US Open

[disland]

I see CBS is a sponsor of the US Open. Does anyone know what they are planning? TV coverage maybe?

[jcamp]

CBS Radio, not TV, unfortunately. News article on USAWS's site mentions online broadcast.

[gjohnson]

CBS will likely show it, tape delayed, on CBS SPORTS NETWORK. I'd assume that it would be on the program CBS Sports Spectacular.

[Kelvin]

The press release also mentions a webcast as well. Good to see the US Open coming back.

[MattP]

I know the crew at USAWS has been working on this for MONTHS if not a year. @The_Krista‌ can you shed some light?

[klindy]

According to the article "CBS" can mean anything - Carls Boat Storage or Connies Beauty Shop. I don't see any indication that it has anything to do with the broadcast of any part of the event. There is mention of a webcast however.

[Jdubs]

NAUTIQUE ANNOUNCES THE RETURN OF

THE U.S. OPEN OF WATER SKIING

 

ORLANDO, FL (September 5, 2014) – Nautique and CBS have partnered with USA Water Ski and officially announce a three-year partnership naming Nautique Boat Company as the title sponsor of the U.S. Open of Water Skiing.

 

Re-igniting the future of one of water skiing's most coveted titles, Nautique and CBS aim to engage the water ski community back to its roots, and deliver an all-inclusive, world-class, three-event water ski competition and cultural festival.

 

The 21st Nautique U.S. Open of Water Skiing will be headlined by the world’s best men and women three-event athletes, including current World Record holders and Team Nautique athletes Nate Smith and Erika Lang. This event will be held at Lake Ivanhoe attracting thousands of spectators, and showcase a 10-acre retail and brand experience. The Nautique U.S. Open spectators will enjoy an interactive festival featuring exhibitors, autograph signings, DJs, and prize giveaways.

 

“This is a big moment for Nautique and the Nautique U.S. Open of Water Skiing. The U.S. Open has been sidelined for the past seven years and we are excited to bring it back!” stated Bill Yeargin, President/CEO of Nautique Boat Company. “Adding more excitement, the winners of each discipline will receive an invitation to the world’s most prestigious watersports event, the 2015 Masters Water Ski & Wakeboard Tournament, held at Callaway Gardens over the Memorial Day Weekend” added Yeargin.

 

“Nautique and USA Water Ski have been partners for decades. Being able to add to this relationship with such an iconic event in our own backyard is simply a perfect fit,” commented Bob Crowley, USA Water Skis’ Executive Director. “We are really looking forward to embracing the entire water ski industry with the Nautique U.S. Open. This will offer us one of the most powerful events to share our spirit of water skiing with thousands of people,” added Crowley.

 

The Nautique U.S. Open of Water Skiing will be the fall’s biggest watersports event/festival as the finals return to the “Watersports Capital of the World” Orlando, FL on October 25th. The live webcast and consumer information will be available at http://www.nautique.com/events/view/nautique-u-s-open-of-water-skiing.

 

 

 

 

[The_Krista]

We have been working diligently with our title sponsor, Nautique and yes that is CBS Corporation....we are working directly with the "radio" arm of it here in Orlando, but that also includes a ton of media assets (event fulfillment, billboards, radio interviews/commercials, online/digital media, email and social media, etc.) Additionally there will be a concert, a beer garden, vendor area, food, vip tent, ping pong/corn hole, etc.

 

Don't forget the return of the US Open coincides with USA Water Ski's 75th Anniversary and USA Water Ski Foundation's Ski with the Legends weekend. There is still time to sign up for Ski with the Legends, if you're interested in the "Ultimate Skier's Weekend." The tentative schedule is below:

 

Thursday (pending number of entries) and Friday: Qualification round for US Open (all 3 events, both genders) IF we can run all qualifiers on Friday then Thursday will be reserved for practice for the athletes. However, due to high volume of entries already received, we may run 1/2 of the qualifying rounds on Thursday and the other 1/2 on Friday.

