Ben Favret has the worst ski luck

[Horton]

So what the heck happened at the Big Dawg last weekend? What I heard was that officials and kids skied before the tournament Sunday with the rope on the pole and a switch section in the rope. When the head to head started that rope got in the boat and no one noticed.

 

So when Ben Favret ran 41 and something at 43 they pulled the rope to check it and ….oooooppps how did the rope get 18 inchs too long?

 

Does anyone have a clearer version of this?

[skidawg]

Schnizit happens,  Boat judge doesn't pay attention and someone runs mucho bouys,  Happened down in south la record tourney 4-5 yrs ago.

[Horton]

What was the deal with that . . . something like he ran 38 and then they skipped to 41 and he ran it but thought it was 39? Then set the record but did not get it . . . Like I said Ben has the worst luck

[skidawg]

wally gave me the play by play, didn't say anything about opting up just that he killed 41, then the boat waited for a while while the discovered the problem(the 1.5 section was left in, making it a non switch rope).  charma!

[DW]

Two boats used, one boat had a 1/2 meter long PP line added to a standard rope (the officials tournament that morning did not use the PP evidently).  Everybody that skied first round on Sunday in the boat with the long line won their match.  When Ben skied through 41' off in first match of round two, the officials checked the rope and found the error since that was a record and needed to be verified.  The corrective action was to have all the long rope skiers reski to see if they still advanced to round 2.  Most did, 2 did not.  The format is pretty cool, I guess the long line is same as an awesome lane choice in drag racing!!!  Looks like there needs to be a line lenght checking process set up so that this does not happen.

[Horton]

Dawg the opt up was what I thought happened a few years ago at Bennetts. He broke the 36 record with the funky opt up and then for some other reason it was not good.

In other words this kind of thing has happened to him before.

[DaveD]

I got there just in time to watch Ben run 39 like it was a walk in the park in the first round.  I thought for sure he would win it all skiing like that.  Makes sense knowing it was closer to a 38 pass. 

Mark Johnson was pumped when he ran what he thought was a personal best of 4 @ 39, winning his first round match-up by a half ball.  I imagine he felt a lot like Ben because he ended up losing the match-up on the re-ride. 

That was my first Big Dawg, I was a surprised how small the crowd was.  Is this typical for this tournament or was this a result of the location?  I'm not complaining though, it was real nice sitting along the shore with an un-obstructed view. 

 

[Director Darwin]

Ben's previous record (36mph) was tossed out due to boat path - not an opt-up.As for the crowd at the Big Dawg, unless you place these events at spectator friendly sites in major metropolitan areas AND offer eye candy AND adult beverages, this is what you will get.  We used to get 30-35k over a 3-day weekend for our pro tour stop back in the late 80's and early 90's.  The difference?  There were women skiers, scantily clad spectators, Bud Girls and free flowing beer.  Neither is present at a Correct Craft sponsored men's slalom event.

[skidawg]

and it is not in the middle of the city like champion,  rural america is not optimal for spectators.

[DW]

The foursome next to us at the MI tournament came over from Eastern Ohio and were not related to any of the skiers, so, I think with proper promotion perhaps there is opportunity for attendance.  The face off format certainly makes the event more exciting than a traditional style event.  I did not expect a big crowd and like Dave said, the site itself was fantastic. 

I think one thing that is a major problem with a water ski tounament is the stop in the action for checking and rechecking for whatever reason.  That takes away the excitement and the flow of the event, along with the fact that any casual fan has no understanding of why the event is stopped (and thus now very boring because nothing is happening).  I think the sport needs to find a way to keep the action continuous to make it more spectator freindly, if that is truly desired.  The local TV station that was covering the event, actually left when the action at the MI Big Dawg was stopped to check the rope length.  The solution was the best action possible, but should never have happened to begin with. 

NASCAR has pre race tech inspection to ensure that the cars meet the requirements.  It is NASCAR's credo that the fan will know the winner when they leave the track, hence money and point penalty's for those that adjust the cars out of tolerance during the race but no change in the results.  It should be pretty simple to set up a fixture on shore to check rope length prior to it being put in the boat.  Boat path and speed need a quick check solution (video / time) to satisfy the validity of the run.

[Director Darwin]

DW - good points but the one thing that makes NASCAR or any other sport popular is personalities.  Sports are inherently personality driven.  When water skiing was at its peak in popularity you had the likes of Sammy Duvall, Bob Lapoint, Andy Mapple, Carl Roberge and others.  In fact, those guys are STILL popular among the water ski crowd and are recognizable names outside of our little world.  No one has stepped up to take their place and the media will not pay any attention until someone does.

