A lot of you know SkiDawg, aka Ward Mclain. Or his Uber-Athlete kids, Logan and Landrie. But fewer know how deep the competitive DNA runs in the Mclain family. Ward’s wife Kim is an OG baller herself. She used to get out and hold her own on a waterski when they lived at Olde Oaks in Shreveport. But her real forte is mountain bike racing. I recall her showing up at a waterski tournament to ski looking like she’d been in a brawl with a mountain lion. Only to find out she’d come straight from winning a mountain bike race to ski in a tournament.
Unfortunately, Kim did take a hard spill on her mountain bike on Monday April 26th, which had her being airlifted to a Level 1 Trauma center. She was left with a fractured left hip, the head of her right hip was pushed through the hip socket, a pelvic fracture, 2 sacrum fractures(I had to google that ouch!), and fractures in her L4 and L5 vertebrates. One monstrous 10 hour surgery later, humpty dumpty is put back together with bailing wire and duct, and back home on the mend. According to Ward she is looking at 8+ weeks non weight bearing on both legs. And faced with who knows how many months of physical therapy.
Even worse than the trauma from the injuries to Kim and watching her go through this for the rest of their family, Kim and Ward’s insurance wasn’t set to start for 2 more weeks. So now they are faced with the financial perils of not just a lost income for a significant part of the year, but also the mounting hospital bills as they arrive.
Ward and Kim have given so much to all of us, as well as to multiple sports. Friendship, first of all. Not to mention places to stay when we’ve been in town and mental support during races and tournaments. If you can afford to give to help out a great family in a time of need, please do so.
Donate to the Kim McLain Medical Fund
MasterLine has signed on as the official rope of the of Skier’s Marine MasterCraft BallOfSpray Cash Prize at Whitestone Lakes. The event will be held June 12-13th at Whitestone Lake Estates’ two lake site in Talking Rock, GA.
Pro and amateur skiers alike will compete for at least $6,000 in prize money. The two-day event is comprised of 2 rounds of prelims and a final. Every competitor will ski 3 times and every competitor has an opportunity to take home prize money. The 16 skiers with the highest scores will compete for $3,000 in a head-to-head final and the remaining skiers will compete for an additional $3,000 in a handicap round.
General Notes and Rules
- To be eligible for the handicap round, a skier must have scores from 3 or more different USAWS tournaments in the previous 24 months
- Handicaps will be calculated from each skier's USAWS 12-month 3 score average. If a skier does not have 3 scores from the last 12 months a 24-month average will be used
- BallOfSpray reserves the right to tweak individual handicaps and entry qualifications as needed
- Non USAWS skiers who can provide documentation of scores from other federations will be admitted at the discretion of the event organizer
All scores will be entered into the Cash Prize Score Book without regard to boat speed. The values for 34 MPH scores will be used for 36 mph and 32 mph skiers.
- Example: 4 @38 off = 100 buoys at 34mph and at 36 mph and at 32 mph
Seeding for the Head to Head will be as follows
- Skiers with the 8 highest scores from prelims will take seeds 1 through 8
- Skiers with the highest combined scores from rounds 1 and 2 (but not one of the 8 highest scores) will take seeds 9 through 16
All rules are subject to change
Entries are non-refundable unless the event fills. Entry fees will only be refunded when a skier from the waiting list replaces a canceled entry.
The entry fee is $225
If you have any questions about the Cash Prize please contact John Horton at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Question about the Whitestone Summer Starter please contact Craig Bryans at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Without question, the year 2020 imposed many challenges for us all; some of which have carried into the New Year. From political uproar to the shutdown of universities, not a single one of us came out unaffected. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the waterski world has completely changed. The success of the Sun Devil Waterski Team depends solely on its members’ ability to act under pressure, be resilient, adaptive, and innovative - this is who we are.