 

Friday Night: 'Legendary Luau" Pro skiers of today and the legends from the past meet together at Lake Grew after the tournament to kick off the ultimate skiers weekend (we will have about 20 legends in town, plus all of the US Open participants.) This is open to the public to come and watch the prelims, enjoy the Hall of Fame / Museum and then hang out and interact with the biggest names in skiing. If you sign up for the legends event you can be coached by them on Sat/Sun depending on which clinic you choose.

 

Saturday: Semis and Finals will take place in downtown Orlando at Lake Ivanhoe. Semis in the morning and then the highly-publicized finals will be from apx. 2pm-6:30pm. Beer garden will open up at 1pm and concert will begin directly after the end of the finals. There will be various water sport exhibitions and it will be live webcasted the same way the Masters was. CBS Sports (online site) will be promoting the event with links to the webcast. Lastly, the event will be canned and ready to go (after the fact) for tv-play on CBS channels nation-wide.

 

I hope this answers some questions you may have. If you have any more, feel free to contact me.

[disland]

@The_Krista awesome!

[lpskier]

Wow, Krista, I think you guys hit the ball out of the park! Great job! If you are starting a volunteer list, please put me down.

[Than_Bogan]

@The_Krista. Clearly you must be mistaken. Didn't you get the memo that this sport is dying?

 

;)

[Edbrazil]

 

Wow. Awesome to see this event is coming back. Thank you, sponsors.

 

I worked these events at Downtown Disney in 2005, 2006, and 2007, as course setup

person and Technical Controller Good bit of a challenging site, with plenty of backwash

from the far side. The site in the 2007 event in the evening/night was packed with people,

as far as possible without serious grandstands. We got good cooperation from Disney,

with only a couple of adjustments needed. The Corson video jump system camera was set

up on the roof at Bongo's.

 

Ivanhoe probably is a better site, unless a significant West wind kicks up. Back around late

1980's, the Pro Tour went there after Lake Eola. Cramped site to the max. at Eola.

 

Too bad that travel is so wicked expensive these days, or I'd be there to at least watch.

[Ilivetoski]

That is awesome @the_krista !! You guys are doing a kick ass job with this

[Edbrazil]

 

Could run as a 6-buoy, but the course would have to be set farther out, vs. tucked into shore.

When there was an event there last year(?) was it a 6 or 4?. And, with a 6-buoy, there might

be the need to have to put in centerline video and gate cams. Pushing the envelope

for the site and spectator conditions.

 

We went Tour-ing there in 1988 and 1989, in between Lake Eola and Barnett Park. I hope that

the technical data exists for where the courses and ramp were last time.

[Wish]

It was a 4 buoy. Kinda disappointing but that was for the "show" so in actuality it was a good thing to tuck it close to shore. The site itself for spectators is great. Plenty of room for venders and food. Hopefully they will make it easy on themselves and just call one of the food truck caravans/parades that run around Central FL and just have them show up. Usually there's better then 10 trucks at any given stop. Feed them and they will come...is my motto. My suggestion would be a 8 buoy. Little tougher to put in maybe but well worth seeing these guys and gals run 6 and not 4. This could be big if they stay away from some of the failed portions of the last few attempts at pro events here in O'town. They had positives but certainly negatives. Just learn from the mistakes, expand on what worked well and this could be an event for all to see. Could not pick a better town for it. And if huge crowds of average Joes show...highly likely with location and the right mix of food and entertainment.... they may..dare I say... want to announce in feet left on the line or perhaps meters.

[Wish]

 

[BraceMaker]

Deep enough for the surf exhibit?

[Wish]

@The_Krista‌ what is the local marketing strategies... radio? tv? papers? How soon will be seeing and/or hearing things?

[skierjp]

The 4 buoy last year was too far out in the lake to keep the crowds attention. Then it got dark for the final head to head and they could hardly see to ski. Aaron Larkin was in the final.

[Edbrazil]

 

From another oldtime Tour official, I got the report that we ran it as a 4-buoy. Would have

been close to the shoreline when we did it.

