When TV gets things right: Freesports on 4

It's usually the case that  terrestrial television covering niche or 'extreme' sports will inevitability turn out bad, whether it's shouty presenters, bad camera angles, crap music, presenters 'having a go', or 'action' that's just a bit boring.  So it's nice to find a programme that tells things as it is and just lets the action get on with things.

So it is with the Channel 4 coverage of the 'Freeride World Tour' on on the occasional early Sunday morning with plenty of repeats throughout the week on 4music.

Freeride World Tour? From the official FAQ pages, "Forget placing slalom poles down the mountain. Forget building artificial jumps and hips and halfpipes and tabletops. Forget grooming the slopes even. Freeride contests are 100% natural, 100% clean. Indeed, the event is all about celebrating the god-given terrain features found on any mountainside in the most exciting and elemental format possible. There‘s a start gate at the summit and a finish gate at the bottom. That’s it. Best run down wins."

The snowboarders cover the first half of the show, followed by the skiers, interspersed with brief thoughts by some of the competitors between runs.  What more do you need?  Certainly not Chris Evens.

So would the format work for mountainboarding?  I don't see why not - perhaps there is room for us on the telly, even if it is at 7am on a Sunday morning.

Latest episode can be found on the 4od page here:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/freesports-on-4/4od

Keep track of when it's on next from the handy Radio Times pages:
http://www.radiotimes.com/programme/cfbr/freesports-on-4

...and more importantly, learn more about the competition itself on the official pages:
http://www.freerideworldtour.com/