Stage 1

New obstacle. The competitor hangs from a rope attached to a zip line, swings over the water, and drops from the rope to land on a small padded platform floating in the water.

Many competitors slid off the platform and into the water. Some misjudged the landing and missed the platform entirely. The fellow going in head-first in this photo is actor Kenjiro Ishimaru, one of my favorite competitors. I hope he does better next season.

New obstacle. Competitors hang from a log-shaped object which is suspended over the water and slides down a inclined track. The competitor wraps their arms and legs around the log, which has circular depressions in the sides to help them hold on. Two steps in the track add shocks which knocked many competitors loose.

The Log Grip replaces the Log Roll, and appears to use the same track. Also like the Log Roll, it's a tough early obstacle that seems designed to weed out the comedy/novelty contestants.

New obstacle. Competitors use a pole to swing across the water from one platform to another. While swinging across, the top of the pole must be maneuvered from left to right through a maze.

The Pole Maze is similar to a less challenging obstacle that appeared in Stage 3 in a couple of early seasons.  In that version, they had to pole vault over the water, but there was no maze to move the pole through.

It took us awhile to understand what was going on with the top of the pole & why the competitors were getting hung up in the middle. We didn't figure it out until they showed an overhead shot of the obstacle.
 

New obstacle. Contestants use a trampoline to jump up, and brace their hands and feet in a narrow gap between two walls. They must then "spider walk" along the walls to the platform on the other side. This obstacle combines the Jump Hang (stage 1) and Spider Walk (stage 2) of previous seasons.

The Jump Hang was previously one of the toughest obstacles in stage 1. As a more difficult version, the Jumping Spider is, well, really difficult. It's hard to tell sometimes from the editing, but it appeared that the majority of Stage 1 competitors went out on this obstacle.

New obstacle. Contestants cross a bridge made of bungee cords strapped together. At the far end of the bridge, the bungee cord steps get narrower and the gaps get wider.

Compared to the rest of Stage 1, this obstacle seems rather simple. It's also a bit boring to watch. Contestants run out onto the bridge, fall down, and then crawl the rest of the way across. I predict it will be replaced with something more exciting next season.

Modified obstacle. This is the Warped Wall, a foot taller and with a large overhang at the top. Contestants run up the wall, grab a rope hanging from the top, and climb over.

The added height makes the wall more of a challenge, but the overhang and rope mean they can only climb up in one tiny place. So most of the obstacle is wasted space. I didn't like the Curved Wall in previous seasons for the same reason.

New obstacle. Competitors slide down a metal chute. At the end of the chute they must catch a rope suspended over the water. They then swing to a rope net and climb under the net.

They must build up a lot of momentum in the chute, as they appear to be moving too fast to catch the rope with the hands. The trick seems to be catching the rope under the arms, and gripping it between the chest and the arms. Another indicator of how fast they're moving: for competitors who fail to catch the rope, there's a net over the water to break their fall.

Modified obstacle. The show called this a new obstacle, but it counts as "modified" in my book. Contestants swing across the water on a rope, land on a rope netting and climb up to the final platform. This is almost the same as the Rope Climb in previous seasons, just a rope netting at the end instead of climbing a single rope. Another difference is that the buzzer isn't right above the climb anymore. Now it's five meters back, adding a few seconds to the time.

I'm not sure yet whether this is harder or easier than the Rope Climb. So few people got this far that it's hard to tell.

Did they decide the Rope Glider was too hard, or too easy? Either way the Sextuple Step is back. Competitors jump from side to side on five steps, then jump forward to a sixth.


The two Americans from the G4 contest both said they found this obstacle easy, although many competitors have trouble with the forward jump.

The Log Grip returns in the same form as last season. Competitors hang from a log-shaped cylinder that slides down a track with two drops.

Competitors swing across the water on a pole which must be maneuvered through a maze. The Pole Maze is the same as last season, except they removed the fake vines from the structure, making it easier to see what's going on.

Minoru Kuramochi, the bar owner called Tako Tencho or Mr. Octopus, made it all the way to the Pole Maze, but got hung up when he did not have the momentum to swing across. The clock ran out while he tried to get back to the platform. Eventually he climbed up to the very top of the pole and was able to jump down without falling in the water.

Competitors use a trampoline to jump up, and brace their hands and feet in a narrow gap between two walls. They must then "spider walk" along the walls to the platform on the other side.

Both of the American competitors sponsored by G4 went out on this obstacle, along with most competitors this season. One competitor, Yoshihiro Minami, fell and somehow managed to jump backward onto the trampoline, do a somersault and land safely on the platform. He then tried again and cleared the Jumping Spider, although unfortunately did not complete stage 1.

New obstacle. Competitors run up the side of a curved wall, grab a rope, swing out over the water and land on a very small platform.

I predicted they would replace the Bungee Bridge with something more exciting, and they did. The Halfpipe Attack seems based on the Curved Wall from previous seasons, except (surprise!) more difficult. Few competitors made it past the Jumping Spider, and many of those went out here.

I wasn't crazy about the Curved Wall because most of the structure was wasted: there was this big curved wall, and everyone ignored it and just ran up the edge. They seem to have resolved that problem with this redesigned obstacle. I do feel compelled to point out that the curved wall in Halfpipe Attack is not actually a half-pipe.

Returning obstacle. I guess they decided the Great Wall wasn't so great after all. The Warped Wall seems exactly the same as in previous seasons, except the red stripe up the middle, in keeping with the new stage 1 color scheme, and the fact that competitors now enter the obstacle in the middle, not at the end. This seems like it shouldn't matter, but it might cause competitors to start running at the low point, thus not building up enough momentum to get over the top.

The Warped Wall used to take out a lot of competitors, but now the course is so hard that few even got to this point.

Competitors slide down a metal chute. At the end of the chute they must catch a rope suspended over the water. They then swing to a rope net and climb under the net.

Contestants swing across the water on a rope, land on a rope netting and climb up to the final platform.