 

No sense whatsoever to try to push for 6 buoys on a relatively wide lake and when there is

an important spectator appeal needed.

 

Would like to be there, but currently I am 1300+ miles away, and probably not coming down

until later on this year.

 

I hope that John Worden (RIP) had the details of where things were, so they can be EZ found.

[Wish]

Please do not make it a 4. First of all, the crowds will be there during the day. The night deal kinda sucked last year. The lights used to light the course were set to low, were diesel driven and parked right were the crowd (what was left anyway) had to endure the sound and smell. 80% of attendees this time will be skiers and want to see 6 rounded. Lose the 6 and you lose a good chunk of them. The other 20% will watch if they know what's going on ..aka.. announcing in feet on. Attentions was lost by Joe public for the same reason it was the previous year, lack of understanding what was happening do to announcers having to explain feet off and then explaining it again. And It was marketed as a festival for the whole family. Festival it was not. If I had kids under the age of 12, I would have walked way too. As for food, year two was better but not by much. Food and entertainment makes it a festival for Joe public. Just skiing makes it an event for folks like us and that's it. You can't have it both ways of you're gonna skimp on the former. Step up Nautique and USA Waterski. Make it what you want but don't advertise it as something it's not. Call it what it is and make it that way be it a premier water ski event alone (6 buoy via 8 buoy course) or a festival/ski event (6 buoy).

[Wish]

@MattP what took you so long.

[MattP]

@Wish‌ I was at work :#

[Wish]

Well, toss out some rational as to why I'm off my rocker. And this time do better then..."run your own pro event..."

[MattP]

@Wish‌ I would rather see the action closer to shore than a full 6 farther out. Joe Shmoe will not know the difference and will be able to see the action better. They will not be skiing at night so no need to complain about lights. I really could care less about seeing 6 rounded. The event is about exposure in the world capital of waterskiing thats what I care about. All of us know what these guys are capable of in back yard records. If you want to see records go down attend a record at Hancock, the prelims at Grew or one of the others every week. You live in the heart of it and sounds like you do not venture out of your box to go see these guys on a weekly basis. These pro events are for exposure of the sport and not records. Feet off is what it is.. that is a US problem.. I can easily think in meters. Yes they can announce feet on but then that leaves all the skiers trying to do math in their head the whole time. @The_Krista‌ made a cool info card for the Malibu Open one year that would come in handy. I think the announcers usually do a great job of explaining it. It's also a good way to fill time between the passes and skiers. Every event has growing pains and lessons to be learned from each. Unfortunately each of the last 3 events in Orlando(Soaked, Extreme Water sports Fest, and US Open) have all been run by different entities with different goals. It is hard to get food to come when you have no track record to base expectations for venders. There is a good team behind the US Open this year and should be a great event. Remember CC puts on the 2 largest and most prestigious events in the world. I think they have a good handle on events plus this one is in their back yard.

I will end my opinion with if you want to do it your way host your own event. :)

[Wish]

There ya go... At least I got my "host our own event" tag line. :D I need to put that bellow instead of " because the earth is 2/3rds water...."

 

But, you really did not dispute that most skiers want to see 6 rounded. For you, 4 is a yes, but anyone on here wanna see 4.. at the US Open? That's like playing Golf's US Open on a par 3 only course. You seriously think that's going to attract the die hard golf fans. Nope. And true ski fans have been the larger portion that's made up the crowds at the last 2 events and every pro event I've attended (all of them) in FL for the past 20yrs.

 

The distance the course would have to be moved off shore to accommodate and 8 ball is so minimal it is a mute point. The 4 ball was NOT close.

 

As for it being in front of spectators, that holds true as well and was not disputed. They are not staying for something that is not understood. Cards to explain what a 3rd grader would tell you is a weird way to measure the length of a rope wont help. The SKIERS in the U.S. are hung up on an idiotic "coded" measurement system that Joe isn't going to adopt...EVER. Two words as proof..metric system. And they certainly will not stay if that is all there is. The Course being 40 feet further away from shore will not be the reason. If Joe is who you truly care about, how can you dispute any of that with rational thought?

