Is anyone else psyched to watch the Swiss on Sunday??

[Keukaskier]

I watched the Swiss last year and it was probably the first time I had watched any skiing on TV since Mapple and Cox back in the day. It pretty much fired me up and got me out to try the course for the first time down @theboardingschool in March. I’ve become a ski contentivore, bought a 93 mc Prostar and am fired up for the ski season! Anyone else pumped to see what the pros bring on Sunday?! I know I am!

[Ali]

Psyched!!

[TEL]

Psyched, will be there for the final rounds

[markn]

Have been over to Swiss this week a few times to ski and have watched the site prepare for the event. The place looks FANTASTIC and Vincent and crew have done a ton of work preparing for the webcast. Clint and the entire Swiss crew are certain to make this a not to be missed event.

[Andre]

I am!!!

Great webcast coming up!

[BS74]

Heading there after a quick set early morning. Should be fun to watch and I study their gates to hopefully gain some knowledge that will be of benefit to me.

[Kelvin]

I've been here since Tuesday helping with the setup. Psyched to be helping with the webcast tomorrow.

[Dirt]

Yes

 

[chris55]

From Geneva Switzerland, we are watching of course

[txskier]

Looking forward to it!

[swbca]

How do I watch it ? Streaming YouTube or ???

[LeonL]

I clicked on the "play" at the top of forum. It plays but only 3' X 1.5". If I click view in full screen it says I can't view in full screen. That has always ben the case on my desktop, but the original has always been large enough to see. What to do?

Never mind. I'm watching on Youtube now.

[Horton]

Watch it on at https://www.waterskiprotour.com/ or click the player below and then click on YouTube to get to full screen

[The_MS]

Sure path sucks

[The_MS]

Worst rule ever

[bherder]

She was pissed. I would be too.

[Horton]

Yea it super sucks for Allie but if that path was out toward the skier how is that far for the other skiers?

[The_MS]

If 1 skier is forced to ski a pass twice every skier after should have to run it twice

[ScottScott]

Thats going to be a touchy area. Having that much accuracy instantly like that leads to some tricky situations. The skiers are going to have to get used to it and keep their head in it. You could see her expression when she sat down at the end before the re-ride. I could tell she wasn't going to run that.....her head wasn't in it.

 

Puts a lot of pressure on the driver too, I'm sure he felt like crap.

[ALPJr]

There will be a learning curve in the way this rule violation is called and explained. Will need to, or should be based on advantage / disadvantage. Did the boat path give the athlete an unfair advantage, or vise versa did it cause a disadvantage, where/when? That is the question.

[dvskier]

Totally phenomenal broadcast. TWBC has achieved perfection, ESPN doesn’t come close to their expertise! I am quite happy that waterskiing can now be viewed with such a professional platform. The different angles are great.

[HMan66]

Great broadcast! I’d like to see more spectators though. Not so sure about Sure Path. I’m not a tournament skier, but a reride because the boat was 10mm off at 6 ball?

[Dirt]

Great webcast. Incredible skiing. I love how excited Tony gets about the aerial edge changes

[RAWSki]

Great job all around. Looking forward to the finals.

[LeonL]

I've been gone since 9:30. Have there been other boat path rerides?

[Horton]

@LeonL 3 total that I saw today so far

[ScottScott]

Yes, Dane Mechler. If I'm not mistaken it was his 39 off pass. He ran a sloppy pass, re-ride and ran much better. Then I think Will Asher was out of tolerance against him on his 41 off pass. Had 1.5 1st try, re-ride got to 2.5.

 

I missed all of women 2nd round, so maybe more?

[Horton]

there was Allie Nicholson and I guess there was one other because somebody just opted up at risk and ran the next pass. I forget

[Wish]

TWBC : Web cast keeps getting better with each event. So impressive.

[JackQ]

What the tolerance limit should be may be debatable, but the concept of a mandatory reride when the boat/driver is giving the skier an advantage should not be. If you run a pass that is slower than tolerance you must reside, though essentially unheard of today, I had many in my past.

[Wish]

Has a 4 way run off ever happen before in a pro event?

[txskier]

Nate Smith with 2 perfect passes at 41 off today boggles my mind! Congrats to him!

[DaveD]

Maybe everyone needs to practice in cold water right before a tournament? Kind of like high altitude training before running a marathon.

[ktm300]

Charlie!!

[liquid d]

I think the 49 cm cumulative total for out of tolerance needs to be adjusted a bit higher....maybe in the neighborhood of 60 to 65 cm.

[ScottScott]

That was a great Wrapped commercial

[skiinxs]

I think cumulative is fine. If a driver is trying for centerline, not trying to help the skier, cum should stay very low. Remember, plus and minus offset in cum. I also think the drivers did a great job keeping numbers in today if there were only three or four out. 13 data points for each pass, if all skiers averaged 4 passes per pull, there were over 5,000 data points measured.

[Cnewbert]

@HMan66 Swiss is a gorgeous setting, the lakes ski great (I’m told), the event seemed very well run and TWBC did a fantastic job. But this venue is simply awful for spectators to be honest. The causeway between the two lakes is very narrow with steep banks, so there is nowhere comfortable to set up chairs. Worse, there are no full, unobstructed view lines up or down the length of the course from the shoreline as trees, other vegetation or shoreline structures block the view. The best spot we could find gave us a decent view of just 3 buoys, but there were no loudspeakers close enough to hear the announcer so we couldn’t tell who was skiing, the line length or any other pertinent information about what was happening. As beautiful as Swiss is, it’s not set up for spectators. I think that’s why you didn’t see more people attending.

