It seems that having an iPhone app has now become one of the check-off items for every well run event. Many, like the US Open of Surfing, are discovering that simply having the app doesn’t mean that the proper info is being distributed on the right channels.
On the surface the free US Open of Surfing app (click here to download it) has everything that an event app should. The opening screen features the following menu: Live, Schedule, News, Videos, Photos, Results, Media, and Shop. Under each of those is another slew of sub menus.
Follow the jump for the rest of our review. . .
In our quick perusal, however, we found the app littered with minor mistakes, glitches, and guffaws. For instance, when we checked into the “Live” section there were reportedly two live video streams of four running. One from the surf contest and the other from music venue. Cool right? The surf live stream, however, delivered a black screen and the Music venue delivered a live stream of open mics and chatter from the sound guys talking about which cables they needed. “I’m hearing you on all of them, but not just on four,” one sound guy said. “Man, my nose is just taking off now.”
We went straight to the Skate section in the Results menu just to see if there had been some qualifiers we’d missed. What we found were results from a round of four man surf heats. Same thing for BMX results. The surf results appeared to be correct and up-to-date so maybe the Skate and BMX section were simply using surf results for space holders. . . or maybe the data was screwed up.
The coolest part of the app is the Video section. Every single heat from each round of the competition is available for viewing at anytime. This “Heats on Demand” feature is reason enough to grab the app. Watching the heats after they’re done is so much faster. . . that we could watch most of the day’s heats in a half an hour.
The US Open of Surfing app is solid and well-worth downloading. It’s also free so there really is no risk at all. It just seems like some of the data isn’t getting to the right places just yet. It is only Wednesday so we’re hoping they get everything straightened out before the weekend. Because when it works (like it did from the music stage Wednesday afternoon) or with the heats on demand, having the US Open Live from Huntington Beach in the palm of your hand is pretty rad.
Download the app now so you’ll be ready when they begin streaming the Coastal Carnage event live. That mini-park looks so sick.
[Link: Apple iTunes Store]