 

As for venders, I can't imagine that it would be any harder for the City of Orlando or SN/USA WS to make a few calls to get a Food truck caravan to roll in then a little town promoting a sad little art festival. All the little towns around manage it on a weekly basis with crowds of less then 1000 and it costs them nothing. I've put on festivals and kids are the easiest....call any bounce house company and you will get a wide variety of apparatuses that go way beyond any basic bounce house by the dozens. One more call and you have a portable climbing wall and bungee jump systems. Sand buckets and shovels from the dollar store aint gonna cut it as evidenced by last year...most families just left.

 

So, in summery; you want the crowd to hear that the US Open is 2 buoys short of reality and you want them to do all the math rather then the skiers. You think it's to hard to get entertainment and food on site. You feel the growing pains are just to hard to overcome and it just takes time. You feel we as die hard skiing fans should skip the US Open and run out to Hancock to see good skiing. Hmmm...not the best plan really..

 

Here's hoping another model for this event is adopted. :) ;)

[ntx]

Did you see entry fee? 100.00 per round. 2rd 3 event costs 600.00. Wow. Some thought nationals was expensive.

[liquid d]

@The_Krista‌ ....pass along.....needs to be 4 bouy pushed in real close to shore. 6 won't fit in the area that lights up at night. You don't get or need the whole lake. At south end of Gaston Edwards park, that facility/building blocks any action south of there. As you go north, just past the end of the volleyball area is as far as you can see at night. Put in there tight and make it close action to keep all eyes on the water!

The last event at Ivanhoe was a bust from spectators point of view for both slalom and wakeboard. They were completely out of view as they got to north and south ends.

 

[Wish]

@liquid d‌ US Open during the day only. No lights. No need to tuck a 4 ball close.

[skierjp]

I was in the boat and they used mine for part of the event, the 4 ball was as close as they could get it to the shore.

Sand Lake or Turkey Lake would be awesome choices.

What about the lake off I 4 in Altamont Springs? They hosted the disabled nationals a few years ago.

[Wish]

Last I heard the Altimonte site was closed to waterski events. Ever since they built condo's they shut it down. Also they have more sea walls then in the past. But, before all that...PERFECT site. People would literally see it from the interstate and drive over to see what was going on. And with a major mall on the waterfront, spectators were a plenty.

 

 

[MattP]

Turkey lake would be cool. I have raced there many times over the past 10 years. I think the lakes downtown are better venues for attracting people off the street. Expecting people to get off the highway and find a lake is not a good model in my opinion.

[Wish]

Surprisingly the events at Altimonte right off interstate 4 did just that. Massive walls of water sent in the air is very visible and the exit is right there. Plus the Altimonte Mall. Really to bad they shut that option off. But ya, the toll rd 75 would not be great. Very difficult to exit that road.

[Wish]

The other place in the past they have had a pro tour and a few local tournaments for the public has been The Central Florida Fairgrounds just 10mn from downtown Orlando. Super easy to get to. The facilities are significant in terms of parking, docks, ramps, restrooms, on and on considering what it is usually used for. There is a massive public park, paint ball fields and a BMX track as well. It's well enough known by the locals do to lot's of different things happening there year round besides the Central Florida Fair. It gets advertised on the radio and billboards often. I skied there waaaay back. Can easily put a six ball so tight to the shore there would be a wet zone.

 

 

 

[lff]

The fairgrounds is orders of magnitude better, parking in the Ivanhoe area would be/is ridiculous. There used to be a 6 buoy course on the east side years ago and the setup was really difficult. Probably better with today's boats but still not good. If it's a 4 buoy at Ivanhoe I'm not going. Same for Eola - that is not a ski lake it's a retention pond. For me, make it a legitimate competition if not RC or I'll stay home.

