BKistler

@aupatking not sure how my name got associated with this thread but you’ve got the wrong guy. 🤔

The odd thing, of course, is that water skiing had already had its turn as a demonstration sport at Kiel, Germany.

Although AWSA was not yet a member of USOC by the time I left, there were financial and public relations benefits. I presume that is still the case.

@Stathis Ventouris has it right. I was there from the beginning and that was always the reasoning that I heard.

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

I’m lucky enough to have known both Wayne Grimditch and Joel Poland. Plenty of inspiration there.

@Than_Bogan Thanks for calling attention to Wayne Grimditch. Younger Ballers may not know that ‘Ditch won the ABC Superstars competition on national television against elite athletes from many other sports. He had thighs like tree stumps and not an ounce of crush on a 6- foot ramp.

Saw @Broussard and @LeonL today. Sitting with my old rival Gordon Gay, Anna’s grandfather.

Need I mention that Joel posted his amazing score on Friday the 13th? The haircut was good luck.

They have been extremely lucky today. Lines of showers that have been training through the state have missed Travers. An hour south in Winter Haven we’ve had continual and often very hard rain.

At least Saturday for trick finals. Maybe Thursday.

Awkward moments at Matt Rini’s: “Sorry Joel, can’t pull you with the Nautique.” 🙂

To @ETskier’s point. It doesn’t cost anything to thump the event on the website.

I am a fossil from the ancient days. In the ‘70s we had a staff of 6 or 7 including secretaries and mail room help. The editor of The Water Skier doubled as PR man. His task was to feed info to local news outlets. He could not guarantee that they picked up on the feed. We had no advertising budget to promote events directly. USA Water Ski is an affiliate federation of IWWF and the US Team is its property, so there certainly should be a motivation to promote the event. Visit Central Florida has been an event sponsor in the past and promoted the event. Ironically, Visit Central Florida is a creature of Polk County government and the event takes place in Lake County. Might be one reason why advertising is limited.

Thanks. Found it as soon as I posted.

Does anybody have a schedule of events for the World Championship? I can’t find anything on line.

Trix: Pato gold. Jake Silver or bronze. Erica gold. Anna Silver or bronze.

My buddy Coach Marc Bedsole must be over the moon. Fantastic skiing.

That B5 can kick anybody’s ass. Great skiing Jake, in spite of Lyman’s soapy, funny colored water that is the bane of lesser trickers like me and skiing a different boat. Good warm up for Worlds.

I’ve had good luck using charcoal lighter fluid.

I had a lot of trouble with Piriformis last season. No amount of stretching and PT seemed to work until I discovered what for me is the miracle stretch. Or actually a modification of a stretch I had been doing. Lay on your left side, reach behind you and grasp your right ankle, with your back straight, pull up gently to stretch the thigh. The trick is to push your right hip forward as you do this to engage the sciatic nerve at your hip/back. Hold 15-20 seconds. Repeat on the other side. My Piriformis symptoms disappeared. I now do this stretch before and after skiing. This is the first season I have not had any pulls or strains requiring PT.

I got good service when ordering Reflex from Miami Nautiques.

A headline caught my attention today. Divers working with police found 32 submerged cars in a lake just west of Miami International Airport. A map was included with the article. Unless I’m mistaken, the lake appears to be the old Miami Ski Club site where the Nationals were held. Check it out. Can anybody confirm if I’m right?