NCWSA Hall of Fame

[Horton]

@Cooper_Trelawney think I went 146 that day. 

[Cooper_Trelawney]

@Horton 118' for me that day.  Early all 3 jumps.  Took a lot of beers to overcome that!  146' on the 5' @ 32 mph was a really good jump on the short skis!  Man, those were the good days!

[Horton]

@Cooper_Trelawney the older I get the better I was 🙂

 

[Horton]

I have a lot of love for JD from those days but honestly Swanson was in his own league. 

[Cooper_Trelawney]

@Horton JD was amazing to watch.  Perfectly balanced on his skis.  His s-turn at 32 mph was crazy to watch...starting well ahead of the bow, sinking to his knees and sling shoting into the ramp.  But, while JD was mostly smiling, Swanson had that death stare.  

[Broussard]

@Horton Who is this Ron Burns fellow?

[Horton]

thank you @Broussard. Ron was the coach and organizer of the 1979 SDSU water ski team. In 1979, SDSU came to the first ever college nationals in Monroe and beat NLU on the bayou.

Considering that I was 10 or 11 years old at the time, I'm not super clear on all the details, but he was one of the organizers of one of the absolute OG collegiate ski teams. It's my recollection that he stuck around with that program for a number of years, but I'm not sure.

like Tom Murphy at NLU, Ron Burns helped shape collegiate skiing into what it is today.

some additional research would have to be done but this sure seems like a Hall of Fame candidate.

 

see https://thencwsa.org/tbt-fun-and-good-skiing-at-the-first-national-intercollegiate-championships/

[UCFskier]

20 hours ago, Cooper_Trelawney said:

@Horton JD was amazing to watch.  Perfectly balanced on his skis.  His s-turn at 32 mph was crazy to watch...starting well ahead of the bow, sinking to his knees and sling shoting into the ramp.  But, while JD was mostly smiling, Swanson had that death stare.  

DEATH STARE  😂

[Cooper_Trelawney]

@Horton I read that article and it referenced a couple of guys last named Horton.   Older brothers?

[Horton]

yeah my oldest brother, Dave was on SDSU 

[jcamp]

I have vivid memories of John Swanson stomping around the site before tournaments my freshman year. I tried to stay as far away from him as possible.