[Wish]

Heard a radio add today. Well done. :D No mention of a festival or anything of the sort so straight up waterskiing I guess. They ran it on a popular rock/pop station. Target audience would be teen to early 30s I'd guess. For music in the car, I'm a local channel surfer with some talk radio tossed in. So far just the one station.

[Wish]

US Open to be class R for Record capable for Jump and Trick. But, class F for Fun in Slalom. That really is the equivalent of playing the US Open Golf Championship on a par 3 golf course or just playing 8 holes. Don't really need to see a records set but 4 ball is kinda sad. And how is it that Lake Ivanhoe is long enough for Jump to be Record capable but not for Slalom (8 ball). Or is the jump gonna be way out in the middle of the lake? Will attend and will encourage others to as well. Will do my best to explain to the bewildered what "line off" is and why it's 2 buoys short of what it's supposed to be. Lot's will ask. They always do. I will do my best to promote the sport without question before, during and after the event... but things like this just makes it harder to do so.

 

Edit: To those who feel the need to hit the dislike button, challenge yourself to add something intelligent to the conversation. I promise not to take the unintelligent, easy approach and just dislike yours. Promise.

[rayn]

Use Marcus's analogy about high jump. I think it was the best layman analogy Ive heard.

[Wish]

@rayn could not agree more. I plan to try and use that and hopefully the announcers will as well. And hopefully they will have a cheat she in front of them so they can tell folks just how long (short) the rope really is. . Great reminder though.

[wtrskior]

Hitting dingers at Fenway is different from Wrigley. Baseball even has replay now...

 

Grand Prix in Montreal is a different race than Monaco.

 

I'd love to see someone get into 45' off running 4 buoys vs 3@41 and Nate with 1@43. I've seen that a few times already.............

[Wish]

There ya go. That actually added something and in a way, swayed my thought. Would never dispute that it wouldn't be fun to watch regardless. But at what point would it be? Three ball course? Two ball? Not counting gates? And heck ya, all for getting it in front of a crowd and promoting it. Just pointing out the obvious that it doesn't have to be the way they are stetting it up.

 

None of your analogies were intentionally altered to make the given sport easier for the sake of promotion or less of a challenge. A better anologey would be taking the Green Monster at Fenway and lowering it to just a few feet off the ground or giving them metal bats to play with. You're saying you'd be just fine with the race officials taking out turn 3 and just making it a long sweeping turn into 4 when the 3 turn sits right there in plane view? But better lap times and more home runs, cause it's different, would make up for it? Golfs US Open is played on different courses as well and probably some more difficult then others but I'm sure the head greens-man isn't moving the flag to the front of the green or switching the men's tee for the ladies for promotions sake...just the opposite..they make it as hard as they can. Maybe there is a sport that lessoning the challenge makes little to no difference or makes it better. I just can't think of one right now. I kept my promise...I actually liked your comment.

[PatM]

@wtrskior‌ The green monster is not as easy as it seems. A lot of balls off the wall are homers in 90% of the ball fields. Other than that it is a hard place to hit out in center and right except near the Pesky poll.

[Drago]

@Wish‌ maybe if you thought of it more as a home run derby or an all star game. I would watch a home run derby, I watch one baseball game a year, maybe.. Personally, I'm glad something called the US Open is back.apparently someone or some group got the rights to it and let it die (?).unconscionable, sad, etc,etc

[Wish]

@Drago‌ I think you're misinterpreting my thoughts. It doesn't have to intentionally be downgraded to a 4 ball. Since it is advertised as just the US Open and not a festival (festival better for downtown), having it at a well known public site just 8 minutes up the road that has amenities in spades and more then enough room to tuck a 6 ball super close to me is a better idea. . It keeps the integrity of actually calling it the US Open. Every fan of the sport is going to show up at current site or the other. Or make it an 8 ball at current site. And I'm 100% glad it's back too. But nobody seems to come up with a rational idea as to why it has to be a 4 ball other then...it will be closer to shore.

