World championships slalom conditions

[GaryWilkinson]

Is it just me or are the Aussie announcers praise of the conditions at that HUGE lake in Malaysia a little overboard?

 

I like the content about the skiing, but their statements of how great it is doesn’t translate to the skiers and their performances. Many went down early due to what I saw as a course filled with distant rollers from boats on the same body of water in the distance. (You could see them in the distant view) And moderate backwash from the concrete sea wall across the bay.

 

Anyone else see this? It seems to me that the site is borderline acceptable for slalom, but who am I sitting here in Canada hoping for another month of good weather.

 

Anyone else see it?

 

[DavidN]

It’s not only you.

I thought the same when I heard comments like “a little water movement” or “a bit challenging” and seen the best skiers in the world struggling, fighting and going down early. It’s a disgrace, no matter how nice the surrounding area is.

But what do you expect the official commentators to do? Criticize the site/venue/organizers while they are working there?

 

All had been discussed here.

[Andre]

There is some rollers especially at 4 and 6 when leaving from the starting dock.You can really see them in Jamie Bull 32 off at 3 ball coming from the middle of the lake.It almost took her down.

But on the other hand,Manon was able to run 3...Certainly not the usual private manmade lakes conditions but still skiable.

[Jody_Seal]

Toss of the dice!

[Stevie Boy]

Any roller would put me down, these skiers are generally well balanced on their ski and can deal with a lot of variables, if quite a lot of them are getting taken down then the conditions must be questionable.

[TFIN]

So far the conditions have been absolutely good enough. Granted, there is potential for disaster however.

TF

[JaredSmith]

If the difficult conditions were the same for everyone that would be fine but when you introduce random rollers into the equation it creates a unfair situation. We all know that a roller at the finish of a slalom turn is not the same as one behind the boat in our lean.

[Cooper_Trelawney]

I often hear how much we miss the Pro Tour and television coverage of waterskiing. The Pro Tour was often hosted on dicey sites. Skiers like the Duvalls, LaPoints, Roberge, Mapple, etc became legends carving out wins in crazy bad conditions. I think one has to weigh out the potential equation of conditions versus exposure. We don't want to see season ending injuries occur but those types of injuries happen in even the best of conditions. Every time we ski we take a risk. IDK, I think that if the winning pass is a line length longer than usual but we get to showcase our sport to thousands of spectators then it's OK. Moomba is harsh on the skiers and not consistent. Even Robin Lake gets rolly. Let the skiers ski!

[Horton]

@Cooper_Trelawney a World Title is perhaps the single greatest achievement in a skiers career. Adding luck to the formula for winning detracts from the title.

[ski6jones]

From what I saw the conditions during womens slalom at least were consistent from skier to skier. Those rollers were always there at 1 and 3 coming toward the dock. Would give me trouble for sure.

[Than_Bogan]

Hey now. Total random luck with insane rollers got me by far my highest Nationals finish. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

[NikolG]

The site has its challenges, much like Moomba, and the same announcer was there too. He’s from New Zealand and they are a much tougher breed and different personality. “Hurricane? We’re getting a little rain!” He does a fantastic job! At least the trick scores were insane, that bubble is wild! We have been so ridiculously spoiled with our private lakes. The old Coors light ski tour had much crazier conditions and the announcers laughed ?

[Cooper_Trelawney]

@horton I completely agree that a World Title is the highest achievement one can earn but when you look at the history of the World Championships, they have often been held on open sites that can get rough. I don't know why. Just a few of those include 2017 Paris, 2011 Dubna Russia, 2007 and 1991 Austria, 1979 Toronto, 1977 Milan and going back and back...It seems that when the Worlds have been held at top sites such as Okaheelee or Clermont FL that the conditions are great but there is no viewership. It seems like a trade-off for sure. The '61 Worlds were in Long Beach, CA. Can you imagine that?

[jimbrake]

It would be sad to see the "family and friends" crowd only on the shore of a private site for a World Championship. A World (f'ing) Championship.

[Horton]

@jimbrake hopefully there will be a crowd for the finals but so far I have only seen other skiers on shore & in the stands in the webcast

[ISP6ball]

This was the crowd for the number one female skier in the world....

 

 

[ALPJr]

Prelims - workday?

[jimbrake]

Maybe if her shoulders were more level. I'M KIDDING! JUST KIDDING!

[dvskier]

@ISP6ball We are probably members of the smallest group of athletes in the world. I would also say that there are few skiers in Malaysia. If the event were held in a more mainline country attendance would likely be higher.

