2015 Nationals

[rawly]

I'll take you up on that @Horton. Have to straighten out some fuzzy math between Ski West and USA Waterski first. It does take a lot of volunteers , so it would nice to get The Arvin Area Tournament Association involved to help our members out. I'd even change my title from Soul Skier to Tournament Skier for this bet. However , if I fail to qualify , I would take equivalent amount in Baller coins. At lake owner rates ( price of gas ).

[Horton]

@rawly‌ all you need to do is ski a few tournaments and you would qualify

[Horton]

My one suggestion for the Nationals

 

Go to the INT model where the lake owner simply rents the lake to the USAWS. Organize and staff the whole event without the need for a local club to carry the load. Maybe Nationals Tournament Chairman is a paid job (or not).

The local club should be responsible for not much more than the site itself and should receive a flat rate for the site rental.

 

EVERYTHING else is on the Tournament Chairman. If members of the local club want to volunteer to help that is preferable and that may or may not happen.

 

I suspect that 2/3 of the sites that could do the event would do the event under that agreement.

 

Here in California I bet under this agreement you could EASILY get Bell Aqua or Ski West or Imperial.

 

I think it would be messy and impractical to do Nationals in Newberry but you could rent 3 or 4 or 5 of the 9 lakes out there. Since it is not about a club it would not matter that the events were spread across multiple properties.

 

Why not? Because that is not the way we have always done it. : (

 

[RichardDoane]

@horton - too hot at Imperial in the second week of August, and doesn't cool down at night like Sacto

[GOODESkier]

@richarddoane‌ I'll buy you a fan......... Imperial Water is MAGIC!

[socalskier]

Why is SMRR not hosting it a second year?

[thompjs]

It is a lot of work and the team that drove it don't want to do it again. No drama with AWSA or within the community.

[MattP]

How about Bako/Arvin area uses all it's lakes to pull the event and practice. Contracts with USAWS/AWSA for their use. Use volunteer officials so only hotels for Cheifs and we can crank it out in a weekend. Ski and boat Demo's can be going on some of the lakes as well. A big party sat night and finish skiing and travel home Sunday.

[The_MS]

With Sweetwater IPAs for everyone.

[skidawg]

@MS‌ u had me at sweetwater!

[skosney]

WPB or BAKO ... My two all time favorite site for Nationals. But I'm still trying to figure out the different colored t-shirts @richarddoane ... are you a Trekkie????

[Horton]

@skosney‌ your shirt is red

[Ed_Johnson]

My vote is Okeeheelee...Best place for the Big Dawg under the lights Finals...Plus I get to sleep in my own bed !!!

[DaveD]

Karl, how about Placid? Great site and close to Grand Rapids & Lake Michigan beaches. Best of all, an ample supply of Founders Centennial IPA.

[ColeGiacopuzzi]

Just like @MattP‌ said we have 13 lakes out there!! And most of the tourney is during the week so we could use other lakes to pull practice, stick a promo boat on there with 3 or so people running , leave the gate open to the lake and your set!! Most of all the lakes ski the same!

[PAskier]

I vote for Okeeheelee. Now are I need is 2 buoys to make the cut.

[Wish]

So if it is not the INT model, what exactly does the host site have to cough up in $$ to run it?. Do they then just hope to recoup the loss and make a little?. Or do they make a good amount. Seems an odd way to ask for a host site if they have to put up funds if that 's the way it's done.

[ntx]

@Wish My guess is that the return comes out to about $10.00 per hour of man hour invested into the event. Just too much effort for such a small return. I heard that the profit was about 30,000 for 2800 hours worked. That works out to a full time person working 53 hours a week. How many of you would work full time for 30,000 a year? When the event drew 300 more skiers (900 per year) the addtional entry fees fell directly to the bottom line. Think about that the next time you decide NOT to go to National because it cost you too much. This is part of the downfall of this sport. The cost to host the event (with the exception of fuel) are the same for 600 or 900 skiers. The rev is much greater at 900 and makes the event attractive to the host club. The same can be said for the exhibitors. They are more likely to support the event if there are 900 skiers as opposed to 600. Shame on all the qualified skiers that do not attend.

 

 

 

This should get some things going. LOL

[lpskier]

@goodeskier Having just hosted a Regionals in Lake Placid (NY), I can promise that I have no interest in hosting a one lake Nationals! Ski West is GOODE with me!

