x-games

[freebird 0]

Has skydiving ever been in or tryed to be part of the x-games?

[hohonukai 0]

Skysurfing, yes. But they don't have it anymore. I dunno why they ditched skysurfing.

[freeflycracker 0]

my guess was always its not very crowd oriented. Cant see shit from the ground. Makes it hareder for sponsers to push their products. I kept thinking they should put swoop contests in the games

[Sebazz1 2]

I think they dropped it due to lack of interest. Plus the crowd and comepetitors were too separated. Unlike the other events.

[freebird 0]

What about accuracy and formation skydiving and swooping...I mean if rollerblading can be in the x-games what is the deal...skdiving is a mental as well as a physical sport..............Chess is in the olympics........

[Sebazz1 2]

Fuck the whuffo's......................Kiddin really I am......

[nws01 0]

I think pond swooping should be included. Although that would just bring more inexperienced people to our sport to learn to pond swoop small canopies too soon and bring more injuries, etc. So maybe not.

[harro 0]

As far as I understand it, the x-games is for individual sports. Formation skydiving would not be looked at as well freeflying.
Swooping would be looked at but me thinks its a bit too expensive for them

Jumpy Jumpy??

[AggieDave 6]

Why is it gone? $$$$$ Some snot nosed kid can't have his mom take him to Wal-Mart and pick up a rig, he CAN, though, go buy a skateboard, a bike or some rollerblades. F**king skateboarders, I'll show them extreme!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[skybytch 273]

Freeflying was in the XGames for the first couple of years. ESPN dropped it but kept skysurfing on for a few more years.

[BMFin 0]

expensive ? how come ?

[freebird 0]

Hey............ lets get together a group and gp to the freebird resturant...someone will have to drive me....One margaritta and Im gone

[quade 4]

Check out THIS.

Unfortunately, the X-Games eventually cancelled out Skysurf in favor of more coverage of bike/motocross. It was felt that moto had a much higher built-in audience and therefore would give sponsors a bigger bang for their buck.

From a purely financial stand point they made the correct decision. Sucks for us though.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[hobbes4star 0]

at least your being positive

if fun were easy it wouldn't be worth having, right?

[billvon 2,991]

>From a purely financial stand point they made the correct decision.
> Sucks for us though.

I think it's good news for us. Why do we need a swarm of new TV watchers looking for an "extreme" experience? I think we're doing just fine as we are.

Not everything improves as it gets bigger. Look at Budweiser vs. Sam Adams, Cannondale vs. Huffy, Linux vs. Windows. I'll go for quality over quantity any day.

[quade 4]

Well, I was thinking more in terms of financial renumeration for my good friends Craig and Tanya.

The sad fact is that ever since Skysurf was dropped from the X-Games, participation in that particular sport has gone way down.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[SkyDolphin 0]

As I understand it, freeflying was never actually a competition though. They did some exhibition stuff for a couple years to try to spark some interest. But I'd watch out for swooping in the future. As long as swoop competitions keep getting sponsorship for events from people like Red Bull and Ford, someone is bound to sit up and take notice soon.



Rhonda

[quade 4]

I agree that pond swooping would be spectacular as far as a live audience event goes and it's a heck of a lot closer to a mass audience TV skydiving sport than anything we've seen to date.

Unfortunately, it still has some problems in that the neighborhood kids can't even -think- about participating in it until well after their 18th birthday. And with that in mind, it's never going to get kind of coverage/TV sponsorship that even something as esoteric as dressage gets.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[billvon 2,991]

>Unfortunately, it still has some problems in that the neighborhood
>kids can't even -think- about participating in it until well after their
> 18th birthday.

Right, but look at the bright side. If it does become an X-games event, we will have ten times the number of 19 year olds going through AFF, buying Velocity-94's (or whatever canopy is pushed during the competition) and wanting to swoop. And we do need a lot more people with 20 jumps wanting to swoop small canopies.

[quade 4]

Do you end up still biting your tongue a lot, if you keep putting it in your cheek? (I know I do.)

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[gale 0]

I'm not a marketing exec. but just a thought:

Isn't it possible that sales of things other then explicitly skydiving gear can go up through advertising at these events. Think clothes, drinks, cars, almost anything that wants to pull of that "bad boy, extreme" image. Now some of us might not want this but I would think there would be potential there nonetheless.

Kids can't drive race cars either but people seem to pour a lot of advertising dollars into that sport. Just a thought.

Gale

I'm drowning...so come inside
Welcome to my...dirty mind

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

Hey............ lets get together a group and gp to the freebird resturant...someone will have to drive me....One margaritta and Im gone

I'd love to but the Freebirds in Houston is over an hour and a half from my house and there's 3 of them 5 minutes from my house here in College Station. Maybe next time, Tif.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Dumpster 0]

Dave has is pegged here- Dropped because of no "instant consumer base" Just like he said, you can't go and buy a rig, skyboard, etc. on the spot and play with it in the drive way- like can be done with just about anything now featured in the x-games-
We were talking aobut skydiving and "mainstream" spots recently at the DZ - And y'know what? I bet the mutaul consensus is, 99% of us jumpers DON'T want our sport to be mainstream- We really like things the way they are!
What do Y'all think?

C-YA!!!

---L

Easy Does It

[moodyskydiver 0]

Quote

Hey............ lets get together a group and gp to the freebird resturant...someone will have to drive me....One margaritta and Im gone

Did I hear someone say Freebird?Yeah! Lets go!!!!!I'll drive!

"...just an earthbound misfit, I."

[ChrisDykstra 0]

I think that one of the biggest issues with skydiving is that the general population (whuffos) do not and can not appreciate the technicalities involved in the sport. Most people simply think that we are crazy idiots for wanting to jump "from a perfectly good aeroplane" and that is that.

Anyone that skydives understands the technicalities and hence enjoy watching as much skydiving footage as possible.

I think that skydiving should be considered as an EXTREME sport, probably one of the most extreme out there apart from BASE if you're game.....I don't think so.

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