I am a big fan of new technology but..........................!

[Cam]

A 9 year old boy skiing in his 2nd ever competition recently ran a pass at 28 mph 15 off, he was dropped at the end and told sure path was out of tolerance so he had the option to run it again or accept 4 buoys at 28mph he opted to run it again which he did but my question is why he had to, as far as I know sure path or any other system is only advisory at this level and no disrespect to the driver or officials but a 90lb boy is not going to make much of an impression on the boat path of a tournament ski boat at this speed or line length, but having to ski a pass again through no fault of his own is going to leave a lasting impression on this young skier, common sense should have prevailed but it seems it didn't.

 

[MISkier]

Unless there was some tremendous crosswind or excessive rollers/busy water, the driver should have been able to manage a legit path for that skier.

[lpskier]

No SP required reride except at -38 and shorter. The people in the boat likely did not understand that rule. If the boat judge called for a reride, he or she made an error. 
 

That’s not to say you can’t get a boat path reride at -35 and longer; it just means that the reride is not going to be required because of SP data. If you’re the boat judge and you feel the driver hitting the boat guides, do the right thing by the skier. 

Edited October 2, 2023 by lpskier

[RAWSki]

Apparently common sense got left on the dock

[Drago]

Why is a 9 year old in a Record tournament?

[Cam]

4 hours ago, Drago said:

Why is a 9 year old in a Record tournament?

It's the only kind of tournament they run in the UK theses days🥵

[chrislandy]

@Cam, surely that worked in his favour though? If he got 4/46 with an out of tolerance, then ran the pass with the correct boat path then that's good isn't it?

Was he given the option to re-run or was he told he had to? I know it's not much difference to a 9yr old though 

[Cam]

@chrislandyNo, if you read my post again he ran his 28mph pass, he was also given the option to take his next pass at 30mph but if he failed to run it his score would have been 4 at 28mph, a lot for a 9 year old to take in.

[LeonL]

Obviously lack of knowledge of the rules.   Agree with @lpskier.

[chrislandy]

3 hours ago, Cam said:

@chrislandyNo, if you read my post again he ran his 28mph pass, he was also given the option to take his next pass at 30mph but if he failed to run it his score would have been 4 at 28mph, a lot for a 9 year old to take in.

sorry, misread it.

Bonkers at that level, it's not like he was running 13/49!

 

Similarly at the nationals this year, the only cohort other than open men to have any cuts was U14 boys in slalom and trick, 3 and 2 cut from each from single round qually, rather annoying when you've got older and younger basically competing against themselves as there is only only 1 in their age category.

[rico]

@Cam I agree with @lpskier no re-ride should have been granted because the driver was with the skier after 4 ball. It should be at the discretion of the judge though, if the numbers, or end course video is extremely bad. As a judge or chief judge, I would have asked for a re-ride if the driver had a major, obvious deviation to help the skier. 

In the US, it is common to run international ranking tournaments, but also offer a class E (national record) or class C (national ranking) option, for kids and skiers who don't care. 

On a side topic, and maybe this is for another thread, it will be important to translate surepath correctly and not obsess about it. The rules around it are very raw and young. For example if the boat is +25 at buoy 3 and you get a score of 3@39, it is a reride with a protected score of 2, but, you cannot get a score over 3, even if you run the pass. 

One could argue that the boat being with the skier may not help at 39 if they turn in to a slack line...

Another interesting rule I found out this week end is that if the boat pass or cum is over positive tolerance from 2 ball to 4 ball, and the skier gets a score of 4@38, they will have a protected score of 1. However, they cannot improve by more than 1 buoy on their re-ride.

I love surepath and this is a great tool for drivers, but I think we will see more skiers getting screwed by bad calls from judges, rather than someone being given a 2cm advantage / disadvantage.