As a collegiate water ski team, we compete in tournaments year-round to showcase our hard work in attaining titles for ASU. In our last competition season, we ranked #1 in the Western Region and placed 6th out of 60 teams at the national competition! As of early March, all collegiate tournaments were canceled for the rest of the season; preventing us from working toward a national title. During this time, we had to trade our spirit-enhancing tournament events for small, limited, one-on-one gatherings. Our bonding time on the lake has been reduced to a limited practice schedule with social distancing. Despite the challenges, the Sun Devil Water Ski Team has an incredible sense of family and determination that remains steadfast. We hold ourselves accountable to radiate affinity for one another, be understanding, and constantly work toward improvement, regardless of our ability to compete at this time. Our team continues to look toward the future when we can compete together again, and will welcome new skiers of all different levels to join us in making ASU proud!
We ask you to consider donating to the Sun Devil Water Ski program to ensure its success well into the future. During this season, Arizona State University has suspended all funding for sports clubs. Even in a regular season, we can only rely on a small amount of guaranteed funding ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 a year, which is quickly consumed for our annual practice lake lease. Sun Devil Waterski provides a collegiate, supportive, and athletic outlet for skiers of all levels to come together and do what we love to do - shred! As ambassadors of the sport, we are asking for the help of our families, friends, and supportive businesses to safeguard this team for years to come. We are an empowered group of caring, innovative, and persevering young adults who strive for greatness on and off the water.
We hope you will consider making a gift to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit waterski team to further the tradition of collegiate water skiing at ASU. Thank you for being an ambassador of the sport. If you have questions, please contact our President Gage Jarvis (907)-306-4321 or via the team fundraising email at fundraising.sundevilwaterski@
You can donate now on our websitewww.waterskiasu.com
BallOfSpray is proud to announce that Skier’s Marine has signed on as the title sponsor of the BallOfSpray Cash Prize and will be pulled exclusively by MasterCraft boats. The event will be held June 12-13th at Whitestone Lake Estates’ two lake site in Talking Rock, GA.
Pro and amateur skiers alike will compete for at least $6,000 in prize money. The two-day event is comprised of 2 rounds of prelims and a final. Every competitor will ski 3 times and every competitor has an opportunity to take home prize money. The 16 skiers with the highest scores will compete for $3,000 in a head-to-head final and the remaining skiers will compete for an additional $3,000 in a handicap round.
General Notes and Rules
- To be eligible for the handicap round, a skier must have scores from 3 or more different USAWS tournaments in the previous 24 months
- Handicaps will be calculated from each skier's USAWS 12-month 3 score average. If a skier does not have 3 scores from the last 12 months a 24-month average will be used
- BallOfSpray reserves the right to tweak individual handicaps and entry qualifications as needed
- Non USAWS skiers who can provide documentation of scores from other federations will be admitted at the discretion of the event organizer
All scores will be entered into the Cash Prize Score Book without regard to boat speed. The values for 34 MPH scores will be used for 36 mph and 32 mph skiers.
- Example: 4 @38 off = 100 buoys at 34mph and at 36 mph and at 32 mph
Seeding for the Head to Head will be as follows
- Skiers with the 8 highest scores from prelims will take seeds 1 through 8
- Skiers with the highest combined scores from rounds 1 and 2 (but not one of the 8 highest scores) will take seeds 9 through 16
All rules are subject to change
Entries are non-refundable unless the event fills. Entry fees will only be refunded when a skier from the waiting list replaces a canceled entry.
The entry fee is $225
If you have any questions about the Cash Prize please contact John Horton at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Question about the Whitestone Summer Starter please contact Craig Bryans at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The MasterCraft Pro event will take place Oct 29-30 and is free and open to the public.
POLK CITY, Fla., March 22, 2021 - Action Water Sports and MasterCraft Boat Company are excited to announce the 2021 MasterCraft Pro professional waterski event held at Lake Grew at Action Water Sports near Orlando, Fla. The event will feature the world’s top men and women professional waterskiers.
