Post-Nationals tournaments

[Than_Bogan]

So I was checking my ranking today (always worth doing after a PB!), and indirectly I noticed something kind of interesting.

For "Last 12 Months" there are about 350 people listed in M3.  For "Ski Year 2011," there are about 210.  So a solid 40% of the Men III skiers haven't recorded a single score after Nationals.

Is that typical?  Do a lot of folks end their tournament season at Nationals?  Personally, I almost always do better in the late season tournaments, and I'd hate to officially end the tournament season until the weather tells me I have to (which happened last weekend here in New England).

Perhaps there's a different explanation for this?

P.S. Today, Horton, me, and scotchipman are consecutive on the 2011 ranking.  We're like ranking list buddies! :-)

[Marco]

Perhaps not all the tournaments have recorded their scores up to date.  I skied in a tourney on September 11, and the scores are still not posted on the AWSA or the USA Waterski website as of today.

Nice job on the PB! I ran that score in practice the other day, but haven't gotten close to it in a tournamenthttp://www.ballofspray.com/vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-yell.gif

[Than_Bogan]

Well, it'll come.  At least I hope so -- I've run -38 twice in my life in practice and I will officially go nuts if I ever get it in a tournament.

But this year I had a very unusual experience where TWICE I got further in a tournament than I had in practice all year.  I assume this is a combination of practicing at 6am and that we had to move our course to a sub-optimal location this year so I'm not quite practicing under ideal circumstances.  Very soon it will be going back where it belong, though.

[Than_Bogan]

Also, excellent point on the recording.  I should check back in mid-October before I conclude anything.

(Considering that I turned in scores from our Sept. tournament in FEBRUARY last year, you'd think I would have thought of that.  Long story...)

[lkb]

Beginning with ski yr 2011, I graduated to M4. Maybe a lot of others did as well with not too many coming out of M2 into M3. M2 is a lot smaller group. That's probably not responsible for the whole 40% but it could be part of it.

[Than_Bogan]

lkb, I think when I filter by Men 3, it only shows people currently in Men 3, although I can't prove this very easily.  So I believe both the Last-12-Months and the Ski-Year-2011 lists include only those currently in Men 3, making that part of my comparison apples to apples.

Of course, I definitely could be wrong.

It's certainly true that divisions shrink as I make my way through them.  Folks born in the 70s and early 80s didn't get involved in 3-event waterskiing in the same way.  My ZBS score would rank #38 in M2, #67 in M3, and #68 in M4, even though it would be natural to expect the trend to slope in the other direction.

It looks to me like the pendulum is swinging back to good participation numbers for the current generation of kids, but time will tell!

[sjholbert]

Scores should be in the list by midweek after the tournament unless there is some problem with files submitted.  Marco, my scores from the 9/11, Laku Liftoff tournament are in usawaterski.org. (kinda wish I could remove that big goose-egg! How embarrasing!  :-)

Stacy

[Marco]

Stacy- I checked this morning and the scores were up on the USA waterski site, but they weren't up yesterday that I could find.  (They still are not up on the awsawest site though).

Hey- a goose egg w/o a crash is better than a lean lock induced OTF at the gate.  Plus, you followed it up with some great skiing the second round!