2016 SCR Regionals & Nationals Sites

[628Skiier]

Can anyone tell me where the 2016 SCR Regionals & Nationals will be? (3 event)

Thanks

[skierjp]

Too early, you'll have to wait for the bids to come in. It can be as late as mid winter for the decision.

[628Skiier]

Ok thanks, I couldn't remember when they were announced.

[LLUSA]

Nationals in Joilet in 2016 & 2017 bank on it

[MrJones]

I have heard rumor of SMRR for SCR Regionals.

[Ilivetoski]

Since nationals typically is at the same place 2 years in a row I would bet west palm

[klindy]

@Ilivetoski doubt it. Not this time. West Palm picked up Nationals this year when SMRR declined.

[MrJones]

WPB would get my vote every year. (Sorry left coast guys ;) )

[kfennell]

@MrJones Scoot, where did you hear that? Not saying we aren't but I havent heard anything and it was not discussed in any of the board meeting minutes? I just went back and read the last few.

[Horton]

NATIONALS at Jonestown!

[eleeski]

Nationals in Bakersfield! Reliable perfect conditions. Hotels that soften up the judges. Authentic Mexican food (don't drink the water! ). All good for the skiing.

Only downside is that @Horton might ski Nationals.

 

Eric

[LLUSA]

Like I said we will be in Joilet the next two years, WPB is through doing the Nationals, there worn out with it, the regulars have said enough, just the facts. Nobody wants this event to be quite honest. It's way too hard to make money, to make it worth doing. I doubt you will ever see it back in Bakersfield, although probably the most consistent conditions of any site, due to past situations with the LOC and AWSA Executive committee. After Joilet who knows, we better be looking and begging

[disland]

Until they change the way the contract is written it will be this way

[E_T]

@llusa do you think USAWSA should build a nationals site in the centeral U.S. to be used as a host site every year?

[MrJones]

I noticed that nats in WPB are scheduled over 4 days. I would think that this makes it more attractive for competitors and would allow the host to save money.

 

Last year my daughter was 1st event Monday morning and I was last event Saturday afternoon. 6 days stinks. From the hosts standpoint, 2 days less of paying for official's hotels/meals should help as well. I hope it goes smoothly for WPB and they make a profit on it this year.

[Wish]

If the USA water ski wants to continue with the Nationals program they need to step way up and provide more financial and personal to support them. It is sad to hear WPB (arguably the best site all around in the US) wants to be done with them.. forever.

[MattP]

USAWS needs to put on the show and rent the site & workers. It needs to be a production by USAWS not an LOC for it to survive and be able to go to different sites around the country. Labor Day weekend seems like the perfect time too. Just my opinion.

[Zman]

@LLUSA Lyman, when you say Joliet, you are referring to Waters Edge in Wilmington, IL?

[jcamp]

Here's an idea: run Nationals as a class C, don't provide a single free room to anyone, and everyone who judges/drives, etc. is guaranteed entry (for the regular fee) to the event. Pull the workers from the pool of skiers themselves, just like every other tournament. This would possibly increase revenues (more skiers) and drastically reduce costs (less $ spent of officials).

[eleeski]

@LLUSA There are 12 lakes side by side in Bakersfield and another few lakes scattered nearby. Many different clubs control these lakes - not just the guy from the past. Tropical storms, windstorms, oppressive humidity, cold conditions - the weather factors challenging other sites - are rare in Bakersfield. It does seem sad that the memory of a bad official's hotel takes - what is probably the best skier condition site - out of consideration.

 

Of course, Bakersfield is probably not a good site for the SCR Regionals...

 

Eric

[Roger]

Since I'm one of the WPB regulars, I guess I'll respond to @LLUSA "Like I said we will be in Joilet the next two years, WPB is through doing the Nationals, there worn out with it, the regulars have said enough, just the facts"

 

We didn't say we are done with Nationals, we said we need a break from having just done it. No one said we will never host again. As @klindy said, we picked it up this time when SMRR declined. Yes, USA Waterski needs to work out a better deal if they want clubs/sites to host this event.

[disland]

@MattP agree and have said that over and over

[skidawg]

I'm sure the deal usaski has weighs heavily In their favor! Time for them to get some skin In the in order to have a more attractive product

[klindy]

@skidawg the deal isn't so much in the favor or USAWS but it certainly puts the financial risk on the club. In other words the club stands to be able to make the most money but certainly carries the financial burden and risk.

 

I also agree with @MattP and @disland the tournament should be a production of AWSA (not convinced it should be USAWS) and not the LOC who produces the tournament. Certainly AWSA can contract with the LOC to provide certain things.

 

Perhaps alternatively AWSA can (and should under the current set up) entertain bids from any site which wants to host. The LOC proposal should be wide open and include things like size, format, etc. Therefore if a two lake site wants to pull a 3 day Nationals with a prelim and finals they can bid as desired. Of course competing bids (in a perfect world) would have other possible options and the board would select whichever is deemed the best.

[disland]

@skidog your correct. The current structure the LOC takes all the risk.

