How do YOU define/measure your PB/PR?

[mfjaegersr]

I'm curious to see the numbers here, given the different measuring sticks.

[ScottScott]

I tell everyone when I get a new PB, of which most don't care... But I specify practice PB or tournament PB.

[eyepeeler]

You should always ski your best in tournaments if you make your practice as tough as a tournament. Always set your course to actual measurements, not minimal tolerances. Always try to ski with a nice head/tail wind of around 10 mph. Try to ski on a public lake if possible. Have your practice driver drive straight instead of sorry a$$ swerving.

[gregy]

I rarely ski tournaments so I have a practice PB and a tournament PB. I work weekends a lot. If I ever get to where I can qualify for nationals I ski more tournaments.

[TEL]

both gates and around 6 red buoys it counts

[Horton]

Tournament scores have most value for higher level skiers. Practice PB is great to a point.

 

 

[bishop8950]

What @ScottScott said.

 

I keep track of both. I only really value the practice PB if it’s a tournament format set.

 

When someone asks me “what is your PB?” I always think/say my tournament PB.

[Chef23]

I have a practice PB and a tournament PB. I do differentiate them though.

[aupatking]

One for practice, one for tournament. The practice PB matters to me, the tournament PB matters. And practice PB must be in succession. No misses

[hemlock]

I think both tournament scores and practice scores count. They should be separate though.

I will always remember my best ball count at a tournament, and I will always remember the hardest ball I ever got around.

This may be strange, but as an over 35 year old, I also count 6 at 28'off 58K, the same as 6 at 32'off 55K.

[Horton]

FYI 4.5 @ 39 would be a huge PB for me

[MISkier]

@hemlock, you should count those passes the same. They are the same point value. And, they are fairly equivalent. My 36 and 34 PBs are the exact same point value, just one loop apart.

[mfjaegersr]

I know...and we’re all pulling for you, @Horton. ‘If you can get 2, you can get 4...’

[mfjaegersr]

And I wish I’d have thought of adding the split personality - BOTH - option...before it was too late to edit. ?‍♂️

[A_B]

Agree with a practice and a tournament PB, as long as it is in tolerance in practice with a good boat path, and successive.

 

[disland]

all of the above

[John Brooks]

Using tournaments keeps me from needing to keep track of my skiing. I have to keep track of lots of numbers for my work and don't ever want to need to do it for my addiction, water skiing. I do make mental notes of how practice is going.

[DaveLemons]

I haven’t skied a tournament in 2 years. But my PB is the same for practice and tournaments so it makes it easier when someone asks ?

[Horton]

Where people get grumpy on this subject is when a skier claims some astronomical practice PB but doesn't have a vaguely similar tournament PB or any tournament scores.

[BrennanKMN]

I keep track of both my best run under any condition and my best run when skiing down the line in succession. They are pretty close for me. I also have a 34mph and 36 mph PB, oddly enough they are within 1 ball of each other.

 

I am sure if I skied tournaments I'd keep track of that PB too, but I enjoy skiing and goofing around with my buddies more. That is why I am fully on board with @TEL making a new PB is way more fun than telling someone it doesn't count because they missed the previous pass.

[keithh2oskier]

It doesn't really matter since I am so far off from where my PB once was. Maybe I need to think about judging my PB around BC (Before Children) and AD (After Daddy). IE 5 BC I was midway into -35 at 36 mph and 4 AD I am going slower and still not into the blue rope length

 

Also my last tournament (class C or above) was like a decade ago in college and I have no intentions of doing those anymore.

[Moffattra]

In ascending order of buoy count:

 

Tournament PB

 

Practice PB

 

After several beers and talking to pretty girls PB

[Roger]

Tournament PB and Practice PB.

[Cam]

Tournament PB first and foremost.

practice PB off the dock.

Practice PB without missing a pass but back to back earlier pass.

Practice PB only counts with video or a driver who I know didn't help me, I have ran some great scores where the driver did most of it for me.

[jetpilotg4]

SO how's everyone's Practice PB compare to their Tournament PB?

 

My Tournament PB is about 90% of my Practice PB, although I haven't skied in a tournament since last year

 

@horton what about the turn and Burn formats that show up occasionally? I always feel like its cheating when they have those at a tournament.

[MrJones]

I really don't see how you can argue against tournaments being the measure of your PB. That is if you ski tournaments. If not then there is that...

[Horton]

@jetpilotg4

 

w/ turn & burn you still have to run the previous pass to get credit for a score at the pass you can't run.

[aupatking]

My tournament PB is a full pass lower than my practice PB. My tournament PB is actually about 3 balls under my practice average. I think I need to ski more tournaments. Then I get my ski partner @Simpson to ski his first tournament and he goes out and sets his real PB (tournament or practice) in his first tournament ever.

[brody]

What @ScottScott said. I only did a few tournaments and don’t do them at all now so otherwise I wouldn’t have a pb!

[Lobonator]

I usually score my PB by the three A’s. Angle. Amplitude. Awesomeness when it comes to spray.

[Roger]

Tournament PB: 2@38, Practice PB: 4@38

[rayn]

Tournament PB

Off the dock practice PB

Ski school PB

 

For me they are all different.

[teammalibu]

My best scores are in R tourneys but I wish I could get close to that in practice again!

[ScottScott]

While all of my practice bests have been at a ski school (Jodi's,) I have been able to back it up shortly at tournament or other locations. I just started doing tournaments last summer. 1st tournament I was able to equal my practice best. After that I wasn't able to better that score in tournaments, just equaling it a couple times, even though I was improving and setting new practice bests. As I improved over the winter, I set new practice bests along the way. 1st tournament this year I not only beat last years tournament best by a pass and a half, I beat my practice best at the time by a couple balls (completing a pass I hadn't before and getting 1 balls at a line I hadn't seen before.) Since then I have run that pass in practice and gotten 2 balls at the next line, now to back it up in a tournament.

[escmanaze]

So I've never done a tournament, so if I relied on a "tournament PB" I wouldn't have anything to offer. I'm really just in it for the fun of myself, so I don't even care if it came off of a "tournament-like" practice set.

 

With that being said, I can fully understand why guys who have done tournaments don't want some shmo running around saying he got blank score - oh but that was only in practice. That's definitely some bush league stuff. If it's your practice PB - make sure to say it as such.

 

Kinda funny, I was teaching a bunch of newbies this last weekend. I would see the kid miss #3 in the mirror and then at the end, my passenger would tell me he got 5. I'm like what? Turns out, they were just counting how many total balls he got. Yeah, he missed 3, but he got 4, 5, and 6, so all in all, totaled up, he got 5 balls...right? I didn't really have the heart to tell them straight up "that's not how this works". They'll grasp it sooner or later.

[Nando]

I lied when I answered the poll- while I do believe it's tournament results that define legitimate PBs, I'm guilty of freely telling people my practice PB, which is over a pass better. (At least it was done under tournament conditions [consecutive, accurate course, good senior driver, etc], but clearly I'm a hypocrite...

[ISP6ball]

A practice PB will definitely measure a person's physical ability to get down the rope as far as possible. Tournament PB's incorporate the physical ability along with mental fortitude. For some, the scores are very similar. For others they might be quite a ways apart.