2017 National Championships podium skiers: Are you proud of your medal?

[Inboardfix]

Yes, I know everyone of you are and should be proud of your achievement. It was attained through hours of hard work and the end result was a well deserved placement at Nationals. But are you proud of the medal? Attached are pictures of the front and back of the medal received by my son who placed 2nd in Boys 1 Slalom ( I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my daughter placed 2nd in Girls 2 for the 2nd year in a row).

 

After Jake received his medal (in the dark under an unlit tent where the podium was located. This will be the topic of my next forum subject) he said to me the medal didn't say "Nationals" anywhere on it. Since he is 10 I thought for sure he was mistaken (when he couldn't find his socks that morning I looked where I told him to look and they were there) so I looked it over and sure enough there is no mention of this medal being from the 2017 National Championships.

 

Initially, I was frustrated w/the host site until being informed the awards were the sole responsibility of USAwaterski. In addition to the competitors medal I've attached a picture of the "Officials" medal. For some reason, "Let them eat cake" came to my mind. USAwaterski should be ashamed.

 

 

 

[Than_Bogan]

"Thankfully," I will never have to worry about this. But those do seem pretty lame compared to such a monumental accomplishment. You didn't even mention the sticker (or maybe direct-printed, which I suppose is slightly better) rather than actually engraving!

[MattP]

@Inboardfix I embedded your pics for you.

USAWS is responsible for the medals...

 

I would think that the Officials medals were ordered in bulk many moons ago due to MOQs and live in a box in HQ and they pull a handful out every year.

 

As for the skier medals looks as they were struck by a different company and were done in a way that they could meet MOQs to save on engraving the location every year as the sticker does that. Agreed it is sad that they do not say Nationals on them...

[dchristman]

Lame! Check out our comparatively cool Eastern Regionals medals

 

 

[dbutcher]

Maybe it was USAW'S supplier that made a mistake, and USAWS did not catch it. I compared my 2010 medal to my 2017 medal, and they are very, very similar except that the 2010 medal does say NATIONAL WATER SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS on the back. They look like they could have been made by the same company. I'm guessing that the intent was to have Nationals on the medals. I don't know what happened or who to blame - if anyone.

[jdarwin]

I guess the graphic on the back would distinguish it from Kneeboard Nationals.....

[liquid d]

Take it to a local trophy shop while he's at school and tell him they fixed it. It should be on there.

[dchristman]

To make your generic medals more display worthy and meaningful, get missing event information embroidered on the ribbon.

 

[unksskis]

It was the 75th anniversary, would think they would have something special about that.

[disland]

@Inboardfix Congratulations, You and your son know what you did and should be justifiably proud. Does anything else matter?

[eleeski]

I'm totally proud of my medal. Not sure I even looked at it past checking the color. Bit it though!

 

They should probably put more effort into junior medals.

 

Eric

[Wish]

@disland with that logic a certificate printed off my inkjet printer in BW should be good enough or maybe something hand written. There's a threshold. Thinkn these medals for a national competition is damn close to that threshold for most especially for the kids.

[malski64]

The contract with USA waterski is negotiable but unless the loc wanted to do something diffferent then USA waterski provides the medals. As anyone knows the cost of the medals has a lot to do with numbers so USA waterski tries to be generic so they're able to use the same medal in all the sports divisions.

We negotiated a change at broadside last year so we provided a different medal. Terry winter worked with us to design the medal. We were lucky to have terry working with us on that.

I don't have any pics of them on my phone but like em' or not, they were different.

I'd love to see USA waterski to make them more specific but it's a numbers game.

[GK]

I kind of agree with you. I was expecting a little better for the National Championships.

 

I thought the Nationals were great this year but the Junior awards were a disaster and Boys 1 was the worst. No announcer, no lights, during night jump, beyond rushed and lot's of confusion. Hopefully it's not the only opportunity my son gets to stand on the podium and be recognized as the National Champion but we all know how difficult it is to get there and sometimes how the stars have to align if you're not lucky enough to ski on a man made site and train year round. I'm not complaining, it's not going to make any difference in the long run, it was just disappointing. A bunch of volunteers worked their butts off all weekend, did a great job, and someone with good intentions to recognize the juniors during the banquet just made a mistake. If anyone has a decent picture of the B1 awards I would greatly appreciate getting a copy. gk at rounding6.com I've got some but none are very good. Maybe we can compare and find the best of bunch for all to keep in the scrapbook.

