If you’re visiting The Word On… for the first time, don’t get freaked out about lack of race coverage. If you want to read about the race, feel free to go here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here. Here, we focus more on the lighter side of moto, the world of action sports, and the world in general. It's generally what you really want to know, in general. The Word On... We call it our bag of party mix: it's random and it's good.
SOCIAL MEDIA OF THE WEEK
GEAR OF THE ANAHEIMS
Anaheim 1 is the Super Bowl of supercross. It’s when all the companies trot out their new lines of product. For many fans, the greatest part is seeing the new gear lines—which have been cloaked in secrecy for months. Companies have a certain strategy behind which gear will be worn at Anaheim 1. It may be their newest gear or a certain line they want to push. “For Anaheim 1, we always want to put our best foot forward,” said Jason Thomas of Fly Racing and Racer X. “Here, Trey is shown in our Lite Hydrogen [left, two pics below] and our Evolution 2.0 lines. These lines are specifically built for fit, function and in a word, racing.”
Now that we've had five races in the books, and three at Angel stadium, each brand has been able to show off several different styles. Check out who wore what at the Anaheims. (Note: Featured are the top five in points from each class.)
250SX
INTERESTING PIECE OF THE WEEK
Nick Saban has built a dynasty at the University of Alabama. He’s also built a reputation as one of the best recruiters in the history of college football. In public, Saban typically appears standoffish, unfriendly, and irritable. Yet, he continues to get the best players in the country to come to Alabama—five straight recruiting national titles, according to Rivals.com. Why do players continue to flock to Tuscaloosa? Lars Anderson of Bleacher Report has the story on Saban’s tireless work ethic, his ability to recruit, and his success at the collegiate level. From Anderson:
"Nobody has had a recruiting dynasty like this in college football," said Mike Farrell, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals. "This is another great class for Saban. He can now basically go into any state he wants and get its best player. In the last few years, he's done this in Texas, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and I could go on and on. Players simply believe that if you can play for Saban, you'll do two things: win a national championship and get drafted into the NFL."
The success of Saban on signing day, of course, is more complex than that. But what is it, exactly, that makes him such an artful recruiter? How has he built this Alabama recruiting machine, which is humming with such ruthless efficiency and shows no signs of slowing down?
"There are no secrets," Saban said. "It's about one thing, man, one thing: hard work."
Read the entire thing on BleacherReport.com.
Photo of the Week
We've been waiting for this...
THE GATE
Be it if you’re a weekend warrior, a ten-year pro with multiple championships, or a wide-eyed rookie, one thing is common in all of motocross—the undying nerves you feel on the starting gate. You’re stomach feels like a fourth late-night visit to Taco Bell, and your heart is pumping faster than at a all night rave. Fox Sports 1 recently ran a cool feature on how the 250SX West Region riders handle the starting gate. Here’s a few highlights, and check out the entire thing below.
On Talking at the Starting Line…
Chris Alldredge: "I wouldn’t really say I’m overjoyed to go over and say hi to somebody, but at the same time if I conversation comes up or the oppoutunity is there I’m going to say hi."
Josh Hansen: "I don’t like to talk to anybody, ever. I’m here to do my job. I’m not here to be friendly or make friends."
Justin Hill: "I’m really social. I like to mess around. Some people don’t like that about me, because you have guys that are real serious and want to be tough or whatever."
Malcolm Stewart: "To calm myself down, I have to go talk to somebody. I’ll go talk to a fan if I have to to get myself calm."
Zach Osborne: "I’m probably one of the more talkative people in the starting area. But most guys don’t like it, so I just talk—whether they like it or not."
On Listening to Music on the Starting Line...
Zach Bell: "Music just kind of calms us down. I don’t usually use music to pump me up. Just getting ready to get on the gate pumps me up."
Stewart: "Believe it or not, I listen to country right before the gate."
Hill: "I don’t like to escape reality when we’re getting close. I just like to hear bikes, look at everything and be fully in on what’s going on."
SOCIAL MEDIA—A YEAR LATER
Hookit, a company that "connect(s) athletes with sponsors through the 'Internet,'" tracks social media growth amongst action sports athletes and releases monthly, weekly and yearly reports and as well as some other very cool stuff. Racer X has teamed with Hookit to provide social media stats that you will find across all Racer X platforms, but mostly here on The Word On… This week, thanks to statistics complied by Hookit, we’ll compare social media stats from January 2014 and January 2015. You can view the charts below.
