Schubert, Ernst Win 2011 Lead Climbing World Cup In Boulder

I would have to say this was a poor event overall. The route-setting seemed a little off; while entertaining moves were plentiful watching everyone get to the same few holds and fall off is a little disappointing. But that happens, routesetting is difficult and you can’t always have a ‘perfect’ route. I can understand that part.

The biggest downfall of the event was the commentators on the live feed. I don’t want to hear about their personal lives and them chatting with their friends, I want to hear about the climber, the route and what’s going on in the moment. I felt this was the biggest downfall; if we ever want sport climbing and bouldering comps to become more mainstream we need to treat it like a mainstream event with commentators who explain what’s going on and why things are difficult/easy/tricky etc. You don’t hear football commentators describing their weekend or talking to their buddies, they give you a play by play rundown of the event. The europeans seem to have a much better handle on this aspect than we do; we’re still treating these things like our own personal backyard bouldering session. I don’t want to listen to the gossip hour during a comp, there’s plenty of blogs like this one for that nonsense. Overall a poorly done event, but i’m glad lead comps are coming back to the US and hopefully we can get our shit together sooner than later.

During the bouldering World Cup there were complaints in chat about the direction and the commentary.  The original commentator was a Scottish gent and he was picking things up as he went along.  He had no experience with commentating broadcast events.  So that’s when they started bringing in Alex Johnson specifically.  Then for a while Chris Webb Parsons and Alex would assist with commentary.  But it was always very casual, non-descriptive, and lacked color.

I couldn’t agree more with the Climbing Narc about the commentary.  I would think that there is enough experience and professionalism within the climbing world that finding someone that is personable, well-spoken, and informed about climbing to do a professional level of commentary.  For me, it raises the question about whether or not a lot of climbers watch professional televised sports events.  Taking some cues from the established voices in sports might help.

For me, the argument about something free being beyond critique is kind of a fallacy.  Professional sporting events are sent over broadcast television, which is free.  The events are paid for by sponsors and advertising.  I wouldn’t complain about getting ads and sponsor messages thrown at me if the commentary was engaging and made me actually want to listen. 

The instant replay and other professional-level features of a broadcast will come with experience I think.  It looks like there is only one guy running the board and handling the shots, so it would probably be a Sisyphean task in order to do everything. 

There are enough folks within the climbing world that are doing enough media creation that are gaining contacts within the broadcast media world.  The potential for knowledge sharing is definitely really high and could certainly bolster their ability to provide more professional level broadcasts free or otherwise.  But it’s a matter of desire to take initiative to do that and following through with it.  I can think of a couple of outfits that are certainly looking like they’re about to make that breakthrough.

So, to put it simply, I’m pretty optimistic that it will improve.