

I was weary of them introducing snowboarding but was pleasantly surprised with the events. I was hoping skateboarding would have the same result. Nope. I think the difference for me is that the snowboarding runs are BIG and this looks like recess. 

Flipping between gymnastics and this didn’t help either.

[SnideAsides]

29 minutes ago, Bill1978 said:

Most of the outfits also annoyed me, it looked they were just out for a walk with their board and decided to pop in and have a go at the Olympics.

I agree, but this mostly reminds me of how I bought Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 for the Switch to deal with my withdrawal symptoms last year, and the number of times the story mode's plot amounts to a random character turning up to watch an event, deciding to compete, inviting you to compete when you pass through the stadium looking for a MacGuffin, and then the two of you being the only athletes in the event is absurd. Like, who were they watching otherwise? (Sorry. It's a deeply shitty game.)

Also congratulations to Japan for winning the first gold medal!

[MaryMitch]

These guys know how to fall, but the lack of helmets and other safety equipment makes it hard for me to watch.

[SoCal Mema]

6 minutes ago, MaryMitch said:

These guys know how to fall, but the lack of helmets and other safety equipment makes it hard for me to watch.

100% agree.  As someone who just broke both wrists (surgery required on both) roller skating with my grands…I was so nervous watching them.

[nickp1991]

skateboarding in LA 2028 will be sold out 

[Daisy]

17 hours ago, galaxygirl76 said:

Watching the skate boarding and I'm underwhelmed. I guess I was expecting more spectacle like snow boarding, which I do love watching, this is just boring to me. Doesn't make their skills any less impressive, I just don't think it's for me.

this same.  I was actually expecting it to BE like snowboarding, just with a skateboard but i was watching it and i am like... what? I flipped off. 

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Chaser said:

I think the difference for me is that the snowboarding runs are BIG and this looks like recess. 

Perfect description. I know those moves are difficult but they just look so small. 

3 hours ago, Daisy said:

this same.  I was actually expecting it to BE like snowboarding, just with a skateboard but i was watching it and i am like... what? I flipped off. 

That’s closer to what park skateboarding is. It’s a lot more exciting to watch than street. 

20 hours ago, Bill1978 said:

Just out of curiosity does the sport of skateboard have any racing events? I know Snowboard Cross and the Slalom event helped me get on board snowboard train.

They do. 

[redpencil]

Why are the women's scores so much lower than the men's? I get some of it could be the difficulty of the tricks/runs, but even allowing for that it seems wildly different. Like a 2.14 was a great score for the women, whereas for the men that was disastrous. Maybe there are like points for types of tricks and the men do so much more difficult tricks in a run that it just compounds?

 

ETA: The difference in difficulty is becoming a lot more obvious in the big trick portion. So I guess it is just a wildly different difficulty level?

Edited July 26, 2021 by redpencil

[Mittengirl]

I’m not sure what I am watching, but I am not impressed.  Everybody seems to be falling on things I feel like I have seen kids do when I drive past the skate park.  Yet the announcers are telling me they are great.  🤷‍♀️ 

[SnideAsides]

Having now watched a bit of it... I'm fine if surfing gets retired after this Olympics. It's been even more of a dud than the skateboarding.

[greyhorse]

14 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

I’m not sure what I am watching, but I am not impressed.  Everybody seems to be falling on things I feel like I have seen kids do when I drive past the skate park.  Yet the announcers are telling me they are great.  🤷‍♀️ 

Word.  The live women's street skateboarding last night was a snoozefest.  Really?  There wasn't anything else being played live that was remotely more interesting during primetime hours?  Kudos to the kids - and I mean kids at age 13, 13, and 16 - who ended up winning medals.  But I really understand the difference in terms of anything they were doing.  I understand when you watch baseball, the announcers aren't going to explain the rules of the game to you.  But come on, this is skateboarding.  Not everyone knows what a frontside nosegrind is.   You've got the great Tony Hawk there.  Why not have him shoot some instructional clips where he explains the basic tricks and maneuvers.

I also don't understand the point of the two "park" runs and then the five "don't fall off the rail" one-shot trick runs.  Seems like they could do the same tricks during the park runs and have the benefit of being able to fall and try again.  Why not just make it 7 tricks?  Just supremely boring watching both the park and the trick runs since it seems like the competitors do all the same things.  "Hey, on this one, I think I'm going to jump up on this rail and hope I don't end up splat on my butt."  

Noticed one woman wearing orange was not wearing a helmet.  So I guess it's optional.  A little surprised that they don't wear elbow guards either.  But then again, we saw on Saturday some dude literally skating with a big cast on his arm and trying not to fall.  Guess it's part of the sport.

[galaxygirl76]

So I got to watch some more because I was too lazy yo try to navigate the various NBC channels, the park runs were at least entertaining but the big dud for me was the tricks portion. Everyone shows one trick at a time and the majority fell multiple times. I don't like watching kids fall that often and wonder if they are ok.