 

I would strongly recommend for future events that awards are done immediately after the event when the kids are in their ski gear, have their equipment, etc. If you want to recognize them a 2nd time at the Junior Banquet then by all means do that too.

[MillerTime38]

I think instead of medals they should give out T-shirts, on the back it has division and place. I remember back in my wrestling days every major tournament gave these out and everyone wanted the shirt that said champion on the back. I think people (especially adults) would get some use out of it.

[JeffSurdej]

There are a lot of people owed an apology for Saturday night. On behalf of AWSA, let me be the first to say I'm sorry. Saturday night was crazy. I could not believe how much was going on at once. Tournament skiing ended at 7pm, it wasn't until then that scoring could finish up score books and get all the stats to Jr Development and finish scoring team skiing. The Jr banquet started at 6:30pm, then on top of that the officials banquet started at 7:30, and to complete the madness the night jump started at 7pm. There was no time to finish regular awards for the day, no time for jr banquet awards, and the officials dinner was in the dark.

 

It saddens me that out of all 3 activities (jr banquet, officials banquet, night jump) it was the jr's and officials who got pushed back, the juniors had to wait until 10pm for awards and the officials got theirs at 9pm under an iphone flashlight. Team skiing did not get the trophy presentation I would have liked to see either.

 

We learned a lot from our first 4 day nationals in 2 decades, and no one expected to be up 25% in entries and pulls on top of that, in hindsight we needed 5 days. Boise did not have these problems even though jr banquet and night jump were on the same night due to the fact that skiing was done earlier and the night jump started later, this allowed the 2 events not to jump on each other. And then the officials banquet was on its own saturday.

 

We will do a better job of coordinating such events in the future if they should so land on the same days. Luckily the kids and parents stood round after night jump and it seemed like almost every single one of them was there for their awards. Too many pulls was a good problem to have but it did challenge the logistics in 4 days, and I think we learned not to have tricks on only 2 days as we were calling tricks until 10:00pm one night.

 

I think we can improve the entire awards process, skiers who won at 1pm had to wait until 7pm to get awards and that's not right. I agree, the old way where we just do the podium right after skiing with wet jumpsuits and life jackets still on is the best way, can't be done for tricks but close.

 

I will find out why the medals did not say nationals, I'm looking back and every old one I have says nationals in the circle.

 

We will be sending out surveys to all those attending within the next few weeks looking for feedback on what you liked and didn't like. Overall a great event, huge turnout, and it is so great to see the numbers back, largest since 2010. A big thanks to SMRR, the skiers, and the officials, that is no easy task!

 

 

[malski64]

Two problems I see with tshirts. While I like the concept it's probably not feasible.

In bulk a nice tshirt with the exact same screen print will cost $10-$15 each. To change the print to be specific the cost is higher. Plus they don't last like a medal might.

A decently sized and weighted metal in quantity is probably more like $6 or $7 each. To have them engraved specific to a division and event adds a fair amount to that. As I recall 31 different divisions in total. 3 events per division, 5 places per... just under 500 medals in total and that's before overall.

Not all the divisions will have 5 each so the number comes down a bit but that makes planning a big challenge as well.

Do you want to be sitting on placements without medals for someone chancing the numbers (given medals have to be ordered 3 months or so ahead of time)? He'll no.

 

I think the USA waterski medals are cheesy year after year...the reason we wanted to be different last year. It's a huge undertaking though and financially a big deal to the LOC or usa waterski. That being said some of the comments I've read here would make a good case to ask the AWSA BOD to make some changes...either from USA waterski or make a change to the contract for each year's nationals.

Sure $6-7 per medal compared to a $170 entry fee sounds minimal but the budget is pretty damned right foe this tournament and it does become a big deal.

 

Award presentations are always a challenge. Many of us have tried making changes yet getting everyone together and on the same page is nearly impossible. Some people want them right away and some want to wait. With many, one or two of the winners end up judging or working a following event and not able right away. I agree that we all should be doing a better job to have a consistent awards ceremony...just don't really know what the answer is.

[spicoli]

After our state championships awards for kids was a metal and the dad of 1 bought the top 3 boys a little trophy and gave it to them few days later

[Inboardfix]

@liquid d and @dchristman on the 12 hour drive home we came up w/a plan to dress up the medal as you mentioned. Probably going to go the customized ribbon route along w/putting it in frame with pictures from the flash drive (sold on site) as a back ground. It will be nice and something he'll want to show off to his friends.

