timmo

Interesting comments all. It was a deep V handle... interesting point though. As we've gotten older and have the kids skiing off the back, we've become a lot more risk adverse - 0 booze while skiing (have a brew when the boat is back on the trailer), everyone wears a life jacket when there's kids in the boat or off the back, etc) This was everyone's first attempt at dock starting - driver included. He had a pretty wide smile on his face when he circled back. ? Lucas (in the video) isn't too bad at starting on the shoreline - he's always got up with his back foot out for deep water starts. Me on the other hand - I've always started with my back foot in on deep water starts, and never quite nailed dry starts. One thing that isn't really obvious from the vid is that the dock is actually quite high above the waterline. I gave it a go a bit later, I'm 190cm, and with my legs pretty straight, the tail of the ski just made the water. Ambition outweighing capability... One of the other guys - less experienced skier actually - did start off the dock a bit later in the day. It's about 2:50sec into this vid: (yes, this whole vid is complete nonsense)

Yeah, they were ahead of schedule and sponsors chipped in so they ran a quick cashie. Being down on the river, was actually a pretty cool thing for everyone involved to put on (organisers, sponsors, and of course the athletes). Gave us a chance to watch these guys push it on the really short lines more than once. ????

@slowugly boat Angular paint job looked better in real life, but yeah. The lines at the front almost seems to make it look like a pickle fork, which is a weird choice.

Crappy video - was holding the camera down so I could actually watch the run. There's some other vids of Joel Howley on my YouTube too.

@Spencer_Shultz If you want to get technical, the correct term for a photograph that has been edited is image. Who said they were photographs? Maybe I’m just really good with a set of nice pencils… ? Bit annoying they post out of order... Here's a quick collage of Neilly Ross's flip:

Was at the river today watching. Nate's run was next level. I video'd it (poorly)... might upload if I get around to it. Otherwise, I posted a few pics on the photos board.

Commentary is announced riverside. So trying to fire up the crowd a bit. On the flip side, I've heard them a few times comment how they hoped the international competitors made it through to Monday, given the long trip and costs etc.

No Crocs on the Yara? Melbournian here. Nah, no crocs. A few platypus upstream of where the skiing is. Nasty little buggers. (Almost as bad as Drop bears up on the Murray River.) Although powerful enough to kill smaller animals such as dogs, the venom is not lethal to humans, but the pain is so excruciating that the victim may be incapacitated Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus#Venom

Pretty bs that wakeboarders get paid more? I'm sorta OK with that. If a wakeboarding sponsor wants to chip in more $s for prizemoney for that event, probably their choice. From another perspective, would it be fair for it to be split across events where they don't have any products in that market?

Not sure what kind of crowd restrictions will be in place but in the past on any given final event and night jump there could be as many as 25,000 people sat down and watching. Restrictions are pretty much gone now, apart from a few indoor settings. I'll be heading in to watch the slalom finals on Monday. Early start on a public holiday to see the slalom, but I get the jumps / tricks are more of a genpop crowd pleaser.

Yeah. Travel to here in Melbourne has been pretty much zilch for the last couple of years. We're actually the most locked down city in the world. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Would love to see best competition possible, but grateful and appreciate anyone making the trip, especially on their own coin. Looking forward to seeing hard core slalom up close for the first time in ages. Also great choice by the comp to have equal prizes across mens and women's comps.