Well, it looks like the powers at be on the IRT couldn’t hold out any longer. This weekend’s Tier 1 event in Lynmar will feature FREE live video feeds a la www.racquetballonline.tv. There was much talk at the begining of the season about live racquetball for boththe IRT and WPRO, with each organization choosing a slightly different model. After half the season ending with no feeds on the men’s side, it looks like they adopted the Women’s model. In my opinion, this is another huge step forward for the promotion of racquetball. Providing this free service allows both hardcore and casual racquetball participants to see the sport played at its highest level. Sponsors, newcomers, and anyone with a moderate internet connection are just a click away. AWESOME!
March 6th, 2007
by Geoff Thomsen
After having the pleasure of watching this season’s WPRO tour broadcast live on the www.racquetballonline.tv website, Double Donut Studios decided to get the inside scoop on the present and future of Pablo Fajre’s awesome new live racquetball video streaming venture. Pablo was gracious enough to answer a few questions that are on the minds of MANY people in the racquetball community who have watched his broadcasts.
DD: Pablo, where is your hometown?
PF: Santiago, Chile.
DD: Tell us a little about your background in racquetball, like number of years you’ve played, etc.
PF: After practicing tennis for 7 years, and track and field for other 7, I moved to racquetball when I was 25 years old. The first year I participated in local tournaments, I had the chance to go to Costa Rica to play in the Friendship Cup. It was there I met Jeff Leon who was Fabian Balmori’s and Tim Hansen’s coach. He invited me to Miami to train with him, and from that point on I never stop playing and competing. I haven’t played much the last 2 years though, because I really injured my back. Next April, Chile will hold the Racquetball Pan-American Championships, and most likely I will then say good bye to racquetball.
DD: You have a racquetball video website, so we’re assuming you watch a lot of racquetball. Who are your favorite professional players (men and women), and why are they your favorite?
PF: My favorite woman player is my wife, Angela Grisar, #3 in the WPRO right now. I have coached her for 10 years and I hope one day she becomes #1.
For the men, I like Alvaro Beltrán’s talent, Jack Huczek’s strategy, Rocky Carson’s fair play, Jason Maninno’s dives, Ruben Gonzales’ intelligence and Shane Vanderson’s backhand.
DD: How did you get started with streaming video?
PF: I always thought Racquetball had to have more exposure to become a bigger sport. I never believed the idea that televising racquetball was impossible and the reason why it would never grow again like it did in the 80’s, so I started searching for new technologies to make racquetball broadcasting real. Today the internet connections around the world are still developing in comparison to where they can get in the future, so if we can already watch a match on our pc, imagine where this technology can take racquetball in the near future.
DD: Give us some details about how someone watches a match on www.racquetballonline.tv.
PF: Racquetball fans just have to log in the webpage, enter their e-mail address and decide on a password. The website will then take them automatically either to the live feeds or to the videos on demand posted on the site, for free. This is an advertisement business. It is a platform for enterprises to expose their services and products. Viewers, instead, just have to enjoy the videos and check out the products advertised on the webpage.
DD: Can you give us some stats about your viewing audience? How many people typically watch a match?
PF: During the last IRF World Junior Racquetball Championships we had more than 16,000 hits. Every weekend we broadcast the WPRO, we have approximately 4,000 viewers.
DD: What tournament has had the most viewers?
PF: Until now the international events we have broadcasted have been the most successful, because we get viewers from all over the World: Korea, Japan, USA, Canada, Costa Rica, México, Ireland, Bahrain!
DD: What single match has had the most viewers?
PF: I think the 18 & under men’s finals during the IRF Junior Worlds. In a Mexican club they put a big screen and the club members got together to watch the match.
DD: What parts of the world have the most viewers?
PF: Most of our viewers are from the United States. Then come the Mexicans.
DD: How are you able to provide such a GREAT service to racquetball fans without having to charge them a fee to watch?
PF: When you want to let people know about a new product, you have to incur some costs in the beginning. Also, this is an advertisement business that should be very attractive for racquetball enterprises, considering that they reach a captive market that consume racquetball products, so we’ll start selling sponsor slots pretty soon.