 

@Horton Disagree on nothing to do at Bako but ski. My wife and I took a wonderful day trip to the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Easy drive in the rented convertible and a beautiful day of spectacular scenery. In fact, it was probably the nicest Nationals side-trip I've taken.

[RichardDoane]

@skosney - the colored shirt idea was a way to identify prospective judges for ease of solicitation, it would be better to make Red for Drivers, Blue for Judges, Green for Scorers, and White for Safety, and yes I have fond memories of all the strangely colored women that Captain Kirk got to meet on the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.

[lottawatta]

I realize some of the romance of nationals is in the fact that multiple generations can ski the nationals at the same site during the same week, and USAWS likes a huge field to use for marketing and other purposes. However, I hear people complain that they have to take a whole week off, accommodations are expensive, use their vacation time, etc. Why don't we consider having 3 national tournaments. Break them up similar to the way the world championships are broken up by age. Keep them all to where you can go over a three day weekend. It is much easier to swallow taking off work half a day Thursday for travel, attend Fri-Sun and be back to work Monday TWICE (once for me to ski, if I were to qualify, once for the kids if they were to qualify) than to take off a whole week for the kids to ski Tuesday and me to ski Friday.

 

B1-3 and G1-3 could have their nationals early August before school starts. M1-3 and W1-3 late August, maybe even over Labor Day weekend. Then M4/W4 &up in September sometime or even early October if it is in Florida. This opens it up to more sites and takes less manpower each tournament. The work is spread out over more clubs so one doesn't get burnt out hosting it multiple years in a row. However, it may make it difficult for the manufacturers to bring their new products to each.

 

Alternately - work the ranking list to keep each nationals to 300 or so pulls over three days and make all three nationals at Lake Grew every year. It would be easier for USAWS to coordinate everything if it was in their back yard. Everyone would know where and when the nationals would be every year. Airfare and hotels are relatively cheap if you know where to look. USAWS could easily keep officials costs low. Vendors wouldn't have to lug their wares to 3 different sites around the country. The southern skiers wouldn't complain about the cool northern waters. etc.

 

I'm just throwing ideas out for discussion here.

 

I am surprised there hasn't been more sentiment to take the nationals back to Waters Edge. Great site, Chicago has a lot for the family to do, cheap airfare, etc. They proved a two lake site could do it and they run a big tournament as well as anyone - at least from this outsiders view.

[ALPJr]

@Horton‌ not drunk, could have been the third cup of coffee kicking in. A getaway destination as an anchor is always helpful in attracting participants. Look at other amateur sports. Many sell the nationals as a place to go and live the big life for a few days - Orlando, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Denver to name a few.

[Horton]

@ALPJr‌ giving you crap because it is 2 1/2 hours from Vegas to Newberry

[ALPJr]

@Horton‌ I know : ) How about some deep pockets build a ski site in Vegas?

[lpskier]

Here's my site selection: USAWS heaquarters. Let's encourage HQ to run the event right at home. Slalom on Lake Grew. Jump at Lucky Lowe's, tricks at Scot Ellis's. Lucky's and Scot's sites are both within a couple miles of Lake Grew. USAWS would have to lease the sites (including from Kiwi at Lake Grew) at some mutually agreeable price. Lease price could include providing a "ready to compete" site so site set up is included in the price with the work provided by the owner. Divide the Appointed Officials between the three lakes and otherwise fill in with regular and senior volunteers from a list established several weeks before the event. Worker bees are also volunteers or temporary paid staff. Voila! A three lake Nationals in a new location with USAWS being the LOC.

[klindy]

@lpskier‌ good thought but it would schedule easier with 2 slalom lakes. Tricks and jump can be run on one lake with a small amount of tricks held before/after slalom on one of the lakes. In other words, using the current format, you can anticipate about 10 hours of trick/jump per day with a day pr two needing to be 2-4 hours longer. Again under the current format the objective is to get the B/G 1-3 skiers done early in the tournament for awards, etc.

 

Either way though a multi-lake tournament using more than one single lake is certainly doable.

 

Oh and remember that it's AWSA that puts on the tournament not USAWS. Largely semantics but AWSA does not have a vested interest in Lake Grew except thru USAWS. You wouldn't expect an issue but strange things happen when "income" is involved.

 

 

[ForrestGump]

There's no incentive for AWSA to change to a leased model. At least not as long as they have WPB as their back up plan.

[MattP]

@ShaneH‌ that may work for a few more years but WPB will not want to do it every year.

[Wish]

Is WPB the largest club in the US?