[Bill22]

Is the webcast working for anyone? The schedule said mens slalom at 8:00 am Friday local time. That should be now.

[PurdueSkier]

Not working for me.

[dnewton]

Maybe they need to bounce it off of parish’s head better. #fixthefeed

[DavidN]

Working now

[Booze]

Dane with 2@41! .... that's encouraging regarding skiability of the water.

Maybe they have clued into 4 and 6 ball going away from dock and adjusted.

 

[ballsohard]

Nate with the missed gates at 39 then he ate it later in the pass ?

[jimmyjamesbrown]

No replay?

[Horton]

About 45 seconds after it happened this showed up in my inbox.

 

[jimmyjamesbrown]

I thought he had it.

[ballsohard]

That review is huge for him

[Horton]

Under review he made it easily. Odd that picture looks so conclusive the other way.

[rico]

 

[rico]

Top how many goes through to final?

[Booze]

That pic is sketchy.

Clearly was in.

 

 

 

[JaredSmith]

In the first pic of Nate's gates was that his 39' or 35'?

[LLUSA]

top 12 to the finals

[GaryWilkinson]

Not so sure about the crowd numbers being more than skiers, friends and family.

I believe our sport unfortunately doesn’t draw to the public in general anymore.

 

When E-sports gets an online audience of tens of millions, tastes have changed. I believe the best we can get is a few thousand at the venue (hopefully) and maybe 10x that on line.

 

Saddens me to know and have to accept that.

 

Another thought is that other than jumping and tricking somewhat, the average Jill can’t tell the difference between one slalom run and another. Would it be that hard to make a graphic showing the handle distances and some illustrations, even demonstrations like Andy did at the end of his video a few years ago explaining how really difficult short-est line slalom passes really are?!

 

Back to my thread’s point, is that these are the f-ing WORLD championships brother! Shouldn’t we see the best at their best? The skiing audience at least, deserve better. The site obviously moves around unlike Moomba and Masters where there’s history there.

 

Let’s pick better sites so we (and the world) can see great skiing and not leave who gets into the finals on luck.

[DanE]

@GaryWilkinson

Workday in the forenoon.

[disland]

Can anyone explain why the grandstand, which is amazing by the way, is not set up toward the middle of the course but down near the end

[gavski]

Try watching alpine slalom events...the quickest in round 1 have to ski last down the course that is rutted to hell in round 2 - true they have a time advantage, but the course is trashed by the time they get to it..

 

this is sport - you can’t always have perfect conditions all the time..these guys can ski in anything - they relish the challenge...world records don’t have to be set at the world champs....

[Chad_Scott]

From what I hear the grandstand is empty

[Obrienslalom]

What happened during Corey's run last night? I'm guessing that was hard to be taken out of rhythm, but I didn't catch why the boat stopped...

[keithh2oskier]

I am confused as to what happened with Nate. They said he missed his gates but then he was in a run off with Adam and Carlo and said he is in the finals? Was the missed gate just purely a mistake on the webcast?

 

@Chad_Scott You can see the grandstands in the mens prelim webcast where the top seeds were skiing and they were pretty empty.

[rico]

@keithh2oskier Judges said Nate missed his gates at 39. There was video review and they gave 0@39. Nate protested and further video review overturn the decision and Nate scored 2.5@39 for a run off.

In the meantime, the webcast studied evidence frame by frame of Nate going through the gate but using 35 instead of 39.

So much fun!

[klindy]

@Obrienslalom I was told they stopped the boat due to conditions. Apparently there were rollers that were worse than others.

 

@keithh2oskier after they sorted out the gate call, Nate was first in the run-off and ran 1.5@41 to advance. There were 3 skiers in the run-off for 2 spaces in the finals. It took Adam and Carlo 3 tries to decide.

[GaryWilkinson]

Leave it to the best jumper in the world to tell it like it is without saying he’s sorry because he’s Canadian.

 

Check out this interview

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1TsZHRhrQ7/?igshid=10j2cjrnc0zla

[BrennanKMN]

I didn't realize it was that bad that people were getting injured enough to be hospitalized.

[Roger]

@Cooper_Trelawney - I was at the 89 Worlds held at Okeeheelee. It was the largest crowd I've ever seen in that park...

[UCFskier]

that was a lifetime ago... the pro events back then had standing room only... super packed

 

[ALPJr]

I had just enough time to watch the final rounds of Nate, Joel, Will and Freddie (not the run off). Great webcast and the conditions looked pretty good. Three of them ran 2 @ -41.

[Drago]

Malaysia <=> Qatar

This is the Track and Field World Champs yesterday. More athletes than spectators. Location Location location