Is trials boring?
I think the current comp format has become very stale. The courses are all pretty dull looking, and the riding required to win seems to have been locked in with a few techniques being standard for all obstacles. The bikes have become so far from something you could just nip to the shops on, it's totally unrelatable.
It also doesn't help when the world champ puts up videos like this
Which was the first video in my search. Not exactly inspiring! Couple that to to the Coust notts(?) vid, and it certainly looks like a backward step
On the street front things are more interesting, but the DM copy cats that are flooding "street trials" seem to miss the fact that the base of Danny's riding is an epic pure trials ability. And some of those videos are equally dull.
Personally my favourite moments in trials have come from people on 26" bikes riding over unexpected obstacles in a stylish way (or the other way around!). Parts of crux at the beach, akrigg on the barca blocks, lenosky, Martyn in chainspotting, Kenny at some of the old World Cup comps. Then you have trials kings, boon, Porter, Goddard, Phil Williams, tunni, cls, Ali C and a long list of others who have pushed things along in riding innovation and capturing occasional perfection on film. They all made trials look incredible. It still happens, but it's rarer it seems. The completely polarised bike choice doesn't help, but there needs to be a change to the top level comp scene before this will ever change.
Meh I don't know where I'm going with this and Jedi is on...