Now, get off my lawn!! 🤣

[Iseut]

On 7/24/2021 at 8:51 PM, SophiaD said:

Oh, thank God.  The last two guys stayed on.  There were some scary falls going on.  Also, I understand that one of the competitors is competing with a BROKEN WRIST.  I cannot even imagine.  Apparently, he just told the interviewer that it was incentive for him to stay on his board.  

Narrator: He did NOT stay on his board. (But at least he didn't break his other wrist!)

I've found the skating enjoyable, but I can see what people mean by it feeling "small," especially compared to snowboarding. I think the skate park will offer some bigger tricks. 

I really really wanted to like the surfing, and I'm glad it's included, but that is a sport that needs to be just televised in highlights. I tried to watch it yesterday, but watching two people sit on a board bobbing up and down in the water for the allotted 30 minutes each, while surfing a couple of small-ish waves throughout, was not the nailbiting gasp-inducing thrill watch that many other Olympics sports are. And I don't think they explained the scoring very well for it either. 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Iseut

[kili]

Quote

You've got the great Tony Hawk there.  Why not have him shoot some instructional clips where he explains the basic tricks and maneuvers.

I feel let down by the announcers. They weren't explaining anything. I don't know anything about snowboarding, but they get announcers who explain why this trick is harder than that one and why I should care. Or the figure skating videos where they explain the differences between the jumps (everybody knows the axel, but a lot of new viewers can't tell a lutz from flip). The Olympics are a chance to attract new viewers and fans, but the fans need to be educated to truly appreciate the sport.

I got the impression that using the square railing in the middle was better than using the round ones. Why? Is it because it was square or because it was a bigger drop or what? I think grinding the nose or the tail on the rail was worth more points then the area between the two trucks which is a bigger target and the trucks help you stay on the rail? I don't know if grinding the board or the trucks on the board was harder. Spinning the board a few times in the air was worth extra. 

I know the girls were doing easier tricks, but I enjoyed watching them more. The guys seemed alternately too serious and too blasé (I'm sorry, is this skateboarding final interrupting your texting?). The girls were having a lot of fun. Rayssa Leal will get me tuning in three years from now. 

[greyhorse]

8 minutes ago, Iseut said:

Narrator: He did NOT stay on his board. (But at least he didn't break his other wrist!)

I've found the skating enjoyable, but I can see what people mean by it feeling "small," especially compared to snowboarding. I think the skate park will offer some bigger tricks. 

I really really wanted to like the surfing, and I'm glad it's included, but that is a sport that needs to be just televised in highlights. I tried to watch it yesterday, but watching two people sit on a board bobbing up and down in the water for the allotted 30 minutes each, while surfing a couple of small-ish waves throughout, was not the nailbiting gasp-inducing thrill watch that many other Olympics sports are. And I don't think they explained the scoring very well for it either. 

Yes, it seems like the X Games has this street skateboarding competition, and the variety of obstacles seems a lot more than this Olympic one.  Here in Tokyo, basically it seems like the competitors could choose to go straight down and just a variety of rails to jump on.  Nothing inventive.  No cars to jump on/over, no curved S type railings, no huge drops that you could run over to and take.  Just boring.  Steps and railings.  Who designed this course?

Agree about surfing as well.  Slow and boring.  And agree about scoring.  Just like skateboarding, we have no idea why some runs score the way they do.  All subjective which is why I much prefer events like swimming and track and field where you know clearly who is the winner.  For that same reason, I'm usually not a gymnastics fan.

I haven't seen when sport climbing will be on.  Seems like these demonstration sports are more the "extreme" type sports.  But I don't have much hopes for sport climbing either.  It's fun to do in a climbing gym with friends on a Friday night.  It's not so much fun watching it.  I think I've seen some of these competitions before and basically all the competitors take the same route.

I think Ninja Warrioring should become an Olympic sport.  That would be plain awesome and exciting.

[SnideAsides]

Sport climbing will be right at the end - heats next Tuesday and Wednesday, finals Thursday and Friday. On the one hand, they've probably left it too late in the schedule (it'll be competing for airtime against finals in a buttload of established events), but also surfing finishes tomorrow and they're not doing the other skateboard event until next week so who knows?

I feel like it'll be fine if unremarkable though. Like, while I was looking up the schedule for this I noticed all three of the sports in this thread have already been approved for Paris 2024, and even without seeing how it's handled here I'm less pissed about it than surfing getting a second Olympics.

[Iguana]

So the 'street" skateboarding wasn't all that great, but the Canadian announcers did make a point of explaining why some tricks were higher scoring than others.  For example, flipping the board around while in the air as they jump onto a rail is more difficult than just jumping the board onto the rail, and is worth more points if done correctly.  One of the reasons the women's scores were generally much lower than the men's is that they rarely did those flip and jump combos.

I watched some of the surfing yesterday, and definitely agree it is not a good event to watch live.  Maybe 2-3 minutes total of someone trying to actually ride a wave, 28 minutes of the athlete floating in the water.  Got pretty bored during a couple of matches when neither surfer actually, you know, surfed, for 10 to 15 minutes at a time during the competition.