[35 in the bag]

The site was great........and despite comments to the contrary above, it was a decent size crowd  (150 -200 people on shore between the gates).......at least when compared to the Ohio Big Dawg last year which had exactly one (1) true spectator on shore and a total of three(3) (including my wife & I) on shore between the gates.The rope thing was a huge bummer for everyone. On a beautiful day in mid-Michigan we hade witnessed the shattering of the National M3/MM record.  Television was there and caught it all. The crowd, mostly knowledgably about the sport, and if not , superiorly informed by Jerry (hosenose) Hosner on the PA system, was electric during and immediately after Ben's 41 off pass. We were geeked. We had witnessed history. And those of us associated with the site/tourny were feeling proud that it happened on our watch. I know first hand that the course was dead nuts on, I had looked over shoulders at 39 off boat paths.  And I had high hopes that the record would be broken.  It was Shattered!!   ...........then.........   well    .....then.How could this happen?.....and it does happen! I mean any one of a half dozen people could have caught this early. But they didn't.  The starting dock crew, the boat rope handler, the boat judge, even the driver ("captain of the ship"), let alone all the skiers who, once its in thier hand are the only ones who could/would see it.  Wait.... bright orange switch replacement sections...  I digress ;-( We were crushed, dumbfounded, embarrassed and disappointed. There were tears.  Only for an hour or so.  Because the show went on, corrected, and it was a good show.   The finals were thrilling.  Tynan with 4 1/2 @ 39 leaving the proverbial door open for Larsen who had to hookup off 4 ball and get fully around 5 and back to the wake for the last buoy of the day..........  but didn't.   Wow..... Congratulations to both Scott & Scott and to our local Dawg, Ted McColley who finished third.And to Ben, I hope you get the record........ karma.... it would only be right.John Miller 

 

[35 in the bag]

The site was great........and despite comments to the contrary above, it was a decent size crowd  (150 -200 people on shore between the gates).......at least when compared to the Ohio Big Dawg last year which had exactly one (1) true spectator on shore and a total of three(3) (including my wife & I) on shore between the gates.

 

The rope thing was a huge bummer for everyone. On a beautiful day in mid-Michigan we hade witnessed the shattering of the National M3/MM record.  Television was there and caught it all. The crowd, mostly knowledgably about the sport, and if not , superiorly informed by Jerry (hosenose) Hosner on the PA system, was electric during and immediately after Ben's 41 off pass. We were geeked. We had witnessed history. And those of us associated with the site/tourny were feeling proud that it happened on our watch. I know first hand that the course was dead nuts on, I had looked over shoulders at 39 off boat paths.  And I had high hopes that the record would be broken.  It was Shattered!!   ...........then.........   well    .....then.

 

How could this happen?.....and it does happen! I mean any one of a half dozen people could have caught this early. But they didn't.  The starting dock crew, the boat rope handler, the boat judge, even the driver ("captain of the ship"), let alone all the skiers who, once its in thier hand are the only ones who could/would see it.  Wait.... bright orange switch replacement sections...  I digress ;-(

 

We were crushed, dumbfounded, embarrassed and disappointed. There were tears.  Only for an hour or so.  Because the show went on, corrected, and it was a good show.   The finals were thrilling.  Tynan with 4 1/2 @ 39 leaving the proverbial door open for Larsen who had to hookup off 4 ball and get fully around 5 and back to the wake for the last buoy of the day..........  but didn't.   Wow.....

 

Congratulations to both Scott & Scott and to our local Dawg, Ted McColley who finished third.

 

And to Ben, I hope you get the record........ karma.... it would only be right.

 John Miller 

[DW]

JD,

Yes, I understand the personality thing pretty well in motor sports, particularly the NASCAR end of it.  I have to say, Wade Cox and Chris Parrish have every bit the personality of any of the NASCAR drivers and that is a compliment to them not a knock on the Cup drivers because they are pretty interesting.  What is the difference, the promotion behind the personality to drive it to the incredible heights of popularity that NASCAR possesses.  The best example of the effect of personality is to look at the fractured open wheel racing world.  Champ car has only one personality, Paul Tracy, and the rest just don't cut it and the sport has dropped off the radar screen (losing Indy obviously hurts a lot).  Ever since Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya left the sport has died.  IRL is showing something of a pulse with Marco Andretti, Dario Franchitti (read Ashley Judd), and of course, the poster girl Danica.  Personalities tend to come and go, rivalries are also an important ingredient for interest.

My point was not to go down that path but to try to identify a sport where they pre plan the event so that they minimize errors and event stoppage, and I just happen to use one I know a little about.  I think water skiing can adopt the concept of making sure every thing is checked and correct prior to a record run because you can basically plan the fact that it is going to happen and if it doesn't, it won't matter.  What matters to the audience, and the TV crew that left during the down time, is the long period of no action and that is the thing to eliminate.

I agree with John, the crowd certainly became electric as a potential record was about to be broken, one could certainly feel the excitement as the scenario developed.  The potential is actually better than drag racing because you can watch it develop, where you only realize you witnessed history when the time is posted in a drag race.