The competition begins Friday, October, 29th at 9 AM EDT with the men and women's slalom event. The professional tournament will conclude Saturday, October 30th with men’s jump finals. The event will be held at Action Water Sports,1251 Holy Cow Rd located off I-4 in Polk City, FL. For the full list of events and world-wide broadcast link, visit actionwater.com/mastercraft-
The entire event is open to the public with no cost of entry and free parking. Food and drink will be available for purchase on-site. All local, state, and CDC Covid-19 guidelines will be encouraged and adhered to.
“The waterski history and culture runs deep in Central Florida and we are excited to partner with MasterCraft again to bring this world class professional event to our community,” said Action Water Sports General Manager Phil Miklo. “This exciting event will also provide a great opportunity to get your family together and experience watersports competition at the highest level.”
Featured waterskiers competing will be Freddy Krueger, Karen Truelove, Taylor Garcia, Stephen Neveu, world-champion water skier Freddie Winter and many more.
Exclusive for event attendees, Action Water Sports will be offering store-wide savings inside its state-of-the-art proshop all weekend long.
The event will be powered by the record-setting MasterCraft ProStar, which was recently completely redesigned in the 2021 model year. The latest iteration includes advanced technology which allows for thoughtfully integrated features that cater not just to the skier behind the boat, but to the driver and crew as well.
“Since our founding in 1968, one of our goals has been to cultivate and support waterskiing globally,” said Vice President of Global Sales for MasterCraft, Matt McDevitt. “With the best athletes coming from around the world to compete, spectators can watch top-tier competition and experience first-hand the all new MasterCraft ProStar, the world’s best selling ski boat.”
For more information on the event, schedule and location, or to tune into the world-wide broadcast, visit actionwater.com/mastercraft-
About Action Water Sports
Action Water Sports is a premier MasterCraft Boat Company, Barletta Pontoons, and NauticStardealer who has been bringing families together on the water for over 30 years. With fourlocations in Florida and Michigan, Action Water Sports strives to set the bar for excellence forservice within the Central Florida boating community. They are a major contributor to thewatersports community hosting many grassroots events as well as pro waterski and wakeboardevents over the last few years. For more information, visit www.actionwater.com .
About MasterCraft
MasterCraft is a world-renowned innovator, designer, manufacturer, and marketer of premiumperformance sport boats. Founded in 1968, MasterCraft has cultivated its iconic brand imagethrough a rich history of industry-leading innovation, and more than four decades after theoriginal MasterCraft made its debut, the company’s goal remains the same - to continue buildingthe world’s best ski, wakeboard, wake surf and luxury performance powerboats.
Syndicate Connect gloves, featuring a Clincher-Grip palm strap with Dowel system, provide unbelievable hold power for longer sets, easier starts, and less fatigue. Designed to transfer load from the hands and fingers directly to the wrist strap to the forearms for increased grip strength, less hand strain or cramping and virtually no blisters! Great for beginners and experts alike!
Syndicate Connect gloves have extra padding on the wrist straps for extra comfort and stainless steel square rings for added durability. The inside-out construction, with seams built on the outside, maximize comfort while the dual wide stretch openings make application and removal quick and easy.
Product Link: https://www.hosports.com/product/waterski-gloves-connect-inside-out
Rossi and Trent are back in action for the second season of Spraymakers, where they dive deep into the world of water skiing. In this kickoff episode, they talk about the start of their seasons and some key highlights they look at while coaching.
Lighter, stronger, and featuring incredibly quick drying materials, The Syndicate Pro Comp Vest is specifically designed for high performance competition slalom skiing.
The outer and inner surfaces employ smooth skin to allow water to bead off the surface with minimal water absorption. The inner material creates skin friction, so the vest stays in place and doesn't ride up after deep water starts. Without concern for readjusting, skiers can devote all their focus to the quickly approaching pass. The horizontal flex zones and flexible materials provide the maximum mobility competition slalom skiers need to ski their best.
https://www.hosports.com/
The new rules pertaining to systems like Sure-Path and SkiPath look complicated and confusing at first glance but are actually quite simple.