[Edbrazil]

 

Also glad it's back. I worked the last ones at Downtown Disney in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Which

was the last time there was a US Open. Note: those all were 4-buoy courses, although we

did install a 6-buoy for the first year, but changed to using just 4. That site was seriously

backwashy.

 

Ivanhoe is about 2000 feet long, but that is pretty much up the middle. If you want the SL course

to be sort of close to shore, such as 150 feet or less offshore, you have about 1300 feet of

distance to deal with. Ivanhoe averages about 1000 feet in width; not an ideal ski lake.

 

Back On The Tour in 1988 and 1989 on Lake Ivanhoe, I'm nearly certain that we ran with 4-buoy.

Not the calmest water site. If there was a 6-buoy, other than farther from shore, then would

there be a need for centerline video and gate cameras, plus judges out on the other side?

 

Any feedback from skiers who will likely be competing there?

[mike_mapple]

i think the four ball is better from a stand point of someone who has never seen the sport, of course on here everyone wants the 6 ball, but you know what it takes to run passes and how hard it is. when you have someone watching and it all looks the same and 4 guys takes 30min you lose people fast. I think if skiing keeps going at only "ski lakes" the sport will die out and there will be no spectators, why not take a hit on getting into 43, 41 and ski somewhere tough but be able to get better prize money. Years ago when the tour was in, i think it was wichita on the river (correct me if im wrong) but the scores were not as high as what they could have been at a site designed just for skiing, but there were a lot of people watching. more than you get when you have the event at a ski site which i would say 9/10 times is way off the beaten path so if someone is not a ski fan, like all us on here wont bother going. The us open being 4 buoy keeps it fast and moving. skiing is tough to compete with jump and tricks from a non skier spectator point of view. If you dont know whats going on, it all looks the same.

 

something like this could get new people to watch the sport then when there is a R at somewhere else maybe then they will go to that too.

 

my 2cents.

[lcarnes]

We had a fantastic turnout this summer for the Mystic Waters Ski and Skeet Pro-Am (between 1000-1200 over the day of mostly open water or non-skiers) on a lake that produced very high scores for both pros and amateurs. We also were able to get a number of first time tournament skiers to enter, and the next day, we did a "learn to ski" which brought out several brand new skiers. My favorite story was the father and two sons that put up their wakeboards to ski on the big lake Sunday morning.

 

We lucked into a site near Lake Lure NC that has the best of both worlds-great water and great viewing. We held a Community Health, Wellness and Art Fair to bring out the crowd, and counted Mapple Skis as one of our supporters. We are sincerely hoping that this venue and the continued support of the sponsors, vendors, pros, regular skiers and hopeful skiers will help us grow the sport.

 

Hoping that my pic will load. I'm new at this.

 

[Wish]

@mike_mapple‌ good points on upping the pace of the tournament with a 4 ball. Totally agree that folks that do not understand what's going on, lose interest when it all just looks the same and takes that long. I wonder if, and your dad may know or have a perspective, the European interest is higher because the average joe spectator is being told the actual length of the rope vs how much rope is taken off and then forced to do math... Being told the line off here cannot help with the understanding as you suggest. Also agree that having any big event at a pristine out of the way locations is a bad idea. I think a great way to make it as understandable as possible, especially in this instance, would be to run two side by side 4 ball course and run the skiers at the same time. How easy is that to understand. He who falls first loses. The pace of the tournament would be doubled. Line length would almost not matter to the average joe. Just knowing the line gets shortened each time would be all the info they would need. Two walls of water going 20 feet in the air at the same time.... how cool would that look from shore. It's an F class tournament so why not go all out.

[Skoot1123]

Why not add a "height" meter so the audience can see how high the "Ball O' Spray" is? Similar theory to what they do in the halfpipe - show how high they are jumping? I remember in WS magazine they did a spray contest to see who could make the biggest wall of spray. It would be another visual to the audience that would keep their attention. While it wouldn't mean "anything" to us ballers, the audience I believe would eat it up. Nothing like a secondary stimuli to keep things entertaining.