MillerTime38

If you would have asked me two years ago I probably would have voted differently. Public lake waterskiing is the pipeline for people to get into tournaments. If you want to grow the sport you have to grow the pipeline!

@glydon stick with it. It took me about 8 -10 sets to really feel the benefit of switching. I skied for 6 years with the "wrong" grip an when I til a lesson with Jodi Fisher he sai he will refund my money and refused to continue my lesson

#oceanpondskiclub bringing it back to the public waters

Thanks @horton for this site and thanks @mjump and his awesome family or letting me tag along on your boat. #publiclakeskiing

I moved to Jacksonville last fall came from Dallas area where I skied in private lake last 8 years. Found out there was one private lake in Jacksonville. Attempted to join but not taking new members...... Pretty much decided my ski days were over for the next three years until the NAVY relocated my wife and I. One day I get on BOS and see this post about a ski lake near lake city and the rest is history a long as @mjump doesn't get tired of pulling me!!

@unksskis they do it so we do not have to be on the dock with all the old men (34 mph) and listen to them complain about their muscle and body aches and listen to them tell us stories about how back in their day and how they use to run 38 off on a wooden ski

Ability Based skiing events do exist, I believe it is the INT? Perhaps people should go ski those events if they want to ski that format. Or spend more time on the water and less time online and maybe that will help you become more competitive. I have skied in 6 of the last 7 nationals in M2, every year ex-pros and sometimes current pro's will ski in that division. I see that as motivation because I want to compete against the best, not the best of the average. Keep skiing your division Don, who cares what people think

@webbdawg Glad to see you got redemption. Congrats and Great skiing

I like a 16.08 and actual line lengths. If you are struggling on a line length, get someone in the boat to watch and make suggestions. This is the most important part, LISTEN TO THEIR SUGGESTIONS. Then go back a line length or two and try to correct the errors. You are not going to get any better by using mid loops or going faster because you are not doing anything to change your technique, slowing the boat down may help because it is giving you more time to think and react but make sure you are trying to correct your technique and not just scrapping out the passes or it will all be a waste of time

@Mshaw200 "Them just showing up at 2 events doesn't automatically qualify them for the Finals" Funny, the data shows the opposite. Every skier that skied two events qualified.....unless I am reading something wrong skiers 41-88 only have one point total. Does anyone know if the total Big Dawg participation was up or down from last year. Only 88 skiers participated in the 4 qualifying events? That seems like a low number

@OB you are correct I should have said resources and not money, and I should have said 40 best skiers in the world not country. Another thing I noticed, they are only taking the top 2 points even if the skier competed in three events, so it is not a true point system.

@Mshaw200 so by my math that means that 17.5% of the skiers that qualified for the Big Dawg finals did so solely based on the new rules and the ability to attend multiple events. @OB Nascar drivers are prefessional drivers. It makes sense to use a point system because the majority of the drivers are sponsored and make money from sponsors advertising on their cars. So if they don't race, they get no sponor money. Last time I checked Big dawgs were not professional skiers but amatuers with jobs and only a few of them are actually sponsored. I am not hating here. Just pointing out that some guys ran a full pass more than other skiers, but they lose out because they could not attend multiple events. So we have a mixture of guys that got in on talent and guys that got in on money, not the 40 best slalom skiers in the country

@popof plenty of ski sites around dallas. I will not be around during that time but @bigtex2011, @ntx, and @disland may be able to help you out.

@Ed_Johnson Thanks. I plan to ski a tournament at Victory Lake so hopefully I will run into some ballers

Any ballers skiing in Jacksonville or know any lakes that are taking members? I am relocating from DFW area, any info would be appreciatted

@OB I agree 100% on calling in boat times. Only call in a boat time if it is not actual. I cannot stand saying "6 with a 95" 100 times while boat judging a group. I think the biggest hinderance to growing the sport is economical. I read somewhere that people are working more and making less. That means less time and money to spend extra curricular activities. Hence more people are selling the $50K boats and not paying $2K a year for private water and are picking up the $3000 bike or the $1000 golf clubs.

@Bigtexas2011 I think you still owe me a couple 6 packs....

@Bry you are missing the point here. We are getting to the point where NO ONE wants to host the National tournament because there is no upside. It is a ton of work and resources for no return. All I have read is your rebuttal to everyone's idea, how do you propose we make hosting Nationals more appealing to more sites?

@Bry why does it need to be a record?

I hear eveyone say the biggest expenses for the LOC is the officiating cost and I also hear people say how much work is involved with setting up the equipment like cameras and monitors to meet the Record tourney requirements. Making it a class C will reduce the cost for officiating and save the LOC time and resources needed to make the site record capable. You could even give the LOC the option of running as a C or Record.

@Ob great point. Everyone talks about growing the sport but I just do not see that happening. I think the majority of water skiers are middle class and the middle class is disapearring. So people think that the focus should be to grow the sport even though the pool of potential skiers is shrinking. Sounds like we should just try to maintain what we have. I am all in for the NSL, it is really just the Big Dawg on a larger scale. I think by now we can say the Big Dawg is a succesful model, so just expand. As Horton says, you do not have to do it all at once. Maybe add in a Jr. Big Dawg for the B3-M1-M2 and G3-W1-W2 skiers and then a Puppy division for the junior skiers. We could also throw in the Old Dawgs for the M5 -M6.

@OB the Big Dawg tour is there to reward you "Big Spenders" for your financial contribution to the sport. The goal was to increase participation to the Nationals as a whole, not just for the deep pockets. By the way M3 had 31 skiers to M2 24 skiers and M1 25 skiers and look at the scores for the Winners, 116 for M1 110 for M2 and 104 for M3. Lump the M3 skiers with the Men 4 skiers and lump the M1 and M2 skiers together. Then you take the top X from those combined groups to a finals. You still have the same amount of skiers getting a second round and you are also opening it up to include more divisions. You can do similarly with the womens divisions. Even though I am just a poor M2 skier, I have attended 4 of the last 5 nationals so I have done my part to support the tournament and will continue to do so no matter what format is in place.

So the Big Dawgs will get to ski another round at Nationals. I cannot wait to see more people skiing old man speed

@Klindy has anyone looked at how much cost savings there would be for the LOC if nationals were trimmed down to 2-3 day event? Personally I love the idea, the LOC should be able to choose the qualification criteria based on their preference. I also think they should also be able to choose the format, for example 1 rd only or 1 rd prelim then top x skiers go to finals. Obviously they would have to make these decisions early in the year so everyone knows the rules. I think this would allow the LOC more flexibility and it would allow them to figure out ways to make the tournament profitable again.

How much time and resources could be saved by running nationals as a class C tourney? Considering that Officials are the biggest expense it seems like a logical place to start.