 

@disland I appreciate your comment, it made me laugh and shake my head. @Wish thank you for your response. It was perfect and much less smart ass than what I would have said.

 

@JeffSurdej This wasn't written as a whiny Dad but rather a concerned long time skier who thinks USAwaterski is missing the big picture. USAwaterski is competing for kids time and effort. My son plays soccer and this Nationals medal isn't even as ornate as the medal he gets in the off-season playing "Y" rec league not to mention the ones he gets in season on his travel team. USAwaterski needs to realize the kids should get a reward that makes them want to stick w/it rather than go do one of the many other options available to them. Yes, I am saying the kids should get treated better than us old farts (directed at you @eleeski and @Inboardfix )

 

Do you think if he showed his soccer buddies this medal they'd say "oh wow, we've got to start skiing so we can earn that medal"? My guess is after looking at it the polite ones would walk away thinking good grief he went to TX for that and the rude ones would start ridiculing it immediately.

 

The reality is the kids at this Nationals got the shaft. If time allows later this evening I will go into great detail about the awards ceremony for G1 and B1 on a different thread. Here's a teaser: the G1 weren't allowed to take the medals out of the plastic bag because they were told there wasn't time. Boys 1 were told the same thing but I got involved/defiant/really mad/serious jerk mode and time was made for them to put on their medals. Can't say it got any worse but it didn't get much better after that.

 

@GK I will send you what I have. As you know the lighting consisted of flash so the quality is n't great but maybe better than what you have.

 

@malski64 Thank you for a wonderful Nationals experience last year. Was really hoping your site was going to do it again for 2017. Attached are pictures of the awesome medal from last year. @MattP sorry if I'm attaching thing wrong.

 

@Horton Exactly, this is about the juniors. However, I think it is reasonable for all podium finishers to receive an award that states the event's name. This wasn't a grass roots tournament and I am pretty certain this medal is the exact one USAwaterski sends out in their grass root package.

[spicoli]

Told them it needed ingraving and shipped to them later

[JackQ]

To say the medal ceremonies were not well planned or organized and the medals were lacking is an understatement. Both my wife and myself were fortunate to medal, but waiting 3-4 hours at the end of a hot day for the medals to be handed out took the bloom off the rose.

 

I understand that tricks is dependent on judging, but the ceremony for slalom and jump should be/could be held on the hour for the events that have been concluded since the previous ceremony. Currently too many of the participants ended up leaving before the ceremony as they either got feed up and left, or had a flight to catch.

 

Additionally I would also recommend that the official responsible for the awards/medals, organize and prepare the medals before everyone is standing around waiting for the ceremony to start.

[jcamp]

I believe in years past they did present awards closer to the conclusion of each event. The problem was that when you hand out awards in a series of one-offs, there isn't a crowd gathered (except for maybe the families of the five skiers on the podium). So the thought was to have two ceremonies during the day, so that each ceremony would have a lot of people watching and be more special.

 

I think with the exception of this year, it has worked well. This year the surge in participation numbers and shortening the event by one day made some of the events go really late at night, thus pushing back the awards ceremony, with Saturday being an unfortunate confluence of events.

 

The surge in numbers is great, but it caught organizers off guard because people don't have to register until Aug. 4 (I'm guilty of waiting until then!) so by the time the big registration numbers were coming it it was too late to change the schedule much.

[JeffSurdej]

Do you think kids prefer trophies over medals?

[Wish]

Trophy. But it depends. Doesn't have to be large but a cheap plastic one with plastic bases will prob feel worse then a solid medal. Also consider the quality of the ribbon the medal is attached to. That can also cheapen what you are trying to achieve. Perhaps wood plaques with lazer cut engraving could work. What ever it is has to have a good feel if that makes sence. I think it is great you are looking for input and suggestion. It is refreshing and you should be commended @JeffSurdej

[LLUSA]

@JeffSurdej we gave at the Southern Regionals 32" tall trophies with 3 skiers on them for the overall winner, biggest hit of the tournament, but then again these trophies were $65 each, well worth the money. No complaints from 2nd, they know what it takes to win.

 

[JeffSurdej]

If it was limited to something such as the winner i think it would be feasible financially to do. I agree a large trophy for kids would be good, I know kids that go to races and walk home with trophies bigger than them, I wonder which sport they would rather go compete in?

 

Part of our issue is the overall # of awards required, 32 divisions, times 5 placements times 4 events. Even at $10 a crack you are sitting at a $6400 award bill. But I see no reason not to splurge on the kids and other groups such as each winner and/or overall.