In my opinion, some of the terminology used is potentially confusing. There are two clearly defined regions where the boat path is measured for each ball. One of these regions is called “Zone” and the other is called “Buoy”. The boat path data from the “Zone” is known as “Zone Deviation” and the data from “Buoy” is known as “Buoy Deviation”.
“Zone” starts 5 meters before the boat guide and extends 10 meters past the boat guide. “Buoy” starts at the boat guide and extends 5 meters past the boat guide.
“Buoy Deviation” is the number that most accurately defines where the boat is when the skier passes the ball and is the number most commonly used by drivers for reference. This is also the number used for the “Cumulative Deviation”.
“Cumulative Deviation” is simply the sum of all “Buoy Deviations”
Lastly, there is “Gate Deviation” which is 2 meters before and after the entry gate.
What you really need to know.
For “Zone Deviation” and “Buoy Deviation” if the boat is AWAY from the skier by more than 20cm an optional reride will be awarded. The skier can improve. The score is protected.
For both “Zone Deviation” and “Buoy Deviation” if the boat is TOWARD the skier by more than 20cm a mandatory reride will be awarded. The skier can improve. The score is not protected. The skier may decide not to take a reride and accept the score that was achieved within tolerance.
If the "Entry Gate Deviation" is more than 20cm to the left or right of centerline a mandatory reride will be awarded. No protected score.
The "Cumulative Deviation" will be considered out of tolerance if it is greater than the values in the below table. Just as with Zone and Buoy if the boat is away from the skier then an optional reride will be awarded. The skier can improve. The score is protected. If the data shows the boat was toward the skier a mandatory reride will be awarded. The skier can improve. The score is not protected. The skier may decide not to take a reride and accept the score that was achieved within tolerance.
| Bouy | Cum Tolerance |
| B2 | 28 cm |
| B3 | 35 cm |
| B4 | 40 cm |
| B5 | 45 cm |
| B6 | 49 cm |
How many rerides can I get? "There shall be no more than one mandatory reride for boat path deviation in a single pass. If during the mandatory reride the boat deviation would require another mandatory reride then the score given will be the maximum score in tolerance on the reride pass. No reride. In this case the Chief Judge shall warn the driver that the driving is not acceptable, and the driver may be replaced." (official WSC text)
If the path deviation is toward the skier the reride is mandatory. If it happens a second time there will be no second reride. The skier will receive the highest score before the deviation.
If the path deviation is away from the skier there is no limit to the number of rerides per pass.
Aditional "Zone" Minutia: the “Zone Deviation” data captures the point where the boat is most toward the skier. An example of how this might be counterintuitive is if the skier is at one ball and the boat is to the left of center (away from the skier) the “Zone Deviation” number will the point where the boat is farthest to the right. Don’t let this detail hurt your brain. The rules for your reride are still dictated by deviations greater than 20cm as detailed above.
Additionally, The "Zone Deviation" data is not even displayed in the boat unless it is more than 20cm off-center.
The text above is an attempt to simplify the new rules. PLEASE refer to the official rule book for more granular information.
The Ski or Die mantra was born of an obsession with fighting the odds, going against the grain, proving the nonbelievers wrong and throwing 110% of our heart and soul into water skiing from sunrise to sunset. For the Ski or Die collective, it’s not a question of “will we ski today?”, but rather “when and for how long?” We ski when the wind is howling AND when the water’s flat. We’ve got rain goggles on standby and we’ve been known to throw on a drysuit when need be. Settling? Never heard of her. Ski or Die is about having the courage and conviction to be your best, every day.
