Local Tournaments- Announcing/Music/Other

[MI3Eventer]

Always looking for more ways to make the local Class C tournaments more fun and engaging.  We all know while we love our sport, it is like a track meet sometimes if you are waiting around all day to ski.

Lately at tournaments there has been a major push to make sure there are sound systems with announcers and music and the tournament vibe improves dramatically.  Now our state waterski association has purchased sound systems that are made available for LOCs to help grow the sport (great use of state funds and I'd vote to spend that money 100 times over).

One added benefit of the announcer is that it truly does help speed up the tournament.  Between waking college kids up from their naps to ski, and making sure judges are aware of where we are in the running order the communication helps exponentially.  

Who else have had similar experiences? What other ideas are out there to improve the downtime??

[Rednucleus]

Free beer?

[MI3Eventer]

@Rednucleus someone always has extra beers in their truck.  Not sure it would be a tournament otherwise.

[Horton]

@Rednucleus @MI3Eventer 

I hate to be "the enemy of fun" but until the event is over  - any alcohol is not / can not be a part of water ski tournaments. I know you guys are being funny but no.

[BKistler]

Don’t know if Hank Longo is lurking here. He’s the best source if you can get ahold of him. 

[mike_mapple]

1 hour ago, Horton said:

@Rednucleus @MI3Eventer 

I hate to be "the enemy of fun" but until the event is over  - any alcohol is not / can not be a part of water ski tournaments. I know you guys are being funny but no.

Is this just your stance or is this an actual rule? Ive been to my fair share of tournaments were beer was involved as a vendor, not just in someones truck, I get not drinking until you are done skiing for the day.

[Horton]

@mike_mapple I am guilty of being overly conservative about any drinking at tournaments. More to the point, as the admin of this site I am perhaps oversensitive to the messaging about alcohol and water skiing. 

In reality no one should object to beers being consumed by anyone who is done skiing.  Until recently I certainty had more than a few beers on a regular basis after skiing.  Beers after skiing are clearly part of the culture. So yeah my above comments might be a little aggressive.

My point is that alcohol can't be the thing that makes local events better. I buy beer for all the skiers at the BallOfSpray Cash Prize but none are cracked until the last skier is off the water. 

[MISkier]

How about some sort of waterski-related trivia or history during the event?  This could be either a question announced over the PA or some scrolling display on a big screen with questions, choices and eventually, after a pass is completed or there is another break in the action, the answer.  If the tournament were lucky enough to have shore camera feed the big screen, it could be used to show some of the tournament action interspersed with the questions.  Putting together a formidable set of questions into a presentation format would be the trick and would take lots of skiing history knowledge.  Some of the questions could even be rules-specific scenarios.  Then, once built, it could educate, inform, and entertain.  I am reminded of similar displays during the pre-showing time at the movie theaters.

[RichardDoane]

As an official of the event, it becomes “Miller time” as soon as the last skier is finished, and the boats are put away. 

a sound system and a low key announcer is a big plus as well

Someone usually has music in their phone

Edited November 16, 2023 by RichardDoane
Typos

[bikesrus]

At some of our Arvin tournaments we are lucky enough to have an announcer.  
His family is super involved in tournaments not only skiing but as chief boat drivers and scorers so he knows just about everyone.  But if he doesn’t know you, he will by the end of the day!
He manages to keep us knowing who is on the water and who is coming up. 
He is a teacher by day….so he has ALL of the bad jokes and crazy trivia 
But he also queues up the music for each skier.   Kind of like a walk up song in baseball.  Sometimes it is so funny to hear what he picks….lots of great skiing but lots of fun.  

[aupatking]

I really like the idea of the skier getting a song! We used to have Sean Hunter's dad at all of our tournaments. That guy on the mic was awesome. I loved his "little known facts" (lies) about the skier on the water.

If skis weren't so damn expensive, it would be fun to do some kind of raffle to keep everyone who missed their opener excited. Maybe I'll sponsor one with some gloves this coming season. I used to toy with the idea of a mobile party truck for tournaments. Food truck/Speakers, music, volleyball equipment. That sort of thing. Aside from it being an obvious money loser,  I'd have to figure out the living arrangements in it when my wife kicked me out of my house after the 4th tournament. After all the beer talk, maybe I could add a couple kegs of really good beer and taps to the imaginary truck. 

[mike_mapple]

17 hours ago, Horton said:

@mike_mapple I am guilty of being overly conservative about any drinking at tournaments. More to the point, as the admin of this site I am perhaps oversensitive to the messaging about alcohol and water skiing. 

In reality no one should object to beers being consumed by anyone who is done skiing.  Until recently I certainty had more than a few beers on a regular basis after skiing.  Beers after skiing are clearly part of the culture. So yeah my above comments might be a little aggressive.

My point is that alcohol can't be the thing that makes local events better. I buy beer for all the skiers at the BallOfSpray Cash Prize but none are cracked until the last skier is off the water. 

I guess Im more around Pro events, not as much the grass roots, so Im used to them having food trucks / Beer vendors. Not as much for the skiers, but for the spectators mostly.

 

But I also agree with if the site owner says no beer it is what it is.