[shoregirl]

I'll be the dissenter and say I enjoyed the surfing. I'd much rather watch surfing or skateboarding than some other Olympic sports like table tennis, badminton ,weightlifting and shooting 💁

[Guest]

1 hour ago, shoregirl said:

I'll be the dissenter and say I enjoyed the surfing. I'd much rather watch surfing or skateboarding than some other Olympic sports like table tennis, badminton ,weightlifting and shooting 💁

I’m right there with you. Watching waves occasionally punctuated with surfing was more interesting than most Olympic competitions. 

[catlover79]

On 7/27/2021 at 6:55 PM, shoregirl said:

I'll be the dissenter and say I enjoyed the surfing. I'd much rather watch surfing or skateboarding than some other Olympic sports like table tennis, badminton ,weightlifting and shooting 💁

I am enjoying surfing as well. I felt sorry for the guy whose board broke during his first wave. Ouch.

[proserpina65]

On 7/26/2021 at 5:23 AM, SnideAsides said:

Having now watched a bit of it... I'm fine if surfing gets retired after this Olympics. It's been even more of a dud than the skateboarding.

I enjoyed what I saw of surfing, but they showed very little of it.  I want to see more next time, and I want more explanation of what is/isn't a good ride.

Skateboarding, on the other hand, can move on over to the dust heap of Olympic history, imo.

[legaleagle53]

11 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I enjoyed what I saw of surfing, but they showed very little of it.  I want to see more next time, and I want more explanation of what is/isn't a good ride.

Skateboarding, on the other hand, can move on over to the dust heap of Olympic history, imo.

Surfing will be back in 2024, but since Paris doesn't really have an appropriate venue for it, that competition will take place in Tahiti.

And you just know it will also be a part of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. How can you NOT have surfing in one of the surfing capitals of the world?

Edited July 31, 2021 by legaleagle53

[Guest]

17 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Surfing will be back in 2024, but since Paris doesn't really have an appropriate venue for it, that competition will take place in Tahiti.

That should make a really good competition. Teahupo’o, Tahiti has spectacular surfing. I wish that they would be willing to go outside of the host country at every Olympics. I am enjoying surfing in Japan but the waves are really inconsistent. The semi-finals were a lot more exciting than qualifying because of the surf conditions. There was a lot less waiting time. I haven’t watched the finals yet so I don’t know if it continued to improve. 

Edited July 31, 2021 by Guest

[legaleagle53]

1 minute ago, Dani said:

That should make a really good competition. Teahupo’o, Tahiti has spectacular surfing. I wish that they would be willing to go outside of the host country at every Olympics. I am enjoying surfing in Japan but the waves are really inconsistent. The semi-finals were a lot more exciting than qualifying because of the surf conditions. I haven’t watched the finals yet  so I don’t know if it continued to improve. 

Technically, Tahiti is part of France. There's a reason that it used to be called French Polynesia.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Technically, Tahiti is part of France. There's a reason that it used to be called French Polynesia.

True. I almost changed it to looking outside of the vicinity of the host city which is more accurate. Although, I don’t know if Japan had a more suitable option. The difference between surfing now and in 2024 should be striking. 

[Bill1978]

Quick question: Skateboarding Park will it be more like the BMX Freestyle than Snowboard Halfpipe? I thought it was halfpipe but after watching the BMX Freestyle I began to think maybe that's what Skateboard Park would look like.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Bill1978 said:

Quick question: Skateboarding Park will it be more like the BMX Freestyle than Snowboard Halfpipe? I thought it was halfpipe but after watching the BMX Freestyle I began to think maybe that's what Skateboard Park would look like.

I would say that it is somewhere in between the two. The venue looks like a giant pool with a raised center. The style of the tricks are similar to what you see in halfpipe or around the perimeter of the BMX Freestyle venue. 

[Bill1978]

Made sure I was home in time to watch the debut of Sport Climbing. I was not expecting what I saw in Speed Climbing. Wow, I was impressed. Got me excited for the sport. I can see why it is becoming its own event in Paris 2024. I had no idea there was a sport that was quicker than the 100m sprint. After the Speed round I came back to watch Bouldering and my interest has dropped dramatically. Maybe it was a bad idea to start with Speed Climbing or maybe it's not fun watching people constantly falling off a wall at an elite level or maybe its because the Aussie isn't succeeding.

[Arynm]

I watched bouldering and thought it was really interesting. I missed the speed climbing but it looked pretty cool. I will tune in again.

[Guest]

Ok, there's a hill in the middle of the skateboarding park that looks like a giant butt. Was that intentional? 

[Danny Franks]

Bunch of precocious, insanely talented little blighters in the skateboarding.

Skye Brown became Great Britain's youngest ever medal winner, at thirteen, taking the bronze. It seems like she'd have had a shot at more if she hadn't fallen on her first two runs, meaning she couldn't try to add more skills in on her last one.

Meanwhile, a twelve year old gets silver and the gold goes to a positively ancient, nineteen year old.