[slow]

Dominating performance by Nate in the run off. In another league today 2 41’s.

[kc]

Not sure if there’s ever been a four way runoff, but this season started just like last season ended, with a multi skier runoff for the men’s title. Nate, Freddie, and T-Gas ran off for first through third at The Mastercraft Pro last October. Great skiing, and an awesome webcast!

[Cooper_Trelawney]

The youngest person to ever run -39.5 in a tournament: Charlie Ross!

The guy isn't even old enough to drive a car yet!!

[ScottScott]

I'll disagree some with @Cnewbert. I agree they could stretch some more speakers down the shoreline. But, there are pros and cons from a spectator standpoint.... The dock midway up the course certainly cuts down on shoreline visibility of the full course. But, I don't have a problem setting up a chair and while you may not be able to see the full course, setting up at a turnball where you are just barely outside the spray is pretty neat vantage point, and you can see 1/2-2/3 of the course very well. I give the spectator standpoint a little better rating...

[LeonL]

What @liquid d said. In the days of visually determining boat path the current tolerances were OK. However utilizing electronic measurement of deviations per buoy and cumulative deviation has opened a can of worms. I have no doubt of the driver's skill, but how many times have you seen a boat path reride (optional or mandatory) prior to the use of SurePath? It would appear that, measured electronically the tolerances need to be increased.

Maybe this subject needs its own thread, but the subject has already been brought in this one.

[Brokenstack]

My favorite part of the whole webcast was a shot of the boat driver right after she pulled Nate at 41 in the run-off. She got this big smile on her face and you could hear her say something like “that was fun!”

[drew]

I have no issue with the tolerances but strongly disagree with the rules as written and applied.

 

Consider that prior to Surepath, we were without quantifiable data for deviation, and relied solely on judgment of an end-course video screen. Enter Surepath, and we have data for every pass! Meaning every driver essentially has a record ("Surepath passport") that follows them. The possibilities in terms of data analytics are endless, and will certainly entice every driver to perform their best, while insisting on remaining within the rules.

 

Remember that before Surepath, this data simply was not available. Evaluation of each driver's adherence to rules depended as much upon reputation as proper analytics! Now, with the data, objective analysis and evaluation is a snap. BUT, drivers are human, and this ought to be factored. Human performance is sometimes less than optimal, and subtle errors may be made. But these ought not to interfere with the spirit of competition.

 

Also, let's consider--how many title events have been won with (at least somewhat) favorable boat path? Would it be a stretch to guess 30%? more?

 

And what are the downsides of the mandatory re-ride with a drift out of tolerance? Maybe Allie Nicholson could describe this for us. I am deeply concerned that the current rules allowed for this kind of result--she got the job done, but was then pick-pocketed. I do NOT attribute this to fault of the driver (Patrice and Becky were both exceptional all day), but to flaws in the rules.

 

My thoughts:

The advent of Surepath demands excellence from drivers, as their record depends upon best efforts. Frequent deviations will be noticed. And record review is now perfectly objective.

 

These safeguards alone have enhanced adherence to rules, and we ought to delight in the progress while maintaining proper spirit of competition. Requiring Allie to run 11.25m again in my view completely violates the principles of fair competition.

 

What should the rules include?

 

1. In the event of a detrimental boat path (greater than -20 cm) on any buoy up to and including the buoy where the skiers miss occurred, boat judge shall notify skier, and skier shall be offered an optional re-ride.

2. Should the event judges witness repeated excessive deviations or pattern driving, driver shall be removed.

 

It is possible that number 1 could be expanded upon to properly define the last buoy worthy of consideration for detrimental path.

 

I do not believe favorable path is cause for re-ride unless after a poll of the appointed officials it is deemed to be intentionally excessive and/or in violation of the spirit of fair competition (in this case the driver would be removed).

 

I believe this is all that is required for the time being.

[BS74]

These drivers sat in a boat all day without a canopy in 90 degree heat! Yes , unfortunate on a couple re-rides, but I think they did a very good job.

[kmenard]

Is it just me or should there be a new documentary series called Regina vs Time?

[Than_Bogan]

I'd be fine with @drew's "liberal" suggestion.

 

Another possibility is: Don't use the tolerances for deciding any scores or placements within the event, but still give the skier the option to re-ride anything out of world record tolerance in case they want it to count as a world record.

 

I think at the very least the hard threshold tolerance should be a little bigger for longer line lengths. If a pro men's skier is forced to re-run 38 off because one deviation was 22cm, that really feels like a big waste of time for everyone. And I purposely chose 38 as my example, because then it's a little uncomfortable for them to opt-up, since sometimes a deep -39 might be good enough in a given round, but would count as a deep 38 if done as an opt-up.

 

For me personally, I would only want the tight tolerance applied at -41. That pass must be completed to set any important high-level record, so nobody is going to "sneak in" by using just-barely-wider tolerances.

 

 

[LeonL]

Again, my thoughts are that with the measurement capabilities now being utilized, the tolerances need to be increased with the exception of record performances.

[drew]

The option of a re-ride kills the competition, creates too many "what-if's" and in the eyes of competitors, would create an "unfair advantage" for additional opportunities on the site. And for the purpose of record review would also be disqualifiable as the concept of a "practice pass" has been introduced (amongst other issues).

The thresholds are there for records and ranking list. The data is there to demand an adherence and to provide drivers with the understanding of what they should be achieving every pass.

Wider tolerances will promote wider deviations (discouraging this is the very point of the technology).

If the boat strays, then:

no record, likely no world ranking list inclusion of the score, plus a blemish on the driver's Surepath passport (meaning possibly less likely to be selected for future prestigious events).