[Than_Bogan]

Please spend money on quality trophies for kids.

 

Please do not ever give me one. I have nowhere to put such things. (Ok, I guess if I won at Nationals, I'd make a place for it.) My guess would be most adults think similarly.

[ski6jones]

I've often wondered why top 5. Don't most sports recognize top 3? That would reduce your award bill by 40%.

[Texas6]

@JeffSurdej - The preference is likely a trophy, but you can't tell me there isn't real pride in the pic below of my son receiving a medal at Regionals. Just make it special for the kids, I view that as the absolute highest priority for the future of the sport...Thanks for all you're doing

 

 

[GK]

This is Nationals, let's give Top 5 and all ages awards, but I agree that junior awards could be a little bigger and better. I squeaked out a 5th place overall at Nationals last year, my one and only Nationals medal (and maybe last). I proudly have that baby hanging in my office! Haha

[Wish]

@JeffSurdej even at pro events the checks are different sizes. Nothing says 1st to 5th needs the same size award or even the same type.

 

Consider etched glass as well. Again, if it feels cheap, it will be perceived that way.

 

Consider bibs for the kids as well. If they win 1st-3rd, they get a bib to wear next year to defend their title.

 

I do not think quality has to be overly expensive with a little digging and thinking outside the box which I feel your willing to do and that is awesome.

[JackQ]

I think having different awards per placement is a great idea. Example: For juniors, Trophy for 1st-3rd and medal for 4th & 5th. For the rest, a decent medal for 1-3, and a more pedestrian medal for 4&5.

[Hallpass]

I'm an outsider in that I don't participate in competitive skiing. But, I read a lot of posts by you guys asking why more people don't participate in Nationals. Then I see the underwhelming medals given at Nationals. Maybe not a big deal. But, it is a symbol. So when the National Championship Medal for water skiing is cheaper than the participation medal my daughter receives for 8 year old recreational soccer, it says something. Doesn't really leave an image that this is a big time sport; doesn't really convey the hours of practice that go into earning a championship; doesn't really make it seem important whether you participate in Nationals - or not.

 

As to medal vs. trophy, I always liked medals. Maybe it's the aura of the Olympic medals. Not sure. But a cool medal; draping it over my neck on the winner's podium; walking around the rest of the competition with the medal around my neck was cool. My kid seems to think trophies are cool. I think the root cause is that the kids get these great medals just for participating, so the medals don't seem that important to them - even championship medals. ICBW.

 

[Razorskier1]

@JeffSurdej - your proactive participation in these discussions is terrific.

[MrJones]

I noticed my wife's and daughter's medals being really bad, but hated to bring it up here. I glad it was brought to the attention of the powers that be.

 

I think medals are great! Fortunately our family has a few. Some are hanging on boards, under glass with pictures, or in a big silver trophy bowl. I actually think the tradition of having the national championship award being a medal is cool. It just needs to be one deserving of the work it takes to earn one.

[malski64]

One issue with trophies I see is people traveling on planes and transport. A concern I've heard a few times.

 

As Jeff led to earlier, pressure on all our council people to then pressure the BOD to get this handled in the contract, or by USA waterski is needed.

 

Overall we do a poor job in selling ourselves. We're so heavily focused on performance, boats, etc, things like a quality PA or medals get little attention since those things are so low on the priority list...in my opinion at least.

 

We had the idea to make the medal ceremonies in 2016 much better. We planned to hold things for about 15-20 min at noon then end of day for scheduled presentations. We tried it the first day of regionals and it failed Miserably. It was impossible to get people over to get their awards then took forever to get going again.

We tried a lot of different ideas to make it better at both regionals and nationals and in my view we still did a poor job overall. Point is, it is extremely challenging to make this flow and be well accepted by even half those who get the chance to stand on the podim.

 

Discussion that is understanding yet productive such as this thread is important and i hope leads to some sort of standardization that becomes the norm.

[mnskimom]

I think the kids (especially the younger ones) love trophies over medals. However, an appropriate medal is very nice too. My daughter started skiing in tournaments because she wanted to get medals and trophies just like her big brother. She received a small "pink" trophy at Regionals in Wilmington one of her first years competing and you would have thought she won a million dollars. The medals and trophies this year from Southern Regionals and the JR US Open were awesome.

