MrJones

"Flog it"

"Let it happen cap'n"

In honor of Dave I may move to "Love you"....

Regardless....

Decisions need to be made. Are we having nationals? Regionals? Other "Big" tournaments?

I'm sure many of you are in the same boat. Our summers revolve around kids being in various camps and water ski tournaments. At this time almost all of their camps have been cancelled and skiing is up in the air.

As a family we are not concerned about Covid 19. Statistically it's just not an issue. Given that, we are considering some vacations to places that are open. We can give it another week or so, but for travel, coverage at work, etc. we may just schedule our stuff and if skiing fits in we'll go rather than the other way around.

This may not be as funny, but is supposed to be true.

Back in the day Jody Johnston told me of Jeff forgetting his drill when going to test skis at Lake Wellington. No worries. He just grabbed a screwdriver and manually twisted them into the ski.

(FYI: For you younger types this was before inserts. Just twisted a sheet metal screw through aluminum. No big deal)

No down side to trying one. It's certainly not magic. Some people respond well to it and others don't. This or mechanical traction on a table actually irritates my back. Others find relief.

Worth giving it a shot.

I agree. Here is my non funny (sarcastic) thought.

How does this make anything better? It is already largely this way, but this will solidify that Nationals will be the only event where there is any true competition. There will be several "divisions" at our regional JD and championship tournaments where there will be one or zero competitors.

If having fun is the goal, tournaments of any sort aren't needed. Go to the public lake or just have fun skiing against your friends and family at home. I see competition as something that should be challenging. To be worthwhile it must be difficult. You want to get better. You struggle. You persevere. You may or may not win but you grow and learn something about yourself.

Kids aren't stupid. It won't take long for them to realize standing up on a podium, by themselves, to receive their first place trophy is meaningless and will move along to the next hobby.

First ski I ran 38 on. Bought it from John Reichard. Something of a blem ski I imagine. Ski must have been full of resin. Probably weighed 10 lbs. Maybe 15 with the double HO high wraps. It floated tail town. Like straight down with about 2" of tip sticking out of the water.

Still in the rafters over at the shop. Prolly pass on the nostalgia ride though...

I do want to see this....

Loved that ski!

The family actually sat and watched the women's slalom finals for our Friday night entertainment! Really enjoyed it.

Regardless of the conditions the same names are generally going to be on top. I don't have a problem with the venue at all. I believe the focus on scores vs. competition in our sport has been to our detriment.

We are actually planning dinner around the Men's final tonight. Will be interesting to see some to the big names have to go out early. Then to see how the higher seeds handle it. Should be entertaining!

I think it would be great to have. Honestly I think it will be a better tool to get sub par drivers to step up their game more than catch a few who are attempting to "bend the rules".

I see a lot more of the former than the latter.

I know this makes me sound ancient, but back in the day before 80 strand ropes became the standard we broke ropes frequently.

It was in 1991 (I believe) that I saw my first 80 strand at Bennett's. Keith Doucet was a big dude who won Nationals in M1 that year before going open. He broke so many regular ropes that he had a thicker one made out of the heavier (now normal) rope. I remember it looked odd as the entire rope was blue.