I'm with willycrumb. It was the one of the best if not the best WFs I have been to. The announcing was good imo. The track was great with the 180 and the missed buoy option. I was there from Thurs. morning and can say that 90% of the racing was exciting this year and had battles and lead changes. This was definitely not the case for the past few years. I think the track had a lot to do with it. There was a huge international presence. Some riders I have never heard of that made for some good racing were the Morroco and Kuwait riders. They are in a position now as the early Thai riders. Look out for these teams in the future. They have big money backing and motivated riders.
Getting there early on Sunday and actually having something to watch was a good bonus too. They did slalom in front of the bleachers this year with announcing. I thought that was a good idea for the early birds like myself.
The parking lot had a shuttle service. I never park there but noticed it this year. Maybe it was present before but I didn't notice it.
The whole staff at the event seemed to be more friendly and welcoming. I bet there was a specific meeting with the staff to be firendly this year. When I walked in I was always greeted, welcomed in and told to enjoy myself. This has not happened before.
The pit situation seemed fine as I didn't hear any complaints this year. Same goes for tech and fuel. There was no big uproar over it. At least I didn't catch any of it. I did witness a tech inspection that was very fair. An intake grate was said to hang a little lower than legal. The rider said it was fine before and thought it might have been loose. He went to tighten it and it was tight. He asked for a reisnpection with the gauge and the tech guy got up under the boat with a better view and sure it enough it was ok. Just a good scenario that I witnessed as far as tech goes.
Now to some criticism. The first is that the admission was way up in the parking lot. I didn't park in the dedicated lot as many park in the desert next to Crazy Horse. I walked down and was told that the admission was way up in the parking lot. No biggie because the shuttles were there like every few minutes and I took the ride there and back to get the wrist band. There were signs that said race check in or something like that but I think a "Race Tickets" or "Race Admission" sign instead would have solved some of the confusion. I wasn't alone in this confusion so a little better signage would have been good.
My other complaint is the 3D Bounty Hunt. I know Sea-Doo is a major sponsor and has to be done but it was like pulling teeth waiting for the moto 3 of 1200 and ski to start and having to sit through this Bounty Hunt late in the day. Will the 3D just go away already
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Overall I give this year an A. I don't know how true the rumor of no Finals this year was but to have it be this great and with many noticeable changes for the better like I saw was a huge undertaking. I know not everybody there was satisfied but I hope the majority were and we can build on this and keep the momentum going.
Finally congrats Scott Frazier/IJSBA and DSM! Thanks for making this happen and making it one of the BEST WFs I can recall!
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