Rome wasn’t built in a day… and neither were we. Years of learning, relearning, failing, succeeding, experimenting and so on made us the water skiers we are today. And that’s something we want to wear loud and proud. Strength, faith, tenacity and fearlessness are all at the core of what we do. Our vision is a community of skiers who aren’t afraid to keep chasing one more buoy, one more point, and one more foot. The path may not always be clear, but that doesn’t stop the Ski or Die dream.
Gone are the days of wearing ski event shirts to only, well… events. Born of her love for old school tattoo-inspired art, Elizabeth Montavon has created a selection of apparel that embodies this manta and — most importantly — is truly wearable.
We get that Ski or Die isn’t the “norm” — and we love that. We wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if we were anything less than committed to creating an authentic message. We hope you see that Ski or Die was created for people like you. YOU are the ones who keep showing up to the lake, striving to learn more and get better. YOU are the ones who put in the hard work everyday and know that there’s some power in good ol’ fashioned blood, sweat, and tears. YOU are second to none.
Are you willing to Ski or Die?
Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dean Tom Murphy has been selected for induction in the National Collegiate Water Ski Association Hall of Fame. The Bear Bryant of collegiate water skiing, Dean Murphy is the winningest coach in the history of the sport and is credited with bringing 10 national championships to Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe.
Murphy brought legitimacy to collegiate skiing securing school support in the form of funding, transportation, and talent scholarships. He truly believed in the concept of team skiing, stressing that championships are won as a team, not by individuals.
Murphy was integral in the establishment of the collegiate water ski national championships. Prior to 1979 ski teams only competed regionally. When members of the NLU ski team proposed the idea of a national tournament, Murphy agreed and garnered support for the event from the University and the City of Monroe. The team hosted the first National Intercollegiate Water Ski Tournament on Bayou DeSiard in October of 1979.
The landscape of collegiate water skiing today would be unrecognizable had it not been for Dean Tom Murphy.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (February 18, 2021) – The health, safety and well-being of everyone is our top priority at the Victoria Waterski Association. As you are all aware, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a matter of great concern around the world. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been impacted by this virus and especially those who have lost loved ones.
The Moomba Masters International Invitational is the largest three-event waterski and wakeboard tournament in the world. It is our primary goal to stay committed to hosting the world’s best athletes on the water, not only to contend for one of the most premiere titles to obtain in the world, but also to entertain us with all of the thrilling excitement that occurs on the water of the Yarra River.
Our team has been working diligently with the City of Melbourne, local staff, event officials, International Federations and Associations, in navigating the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented.
Unfortunately, due to the Moomba Festival being cancelled for this year, a large volume of international athletes that currently reside in countries with travel restrictions and with the current situation in the state of Victoria, the city of Melbourne and Australia as a whole, we are not able to play host some of the best athletes in the world for the 2021 event.
Due to these ongoing challenges, it is with much regret that we have decided to cancel the Nautique® Moomba Masters for 2021. This decision did not come lightly, but we believe it’s in the best interest for health and safety of all parties.
We are already underway with our planning for the 61st Nautique Moomba Masters Tournament, and we wish all our competitors a safe year ahead and look forward to our return in 2022.
In addition, I would like to thank our sponsors, volunteers and families for your unwavering support and understanding during these unprecedented times. Rest assured, the 2022 Moomba Masters will be grander than ever.
We look forward to you joining us again on the banks of the Yarra River.
Regards,
Darren Robertson, President VWSA/Moomba Masters Chairman
Fran Hynes, Secretary VWSA
VWSA Directors
Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp says it was an 'incredibly difficult decision' to cancel Moomba for the first time since it began in 1955.
Read the article from The Age
The 3rd edition of Waterski Journal is putting together the new skis for 2021 as we all love new gears in our bags. Freddie Winter investigated over one of the greatest champions of all time to share his story: Jamie Beauchesne. Snap look over the U21 favorites for the world title in Santa Rosa Beach this summer. And many more!