- Ken Roczen’s followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have grown from 334.7K in January 2014 to 887.1K in January 2015.
- Throughout the entire month of January last year, Ryan Dungey had 271K interactions. This year, he had 471.1K during the same period.
- Last year during the month of January, Dean Wilson had 115.7K interactions. This year, he had 358.4K interactions.
- During the month of January last year, James Stewart had 518.2K interactions on sixty-seven posts across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This year, James has only had thirty-five posts with 302.6K interactions.
January 1-31, 2014
January 1-31, 2015
VINE IS CHANGING THE NBA
Athletes can portray any image they want on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook. But for one professional league, Vine, the video-sharing social media service owned by Twitter, has changed the way the entire game is viewed. From Ben Cohen at the Wall Street Journal.
“Vine revolutionized the way you can do instant replay,” Perez said.
It isn’t just fans who follow the NBA this way. The first thing many players do after their games is check their phones. There, they say, they catch up on that night’s action by watching Vines.
“It speeds up the highlight process,” said Orlando Magic forward Kyle O’Quinn. “You don’t have to go back and watch ‘SportsCenter’ Top 10.”
Vines also have provided a window into moments that telecasts miss, or gloss over. Every incredible dunk and no-look pass is going to be replayed in slow motion multiple times during a broadcast, then hyped on highlight shows that night. They make for popular Vines, too. But because of the nature of the NBA—a sport where the players’ faces are plainly visible, and famous spectators are close to the action—many of the most entertaining and enlightening Vines are neither alley-oops nor bloopers.
Check out the entire article on WSJ.com.
MotoGP Underway
The 2015 MotoGP season got underway yesterday with the first test of the season taking place at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. Two-time MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez was fastest ahead of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. MotoGP.com has more on the opening test. Also, check out the pre-season intro courtesy of MotoGP.
Classic Podcast
You would think the Maple Leafs are on a huge winning streak, seeing as how Steve continues to actually submit these classic podcasts himself. Just checked; they're not. They’ve lost nine straight as of yesterday. That sucks. For Steve, anyway. This week, Steve talks punk rock.
You may not know Erik “Smelly” Sandin of the punk band NOFX. But know this: NOFX is a very big deal in the world of punk rock, have sold millions of records and have toured all over the world. You may not know that Sandin is an avid fan of all things moto and maybe you don’t even know that Erik, along with Jordan Burns, Kurt Haller and a lot of help from Kenny Watson started the motocross team Moto XXX.
You can read the complete oral history of Moto XXX here with quotes from Erik and everyone else involved in this little team that went big or you can also listen to this podcast I did with Erik a long time ago talking about his SoCal roots, getting into NOFX, starting the team and much more. Great guy, funny stories and I enjoyed this one.
JUST SHORT 2.0
When Moser took over Classic Podcast duties while Steve was on “epic mountain bike rides, bro,” we started getting questions about who exactly Moser was. Well, he is, umm…you see, he does this one column…honestly, you can't wrap you’re head around Just Short unless you read it. Check out an PulpMX.com if you’re interested. This week, I asked Moser to fill us in on some things he’s learned doing Just Short this year.
We’re five rounds into the 2015 supercross series, so let’s reflect on some season shortcomings thus far, courtesy of the article everyone is talking about, Just Short. What is Just Short? It’s a short look at the riders that came up Just Short of making the main event, finishing in the first non-qualifying position. Nick Wey knows how to market himself and with the fast growing hype surrounding these Just Short articles it comes as no surprise Wey has put himself in a position to get featured three times already this season. Surprisingly nobody seems excited when they hear that I’m going to highlight their Shortcomings.
I’ve found mechanics and riders' wives are much more punctual to respond to these text interviews then riders themselves. Big Nasty and Georgia are funnier than Wey and Top Jimmy anyways. As a rule of thumb the faster a rider is the slower he is to get back to you about an interview. Other interesting facts from Just Short interviews this season are: the Barn pros racing team literally sells barns, Mitchell Oldenburg prefers to be called Mitch, Breece uses Grinding as training, Big Nasty has lucky shoes for packing the starting gate, and there are endless butt patch possibilities for Morgan Burger. If you want boring interviews with standard “observations” don’t read Just Short, go read Redux.