[LLUSA]

Thanks for the correction, it is Wilmington, yes I would love to see a Nationals site, there was once discussion about buying lakes behind the current headquarters which could have been developed into a Nationals site (Not lake Jimmy Grew). As Keith said AWSA should be the body responsible for this event, sad thing is AWSA can't vote on the content of the Nationals contract or see it, just ask USAWS Executive Director Bob Crowley he will not let a AWSA board member see the contract, as was requested earlier this year. I'm not sure why anyone would want to host this event, God bless Charlotte and her crew for stepping up for about the 15th time, but they definitely need a break, whether it's a Nationals or Regionals it totally consumes the host club for most of the summer, and who wants to do that year after year. Labor Day sounds great and would keep me out of Dallas the next two years. Just sayin

[Horton]

The notorious “hooker, pimp and crack dealer - hotel incident” will haunt Bakersfield forever. Humorous for all of us who slept safely elsewhere that week.

 

For those who have not heard the story => many officials save up vacation all year expecting to work hard at Nationals and then to enjoy a nice stay in a reasonably nice hotel. They expect to sit in a nice pool and sip cocktails with old ski friends each evening. Well the official hotel booking went very bad and officials were put up in a hotel in a bad part of town. There are stories of hookers and drug deals in the parking lot. It was a simple mistake that was pretty unpleasant for a number of officials. Still funny for me because I slept at home.

 

There is no site on earth that has as consistently good conditions as Ski West. Wind? GLASS all day almost every day. Rain? Seriously?

 

What we do not have in California is clubs. The skiing world has changed but Nationals is still run like it was in 1975. As others have suggested someone has to make putting on Nationals a job. Maybe a USAWS employee maybe not. They need to rent a site and then take care of ALL details. Do that and West Palm will be back on the list as well as Bakersfield.

 

Keep things the same – burn out clubs like West Palm and never return to Bako. The model needs to be turned on its head anyway. Maybe the whole idea of Nationals is over. Viva La Revolution!

[skidawg]

@klindy , I was basing my statement off of the old champion lake days and hosting the us open. Dealing with usaski/hosting a tourney for them is not in the best interest of the host.

[klindy]

@skidawg yep, were on the same page!

[Jody_Seal]

@Horton

Dude You Stole my Line!!

 

Viva la Revolution !

[eleeski]

@Horton @Jody_Seal You guys are revolting.

[MrJones]

Labor day would finish off Nationals in it's current format. Kids are in school.

[ntx]

I agree with @MrJones I have no interest in a nationals over the labor day weekend.

[skidawg]

My kids are in school during nationals anyway, probably why they wanna go so bad!!

[E_T]

@skidawg let them go! Trust me they are not learning any thing new yet

[Jody_Seal]

@MrJones

Many school systems across the nation start as early as this coming up Monday and through out the next two weeks. It is very hard and sometimes near impossible to send a child to school and a week (or day's) later pull them out for a week to attend the Waterski Nationals in it's current date window. It is quite a bit easier to go to school a couple weeks and then work around the labor day weekend and taking a extra day or two to pull the kids out of class. I do have experience as we would have loved to utilize the labor day weekend for nationals while my kids were in school.

 

We have all been screaming that there needs to be some changes in the sport, why not try something new like moving the Nationals around labor day weekend! I would support it.

[MrJones]

Okay. I see your point. Give it a go. Seems that there are a number of people here on the site that have AWSA positions. Can you move some of these ideas forward?

[ntx]

If it can be a three day event.... no problem. Stretch it beyond the actual weekend, and lose all the 17-22 year olds that are in higher education. I think that this was talked about last year with the nationals survey. I think the results showed that most did not support a holiday weekend nationals. @klindy might have more info.

 

[drewski32]

While a lot of kids do skip the first week of school for nat's, many have school-related commitments where they absolutely can't... one of them being me.

[jimbrake]

I told my two B3 skiers last year "if you want to miss your first week of school, we can go to nationals. You just have to do the work to stay or get caught up." Both would've loved to have gone, but both said "No. Not worth the pain." Same thing this year (although one is now M1 and has the time before college starts). Really wish we could go. They deserve to go as they're both qualified and have never been, but we just can't do it. Regionals is our "big event" of the year. A Labor Day nationals might work as they might only have to miss one or two days and they'd be further into the school year at that point.

[klindy]

Some states - Michigan for example - start school after Labor day by law. So while some kids will be a few weeks into school, others will be just starting. Likewise, as @ntx mentioned, college aged kids have conflicts at or after Labor day.

 

The survey we did asking about a Labor day Nationals did come back strongly against it. I can look up the specifics but we had a high response rate and strongly negative about a Labor day Nationals.

[skierjp]

Just took a quick count. It looks like there are 333 slalom skiers with up to date entries for Nationals.

[skierjp]

Entry deadline is Tuesday 8-4-15, $10 late fee after that.

Also, it looks like next years Nationals could be in Chiacgo.

[texas_slalom_trick]

2016 nationals will most likely be in calli. At least that's what the guy that pulled me trick at 2015 nationals a few weeks ago said.

[ColeGiacopuzzi]

The rumor I heard at Nationals, was either Chicago where nationals was in 2010, or Bell Acqua in Sacramento. The way the USA waterski employee said it...was leaning toward California, which is awesome, it needs to come back to CA already. been too many years at okeeheelee.

[klindy]

Waters Edge in Chicago is not in consideration as I understand it.

[LLUSA]

Don't count that out, neither was WPB last year

 

[skidawg]

Never been to Sac, that would be fun

 

[Ed_Johnson]

I kept hearing at Nationals that Bell Aqua was close to being a done deal and the most likely.