 

Regarding the scholarships given for Girls 1-3 and Boys 1-3 Overall National Champions are amazing. This year G1/B1 and G3/B3 were given $2,000 each. However, the G2/B2 Overall Champions were given nothing. I was told by someone who inquired about the scholarship they lost the sponsor. Couldn't they have split the money between all the overall winners? Did anyone try to replace the sponsor for this? I did not think this was fair at all.

[Broussard]

I don't think you necessarily have to go the trophy route, but it would be great to have nice, solid, metals, with nice ribbon.

[unksskis]

Men's 4 and 5 medals were given out nearly 20 hours after their events had completed, or the next day's afternoon. The sticker in the skier pack was great, and would have been fantastic on the medal of the 75th annual Nationals.

[skibackwards]

NATIONAL WATER SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS on medal is a MUST

[The_MS]

How could they not give the scholarship to the G2/B2 overall winners? At a minimum the $$ should be divided up between the B123/G123 overall winners.

@JeffSurdej is there a reason for them not getting it?

 

 

[The_MS]

There has to be a logical explanation as to why they would withhold the scholarship to that group

[Turtle]

Those medals could use some up-grading. On-site engraving could be considered. I built a CNC router from scratch and it was pretty easy and I probably have less than $200 invested. They could then be personalized with the name of the contestant. Engraving looks so much better than printing..

[The_MS]

@JeffSurdej We're you able to find out what happened with the B2/G2 issue?

[Jody_Seal]

You all don't feel so bad about the lame Assed medals you got, Shoot! Dr.Monica made it to her first national podium top 3 and guess what ??? her and the other two girls did not even receive their overall plaques and were told that they were getting them sent to them!

[liquid d]

@Turtle sounds like you got yourself a gig come next august!

 

@Jody_Seal way to go Dr Mo!

[Inboardfix]

Monday night/Tuesday morning I came up w/a thought on how to rectify the situation for this year's podium finishers. Afterall we're not talking big $ here: 90 B1/G1 through B3/G3 placements at $8 per medal + $7.50 flat rate shipping (less for the flat rate padded envelope) = $1395.00. So, under $1500.00 gets all Juniors a respectable medal (one that actually states the events name). It shouldn't be that hard to get 3 companies to donate $500 each and the problem is solved.

 

So, I did what I usually do when thinking through an idea, I called someone a whole lot smarter than me (my wife and kids think that is true of all my calls) to discuss the plan. After explaining the situation to my smart friend the following conversation took place:

 

Friend: so who's mistake was this?

Me: USAwaterski

Friend: and you said attendance was up 25%?

Me: Yes

Friend: and Nationals was trimmed down from 5 days to 4?

Me: Yes

Friend: do the math and tell me again why you think someone should bail them out.

Me: You're right

 

Do I think sponsors could be found to make this right? Absolutely, but USAwaterski should take care of their mistake. Here's the numbers:

 

25% increase in participants is approx 168. 168 x $165 entry = $27720.00 of which USAwaterski gets a negotiated percentage. Although I don't know the percentage negotiated this year I do know in the past it has been more than 20%. For arguments sake lets say 15%:

$27720.00 x .15 = $4158.00. This doesn't take into consideration any of the expenses saved from cutting the tournaments duration by 20% ( 5 days to 4 ). So, the $ was made to cover their mistake.

 

First thing USAwaterski should do is have a nice medal made which 1st and foremost states "2017 AWSA National Waterski Championships". It would be nice for it to have some reference to it being the 75th but putting the name of the tournament is essential.

 

Second thing USAwaterski should do is mail the medal to all the B1/G1 through B3/G3 along with a letter stating: Thank you for your participation....... Enclosed is the medal which wasn't ready in time for the tournament due to production delays.......Look forward to seeing you next year.

 

Third thing USAwaterski should do is send a letter/email/whatever to all the other division podium finishers and offer to send them the medal for $10, shipping or whatever. Personally, I think all podium finisher should be sent the medal free of charge.

 

This isn't a problem which should wait until next year to be corrected. Podium finishers from this year deserve better than what they received.

 

 

[ntx]

@Inboardfix you might want to check your math. B1/G1 thru. B3/G3 is 120 medals. Slalom. Trick. Jump. Overall. Places 1-5

[Inboardfix]

@ntx Didn't include overall intentionally. I doubt anyone placed in overall who didn't place in at least one of the events so they will have one nice medal. If you want to add 24 (30-6: 1st place overall got a really nice award so that is enough) x $15.50 = $372 we're still not talking big $.

[ntx]

@Inboardfix. Lol. My numbers are incorrect also.... No jump for B1/G1 so that reduces it by 10