Who is the best North American player?

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 05 Feb 2007 22:08

Vote for who you believe is the "best" player in the USA or Canada.

After seeing Penske's video, I think the gap between Vasek and the rest of the world is closing. Opinions are welcome.

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 06 Feb 2007 03:53

Hm, it's really rather hard to judge without seeing them all shred in person.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 06 Feb 2007 05:00

Jorden.

He's got all the yawn combos of the other two plus he blazes out into totally uncharted water all the time.

I think creativity and uniqueness are worth alot when considering how good someone is, not just how many adds they can pump out or how long they can go fearless.

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 06 Feb 2007 05:54

Good point mosher, I would have to agree with you there. Style comes into an account for me a lot as well, and Jorden's style is my absolute favorite. He is one of the bigger players yet he is smoother than most smaller players, everything looks very clean and easy to do for him. It's all about unique links and how look together and how difficult they are.

Jim and Dave are tied for 2nd for me, I really couldn't decide who is better they are both hitting massive links and strings, very strong styles and fast!

mc · Post by mc » 06 Feb 2007 06:35

I think it's between dave and jorden. it's hard to say after that; it depends what you like. Jorden definitely has more creativity, variety, and weirdness, but at US Open, seeing all these players together going head to head, it sure looked like dave was doing longer strings than the other two with more consistent hugeness the whole time and an overall level of strength and control that surpassed the other players.

As jim goes, obviously he's world class, absolutely incredible, 10 times the shredder I'll ever be, and more. I just happen to prefer the other two in this particular situation... I'd rather party with jim than dave and jorden combined

but that was just one day. this is a hard question.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 06 Feb 2007 07:34

First of all, I think this is totally an opinion thing. At that echelon of play, there is no deterministic way to conclude who is the best. We had the US Open, Dave won some of the events, Jorden won some. The level of competition was intense. They each have their different strengths and I don't think there's really a way to compare apples to apples.

US Open Results wrote:Open Big Trick
1. Jorden Moir (Blurry Whirling Motor)
2. David Clavens (Nemesis)
3. Jim Penske (Gauntlet)

Open Sick 3
1. Jorden Moir (Whirly Gig-Big Apple-Mind Bender)
2. Will Digges (Fury-Phoenix-Blurriest Swirl)
3. Jim Penske (Food Processor-Locomotion-Mullet)
4. David Clavens (Ripped Warrior-Whirly Gig-Whirlwind)

Rippin' Run
1. David Clavens
2. Jim Penske
3. Jorden Moir

Circle
1. David Clavens
2. Jim Penske
3. Jorden Moir
4. Nate Lindscott

Open Shred 30
1. Jorden Moir 268 (The 2006 US Champion Shred 30)
2. David Clavens 262
3. Jim Penske 247.741

Open Routines
1. David Clavens (The 2006 US Champion Performance Routines)
2. Jorden Moir
3. Jim Penske

If you were to ask me who my FAVORITE shredder in North America to watch play it would probably be Nasty Nate or Luis Monhollon.

david · Post by **david** » 06 Feb 2007 10:13

There is no right answer. I'd rather watch Brad Nelson or Suderman than any of us.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 06 Feb 2007 10:24

Yeah, this question has no answer. I could just as easily answer Luis Monhollon or Juan Rangel (does he even still play?) as any of these guys. I think that once you get either really good or super stylish, other people's opinions don't matter that much.

LEGOMAN · Post by **LEGOMAN** » 06 Feb 2007 10:31

Kyle Hewitt hands down.

smokefree · Post by **smokefree** » 06 Feb 2007 10:45

thenotoriouspie wrote:Kyle Hewitt hands down.

Totally.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 06 Feb 2007 10:58

Some of these responses are pure bullshit, to put it bluntly. The question was not who has the best style, who do you most enjoy watching, or who has the most unique trick selection.

The questions was who is the "best" player in the US or Canada. If you cannot answer that question by selecting one of the three choices provided, provide your own nominee in a post in this thread and justify it, but please don't get off topic.

Don't tell me who you want to watch play. That is not what I asked. And please Ken, Juan Rangel? I like him a lot, but even at his BEST, he was not BAP level. The three players named above are hands down better than 90% of the BAPers out there.

smokefree · Post by **smokefree** » 06 Feb 2007 11:09

what constitutes best?

james · Post by **james** » 06 Feb 2007 11:50

Juan is a legend. He coulda made BAP if he bothered to play slightly more than he did.
Juan for president.
Anyway who cares who's the best. either look at the results or make an opinion, doesn't change anything, so long as your style doesn't suck.

professor · Post by **professor** » 06 Feb 2007 12:32

Senor Grommet wrote:Some of these responses are pure bullshit, to put it bluntly. The question was not who has the best style, who do you most enjoy watching, or who has the most unique trick selection.

Well if you think "best" means best style, then you are going to pick whoever you think has the best style.
If you think "best" means who you enjoy watching the most, then you are going to pick whoever you enjoy watching the most.
If you think "best" means who has the most unique trick selection, then you are going to pick whoever has the most unique trick selection.

"Best" is a subjective term, so you shouldn't be suprised to see subjective responses. If you meant a specific "best" you should have made that clear.

As is, there is no answer to your question.

mc · Post by mc » 06 Feb 2007 12:52

i see threads like this on guitar forums all the time, and they all have practically the same mix of people who answer straight, people who think the right answer hasn't been given, people who think no answer is right, and people who think the discussion is stupid.

It's definitely just opinion. I think I'd prefer seeing those 3 guys play together than seeing any of them seperately. In fact, I know I would, considering I've done both those things. They're all top notch.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 06 Feb 2007 13:15

No need to tell me that best means different things to different people, or that two people may have different views. I know that. I've played freestyle for like 8 years guys.

I don't get why this is so hard for people to answer, but if its too hard for you, please don't clog this thread with mush. It is OBVIOUS that "BEST" is a subjective term when applied to freestylers (excluding Vasek), hence the quotation marks, so it is then EXTREMELY obvious that what I am asking for is everyone's OPINIONS on who is the best player.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 06 Feb 2007 13:41

Methinks either Jorden or David.

I think Jorden and David both have really clean styles, while Penske just rips it up.

It's really hard to say...

I guess we'll see at worlds, eh?

EDIT: Penske is the most fun to watch, imo.

PegLegHolly · Post by **PegLegHolly** » 06 Feb 2007 13:48

jorden moir imo

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 06 Feb 2007 13:50

penkse ftw

but all 3 are respectably good

i guess im choosing favorites cause i shred with him all the time....

HG · Post by HG » 06 Feb 2007 13:52

dave

stylewise, johnny (and difficulty is up there too, i mean... if he still played as much as he once did, he would probably be in the poll)