DD: Will www.racquetballonline.tv always be free?
PF: For the viewers yes, unless we offer our services to a person or company that believes has a very attractive product that can sell pretty well. An example of this is Russ Mannino who decided to start the USA Challenges the World Racquetball Tour, which will consist of singles matches between Jason Mannino and players from around the world. The first one will be a rematch of the last US Open finals between Jason Mannino and Rocky Carson.
DD: We’ve seen events broadcasted for WPRO and the Junior Worlds from the IRF. Do you have plans to broadcast events for USA Racquetball (Singles, Doubles, US OPEN, Pro Nationals), IRT or WOR? Do you have future IRF events planned?
PF: www.racquetballonline.tv will broadcast the USA Racquetball National Singles in May. We have also offered our services to Doug Ganim for the up coming US OPEN, and to Dave Negrete for the IRT Tour. Many IRT players have asked us why we don’t stream their tour. They understand it could give them big exposure. We are working on that!
DD: Do you have any other planned features you’d like to talk about?
PF: www.racquetballonline.tv is our pilot project. We want to continue with other sports and hopefully one day become an IP-TV channel with all kinds of content, 24/7.
DD: Can you give some information about the advertising spots on your feeds for racquetball goods providers?
PF: Anyone interested can contact Racquetballonline.tv at info@racquetballonline.tv
DD: Pablo, it’s been a pleasure hearing about the future of your awesome venture. Good luck, and we hope to see MANY more events available on your website!
PF: Thanks!
January 27th, 2007
by Geoff Thomsen
The post I wrote about resources for racquetball videos seemed to be pretty popular, so I though I’d follow up with some info about racquetball photography as well. Of course the Double Donut Studios Racquetball Blog is *the* premiere source for racquetball photos ;), but there are some other good links available as well.
Double Donut Studios - Racquetball Blog
Double Donut Studios is the official Racquetball Blog of photographer, Geoff Thomsen. Geoff covers many events for USA Racquetball / Racquetball Magazine, including: National Singles, National Doubles, and the US OPEN Racquetball Championships. Geoff also covers several local events such as the NW Regionals. The Blog portion of the website features ongoing coverage of the Men’s and Women’s Pro tours, national events such as the USA Racquetball National Singles and Doubles championships, the International Racquetball Federation, and any other national / world event news. Automatic updates for news items on this site can be retrieved by adding the RSS feed address into your favorite feed reader. The racquetball photo galleries for Double Donut are:
- Main Racquetball Photo Gallery (new)
- This is the upgraded photo gallery for Double Donut Studios. All new event coverage will be posted here, and eventually, all of the old events will be migrated. Unfortunately, it is going to take a significant amount of time to move the thousands of photos, but it will eventually happen.
- Archive Racquetball Photo Gallery (archive)
- This is the original hosting spot for the photos on Double Donut. There are photos from MANY events on this site, which date back to May of 2004. Included are USA Racquetball National Events, US OPEN, Pro Exhibitions, and events local to Portland, OR.
- High Resolution Racquetball Wallpapers (hi-res wallpaper)
- Once upon a time, I had enough free time on my hands to slice and dice some of photos on my site into some cool graphic designs. This type of work is alot of fun, and one of these days when I have some free time again, I’ll post more. When will that be? Who knows.
Racquetball Group on Flickr
A while back I made a post regarding a racquetball photo group which I created on Flickr. So far, there hasn’t been alot of new posts from other people taking photos of racquetball - which I guess is understandable due to the challenges in taking good pictures. I have a goal to post a short how-to guide in near future, and I’m hoping it will motivate some enthusiasts to start bringing their shiny new DSLRs to the club with them. It’s nice to have something to do while waiting for your turn on the challenge court 
Ken Fife Photography
Ken Fife has done a great job covering local events around the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has professional gear, and has some excellent shots from several recent events. Ken is in the process of posted a lengthy tutorial, which seems to be geared toward currently seasoned photographers wanting to hone their skills for the racquetball court (link coming when available).
Feel free to leave any other good racquetball photo / racquetball photography links in the comments!!
January 21st, 2007
by Geoff Thomsen
