Competing is teaching me that you can't always be happy with the judges scoring, so it's better to let your happiness be dependent on if you're happy with yourself.
I watched a girl in the beginning of my slopestyle heat do lipslide (down box), 50-50 (flat down box) and then straight air the two big jumps with different grabs, and scored at 51 on that run. My first run was lipslide to fakie (down box), cab 1 on (flat down box), and then back three melon to front five stalefish on the small jumps. I scored a 37. I couldn't figure out how more technical jib tricks and then two different spins could score so much lower than straight airs. I realize that the big jumps are scored higher, but to have two straight airs be worth more than two spins? I had been airing the big side of the jumps all week but then spun the small side in the contest on the advice of my coaches and multiple other people, who all felt spinning would be better than airing. The second odd thing I noticed was that a guy on my team had cab 7 to switch back 9 on the big side (clean, no hand drags or anything) and scored lower than guys who were doing regular 7 to 5 combos. Something was funny with the scoring at Rev for sure, but there's nothing that can be done about it now.
I landed my run that I wanted, and I'm happy with that. I hadn't been able to pull off that whole run together until the contest, so at least I got it clean. All I can do is just work to make a better run for my next competition (USASA this weekend). I'm also making the decision to not hit the small side of anything in contests anymore. I don't want to have to deal with another straight-air-worth-more-than-spin issue. Straight airs are easier and less nerve racking. I'll gladly do those instead. Of course, by Nationals I do want to be spinning the big sides.
Half Pipe. That was interesting. I got my first run of straight air, straight, front three, cab three, front five, straight air, straight air, and then somehow fell riding out of the pipe, like five feet before the finish line. I wanted to die when that happened. I couldn't believe it. So for my second run I came around and did the same exact combination instead of putting my back 3 and switch back 3 in. I got it clean, but have a feeling my first run would have scored higher than the second had I not fallen. In this event I also felt I should have scored a couple points higher, but I'm happy I got my run, and I'll just have to work harder to get my airs higher for my next contest (USASA this weekend).
I don't blame the judges for "giving" me low scores. It's like school, your teachers don't give grades, you have to earn them. If I was scored the way I felt I should have been, I would have been a couple places higher in each event, but that's not a significant change. I'm going to have to really improve so I can earn higher scores and legitimately deserve a place in the top pack.
In the end I placed 18th in pipe, and 23rd in slope. I'd really like to place top 10 at Vermont's Rev Tour stop, so hopefully I can step it up and make that happen.
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2 comments:
All you need to know is the judges suck and Rev tour is a fucking joke.
I think Rev is a good opportunity to practice competing before doing events like Grand Prix or Open. For me personally, it pushed me to learn some new tricks I might not have tried if it wasn't for the contest.
Some judges suck, but there are some that are really good and actually care about what they do. And those awesome judges get genuinely upset when they encounter judges who are horrible because it just supports the "judges suck" stereotype.
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