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

[NikolG]

Unfortunately the medals were very non-descript and cheap, the ribbon is the same color for all placements. So while our son got 4, they all look the same, like participation awards :( Western Regionals kills it with custom Medals with appropriate colors and custom plaques for overall.

[The_MS]

There still needs to be an explanation of why the B2/G2 overall winners were denied the scholarship money that BG/1 and 3 overall winners received.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@MS I don't know where you are getting your information, since you weren't there, but there was no scholarship money or awards other than placement to any of the kids on site.

 

Past scholarship money was donated by specific individuals (JD Morgan and one of the McCormick family, and perhaps others) for specific individuals (i.e. highest NOPS at Nationals in B3/G3) If I recall the scholarships were only B3/G3. I know for certain that there was no scholarship awarded for the highest NOPS for B3.

 

Maybe you should contact the sponsors of the awards directly.

[The_MS]

@Bruce_Butterfield sounds like I may have to check in to headquarters to see who got what from whom. Appears strange that there is no pre nationals announcement of who is eligible for what.

[LeonL]

Here's our state medals and they cost $5.71 each.

Not a good photo. In a hurry, but you get the point. Gold, silver and bronze colors. Not real metals of course.

[Inboardfix]

@LeonL Very nice. It shows a quality medal doesn't have to break the bank. I found it interesting/sad on the BOS homepage is a picture of the nightjump medal. Extremely cool medal. What I find sad is the only people that made the trip to San Marcos for the nightjump were the night jumpers and their families. Yet, they get a wonderful medal (and check too).

[MattP]

@Inboardfix Night Junp was run by SMRR not USAWS.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@ms I believe the scholarship and many other awards are administered by USAWSEF, not USAWS or AWSA. Past awards were given at the semiformal awards banquet along with a plethora of others. I have never seen any preannouncement nor description beforehand.

[The_MS]

@Bruce_Butterfield From what I was told, they awarded the Individual then the overalls, most improved skiers and then announced the scholarship winners for overall. Both the B2 and G2 overall winner parents thought they made a mistake and skipped them but when they went to ask they were told there was no award. Just seams wired to not have them included.

[NikolG]

Here are some cool examples of ski medals. Notice the embroidered or screenprinted ribbons and the size and weight of medals. Our kids were fortunate to ski in Oregon and they have dozens of trophies big & tall from class C tournaments. They were so stoked to get these! Nationals should represent accordingly, it is the same generic medals year after year.(They do not always say Nationals in past years either.) Western Regionals absolutely kills it with awards year after year, it becomes a source of pride...nothing lame on the podium. :)

 

With complaining comes a willingness to help out. What is the budget for Junior awards at Nationals? Happy to be a business donor to match that to double the budget until our kids age out. (Then maybe another business can take over.) Let's get some sick medals or preferably modern trophies for Overall on the podium! I would be happy to take this over (shopping for deals pro right here!) as long as whatever USA Waterski spends on medals & Overall awards for Juniors is disclosed & matched. Make sense?

 

[klindy]

@MS @Bruce_Butterfield for what it's worth here's a link to what was awarded last year.

[The_MS]

Thanks @klindy

It would appear that it is up to the donors to decide who gets what.

[liquid d]

@nikandsteve contact HQ and git 'er done. Someone else on her even suggested setting up engraving on site..nice!

[NikolG]

 

Here are what Most Improved Awards look like at Regionals & Nationals (these are from from USA Waterski) exactly the same year to year. I just leave em in Boxes now. They definitely just reorder the exact same medals and slap the sticky date on em. :(

[JeffSurdej]

All your input is great, and be noted for sure. Update so far....There was no intention of "national waterski championships " being left off medal to save money or buy in bulk, the trophy place used the all-star medal template which has stars around the circle instead of the correct one so we are dealing with them now. As for scholarship, we lost our donors for b2/g2, AWSEF tried to find one with no luck. Shifting the money from B1/G1/B3/G3 was not an option. It sucks and we are still working on it. If anyone knows anyone who may want to be donors for this please let us know.

[WiswallWaterSki]

Lot of points here but one point that I noticed was the presentation of awards was not as well done as could have been. It seemed poorly timed and delayed excessively. This points to a great opportunity for some positive volunteer service. We all could give a little time while we are there to assist in the presentations. We could make ourselves available to scoring and USA Water Ski to present the awards within minutes after the scoring has completed the podium list. I will personally make efforts to assist in this at my next opportunity not only at Nationals but Regionals and other tournaments as well. We all enjoy this God given sport so lets pass it on.

[dbutcher]

Hats off to USA Waterski. I got a corrected Nationals medal in the mail today. The medal manufacturer made the error.

[Inboardfix]

Yesterday my kids received their replacement medals. Attached is a picture. It is pretty much the same medal as sent earlier but the stars have been replaced w/National Waterski Championships. @JeffSurdej was very pro-active in making this happen and I appreciate his efforts.

 

Is this medal awe inspiring? Absolutely not and I really didn't expect a replacement medal to be so. However, I do believe the concerns raised during this conversation have been noticed by USAWaterski, which will in turn result in positive future changes. Will next years awards rival the BMX awards @BoneHead posted? Doubtful (truly hope not, that is a bit over the top) but I am hopeful they will have the "WOW that's Nice" factor.

 

 

 

[Horton]

@BoneHead for as long as you have been a Baller and for as long as you have worked in Tech if you can't figure out how to shorten the link I should just ban you for life

[ForrestGump]

Fine. Do it. I even went and found the thread where it told me what to do and input the link just as it said.

[skidawg]

Life time ban for @BoneHead ? what is this world coming to, he's the only one who puts up with @Horton 's female mood swings

 

[GK]

Thank you USA Water Ski for the updated medals!