Keeping your regular judges rating

[Horton]

So my Regular rating expired.... I surfed around the USAWS site for 20 minutes to find what I was looking for... spent maybe an hour doing 2 online tests... sent $10 by PayPal....Done. Not hard at all.

[The_MS]

Not being able to compete this year I may not send in money to USA but I don’t want to loose my Sr status. Will my status stay the same if I just sign up next year? If they don’t keep it for me they may loose me for life.

[Horton]

@ms it is not super hard.

[6balls]

agree @Horton I was a little pissy about mine. I wasn't getting easy answers from anyone (which made me grumpy) and it is actually just as simple as you note above.

It was a little funny that we have to take the more general module as well where it is asking you tournament director type questions re: how to settle disputes between judges etc. The actual slalom judging module was pretty straightforward. I won't be doing tourney directing duty but oh well...overall it was still pretty easy to get renewed.

[LeonL]

You expire for two possible reasons: not working at least 4 tournaments every two years and/or not doing either the online tests or doing a clinic every 4 years.

@MS if you're unable to get the tournament requirements in, be sure you do the online test or get a clinic. Then contact Melanie and ask for a hardship exemption. If you don't send in your dues for this year there may be other ramifications.

[The_MS]

@LeonL my plan was to not sign up this year and hopefully get back to form for next year. Rehabbing a knee. I will probably donate my cash to a membership I won’t use this summer just to keep my Sr rating active.

[Horton]

@ms if you're taking a year off the water does that mean you'll be fully embracing your beer drinking?

[Chef23]

I think I have probably lost all my judging and driving status. I had a back issue then bigger health issues last year and didn't join or participate in any tournaments. I likely won't be back this year either. I will likely have to start from scratch when I come back.

[dbutcher]

Keep your membership. Membership costs less than one night of dinner and drinks.

[Horton]

@Chef23 call HQ & talk to Melanie. It may not be as bad as you think.

[6balls]

@leonL that is true in a purest sense...but if you asked me why I lost it, I would tell you I missed two of the last three seasons due to injury/surgeries. Just before losing it I was cleared to ski, I worked a set of two, 3 round tourneys, one a C and one a Record doing both tower and boat judging. So losing it right after I was acceptable to do 6 rounds of tourney work was a little bit of a stinker to me.

 

Having said that once I found out how easy it was to get it back...no biggie in the end and sorry I was grumpy. It's not special to me to be a assistant judge, I do it to help the tournaments I attend run.

[JeffSurdej]

@MS Why not maintain your membership, it has not even been formally announced quite yet but the $19.95 part of the new membership is live, you can support water skiing for a mere $20 a year. We need members, we need members like yourself who are not competing to still support the organization. The more members the revenue to build the sport and the more members the more ammo we have with sponsors. And over the next few months you are also going to see a number of new endemic sponsor discount deals for members only that will pay for the $20 membership itself.

[The_MS]

Maybe if I am good to go I will hit the BOS event in the fall

[Horton]

I don't think @skidawg's liver could deal with you, @Dirt and Terry Winter at the same tournament

[The_MS]

Its just a little IPA

[aupatking]

I'm having some trouble getting started. The assistant judges stuff is not hard, but the driver’s stuff has some hoops to jump through

[LeonL]

@aupatking by getting started do you mean getting an assistant driver rating? Not many more hoops than an assistant judge rating. Just some preliminary work at tournaments, getting signed off by a regular or senior driver for adequately driving some through 28 off and then attending a drivers clinic and driving under the observation of regular or senior drivers and taking a written test. The hoops start when you try to upgrade to regular. That requires tournament experience and sometimes that's hard to get unless you know the chef driver.

[aupatking]

Thanks @LeonL . No, I’m just starting with the “trained” driver.

I had explained further but edited. I didn’t want to sound too critical. I paid for my DMV record review and haven’t heard from anyone. I was also told I need to take the online class, but my state requires that class prior to getting the “vessel” license (which I have) hence, it is not an option in the states section for the video courses. I explained that, but that fell on deaf ears.

I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall here and no forward momentum

[aupatking]

I actually look forward to the “on water” time. I’ve got guys super willing to do that part. I’ve pulled some short line guys, with very little complaints, so I’m not total crap behind the wheel. One of those short line guys is a world champion, so I guess he knows

[dbutcher]

My belief is that USAWSWS requirements for "trained driver" are independent from any state boat driving requirements. Simply stated USAWSWS doesn't care that you are an approved boat driver in Alabama or any other state. The fact that you haven't heard from anyone regarding your DMV record review probably means that you passed. Re-read the "trained driver" program description found on USAWSWS website under officials resources. Why don't you consider going for "assistant driver"? That rating enables you to do a lot more than a trained driver rating.

[aupatking]

@dbutcher my point is, I’ve taken the class, and my certificate is my license “V” rating. I appreciate the tip on going for Assistant Driver instead. I’ll do that.

[LeonL]

@aupatking its relatively easy to get an assistant rating. As I alluded to in my previous post, upgrading may be a problem based on where you are and who you know. I didn't address the issue of maintaining said assistant rating. You will have to get 4 tournament driving credits every 2 years. If you live / ski where most/all tournaments are ELR you're pretty much SOL. You can get ALL requirements for trained driver, except MVR at a driver clinic. Then to maintain that you just have to pull X hours of practice and have someone sign off that you did.