Sean

Skip seemed like a great guy, I only met him once when he was teaching show ski scoring and strategy, but he was super approachable and friendly.

Might want to disconnect it from the rudder first to see if it's really the cable or if it's the rudder being difficult. My last Malibu was terrible to steer in the cold, but it was the rudder being tough; the cable moved effortlessly when detached from the rudder.

Yeah I've never been there, and it could very well be the best tournament ever ran, I wouldn't know (but I don't see how it could get better than Great Plains Conference at the Water's Edge...off topic). I was in no way criticizing the tournament, just criticizing the reaction to some free advice. Nothing is ever perfect, there is always room for improvement. I'm sure everyone involved knows what they're doing and doesn't need any free advice, but that's not where this thread's been going.

@LLUSA That's the kind of attitude I see flaunted that makes me shy away from going to someone's private lake with cliquey groups for a tournament where I won't ski much. Free advice may be easier to talk about than to actually do, but it's still a gift that didn't have to be offered in the first place. As far as the no food goes, if the event was catered, why not order a little extra food next time for spectators to purchase? He mentioned the portajohns could be located in a more central spot, don't take the tip if you don't like it.

I skied in college, mostly for the girls, parties, and free coaching from teammates. I didn't ski another tournament for years after graduating since it was no longer a team event, I didn't know anyone, and I'm nowhere near advanced enough to hold my own. The next tournament I got into was a barefoot one since the organizer was giving (and still gives) free entry to anyone if it's their first barefoot tournament, and gives lessons the day before for the price of gas. I had nothing to lose by trying it. There was a huge potluck the first night, and I met a couple cool people there. We camp out together, have a fire, have some beers, it's a good time. I now do that tournament yearly. If there was a three event tournament nearby (within a couple hours) that either was offering free lessons the day before or free entry for first timers, I'd try it out (who wouldn't?). If the people there were welcoming and I got to know some of them, I'd be interested in coming back. I'd be even more interested if there were a handicap in place. I think Horton's idea of taking five tournament scores in the past year for a handicap would be too many to interest me. I can't see myself ever doing more than three tournaments a year (that's a lot in a short WI summer), so taking the past two scores would appeal to me more and incentivize me to entering two other tournaments.

This does not replace the Malibu Open. The Open will still be in Milwaukee the last weekend in August.

I can speak from experience that YWAM is an amazing organization. I built one of those homes with them when I was in high school. It was for a family of 9 that was previously living under a couple tarps.

Yeah that's probably an hour from Madison too, but worth it if you've dying to get in a course again. I forgot there's also the course on the Neosho Millpond if you're willing to drive that kind of distance. It's a way better public course than Monona, mostly since the lake is way smaller.

You're probably familiar with the public course on Lake Monona. There's a couple private lakes in Dousman (an hour away of course), one of which has a pretty infamous course on a world class lake, but I'm not sure if either lake allows us common folk without being a guest of someone's. I have a portable course that hardly ever gets used now that I moved up to Madison and away from small lakes with nobody on them, but would bring it out if you had a place to set it up in mind. Still foot at all? I'm more into that than traditional 3 event and always looking for others.

I've done it a few times and it was a heck of a workout, but I didn't get much out of it and don't see people getting the results I'm looking for. The way I see it is if you're out of shape, or just don't workout much, then crossfit is great for getting you in shape for both cardio and strength at the same time. On the flip side I haven't seen any crossfitters that are the best runners or triathletes, nor have I seen them be the strongest dudes like a powerlifter or strongman. At their best, they're just decent at both. When I tried it I found I was actually getting weaker, but I do lots of other lifting already. If I didn't already lift I would bet I'd get a little stronger crossfitting, but not as strong had I been more strictly weightlifting instead. Cardio has always come naturally to me, so I don't train that, I just focus on things that need work. Since crossfit in essence trains everything, it doesn't cater towards training weak points.

+1 to 6balls "dampsuit". I've called my neo Ski Warm suit that since I got it. Water goes straight up the legs way more than my trash bag style drysuit.

Ski all three events on the same apparatus. Pick whatever you want, otherwise normal rules apply.

Anyone know how many skiers each team will be limited to? Assuming this keeps growing like it has in the last week, there's no way they'd fit the normal 5 guys/5 girls per team from two conferences all into a two day event.