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, 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.
Drones in Supercross
Last Friday, at press day for the Indianapolis round of Monster Energy Supercross, Fox Sports tested drone usage that was also used in the Fox Sports 2 telecast on Saturday. According to USA Today, who got an exclusive look, it took “layers of approval from lawyers management types to fly three eight-propeller drones in the mostly empty home of the Indianapolis Colts.” Could this be the future of TV?
“There is no question we are looking into ways to incorporate this next-level technology into a wide variety of our sports properties,” said Eric Shanks, FOX Sports President, COO & Executive Producer. “We chose to run this live-event simulation with our friends at Feld Motor Sports because both companies share a passion for being on the cutting edge … always looking for what’s next.
“While certainly not limited to use in motor sports, capturing the speed and on-track aggressive competition of Monster Energy Supercross from new and unique angles with multiple drones in operation at the same time was a great place to start," Shanks added. “We’re thrilled with what we learned from this live-event simulation, and we are excited to see where it takes us next.”
USA Today has more. Also, check out the video of press day below.
Todd Jendro, Feld's vice president of operations, said it was no easy task to pull the constituents together for even a few minutes of dirt jumping with drones hovering.
"Our people were like, 'Oh, my god, you're going to do what?' " he said, laughing. "But we're a sport that needs to push the boundaries of technology in sports, be cutting edge, lead by example.
"This goes hand in hand with that."
YouTube Goes 360-Degrees
YouTube recently launched a new update that now supports 360-degree videos. Users can now click through scenes or tilt a mobile device and get a broader look. It’s pretty rad. Check out the video below. Mashable has more details.
Ride the Streets of Chile
Holy smokes, Batman, this is some crazy POV footage. Red Bull recently held the Cerro Abajo event in hills of Valparaiso, Chile., which “tested the gnarliest urban DH mountain bikers.” Take a ride with Tomas Slavik through the super technical course.
“He was crazier than most skaters, which says a lot.”
Lennie Kirk is an ex-professional skater known for his part in the 1997 Alien Workshop video Timecode. Today, Kirk is serving thirteen years on kidnapping charges. In-between, Kirk suffered major head trauma, preached the word of the Lord and robbed people with a sawed off shotgun. Photographer Dennis McGrath documented Kirk’s ascent and downward spiral in his latest book Heaven. Chris Nieratko of Vice recently sat down with McGrath to discuss what went wrong with Kirk’s life. From Vice:
He was crazier than most skaters, which says a lot. There are so many crazy stories about Lennie and they're all true. Like the time he followed the Planet Earth team on tour in his own car. The owner of one of the skateshops they stopped at had a party for them at his house around the 4th of July, and the one thing the guy said to everyone was, "No fireworks!" There was a dried up field across the street from his house and he didn't want it to catch on fire. Low and behold Lennie starts lighting Roman candles off and the whole field goes up in flames. Apparently it was a bad fire and everyone jumped in the van and had to leave town.
Read the entire interview here.
Coke Is Healthy?
Nah. That’s not really true. In actuality, soda companies are being blamed for “helping to fuel obesity rates,“ says the Associated Press. So, why then are some dietitians writing articles suggesting "portion-controlled versions of your favorites, like Coca-Cola mini cans, packs of almonds or pre-portioned desserts for a meal?" From Candice Choi at the AP:
Most of the pieces suggesting mini-Cokes say in the bios that the author is a "consultant" for food companies, including Coca-Cola. Some add that the ideas expressed are their own. One column is marked at the bottom as a "sponsored article," which is an ad designed to look like a regular story. It ran on more than 1,000 sites, including those of major news outlets around the country. The other posts were not marked as sponsored content, but follow a similar format.
Read the entire article here.
Social Stats
Thus far in 2015, we’ve seen a total of ten winners (five in 450SX, three in 250SX West and two in 250SX East) in Monster Energy Supercross. During that time, Hookit has tracked the social interactions of each winner. And to no one's surprise Ken Roczen is ranked #1 on another social media list. Ken has a global reach that attracts a lot of fans. The first 250 guy we see is Malcolm Stewart. If you don’t follow Malcolm across social media you should—it’s good stuff. Check out the entire top ten below.
What It’s Like to Be a Hockey Goalie
Being a hockey goaltender is probably pretty rad. You get to wear giant pads, wield a sick stick, and rock bitchin' Jason masks. What’s not to like? GoPro, who recently partnered with the National Hockey League, released a video with New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundvist.
Man Rides Motorcycle Through Mall
On February 20, in British Columbia, Canada, a man, who police “were alerted to riding his motorcycle recklessly,” decided he wasn’t going to surrender. Nah. He was going to lead police on a chase, stop by the mall, and continue on home. Police captured the entire thing on video. Stick around until the 1:40 mark where he decides taking the escalator is a good idea. Police have not yet apprehended him, according to UPI.com.
Horrific Top Fuel Car Crash
Oh, boy, this was pretty scary. On Saturday at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Auto Plus Raceway, Larry Dixon had a violent crash that he told USA Today compared to a “roller-coaster rider that flies off the track.” Luckily Dixon walked away after his Top Fuel car broke in half at about 280 mph. USA Today has more.
Classic Podcast
As of 3:35 p.m. ET on Tuesday, despite numerous IMs, I’ve yet to receive a podcast from Steve. If you’re reading this, he probably sent it over around midnight.
Randy Lawrence has been a top factory mechanic in the sport, he's been a world class downhill mountain bike racer, he's great on a BMX bike and he's also a top trainer in our sport. "RL" has been there and done that. In this podcast we recap his career in the sport both good and bad as Lawrence found out that sometimes, fame isn't all great.
