Rpc29

The Echo lake course was there last summer. Felt great to me skiing in water that was 30 feet deep compared to the 2 foot deep lake that I'm used to.

Prettt sure Bennett'a has one for sale

Pretty simply, anything that is a change from status quo deserves to be explored.

22

Shouldn't we just be excited that a non skiing company wants to advertise on a waterski website?

Hey that's my terrible ski face!

Regionals needs to die, the sport doesn't have enough participation anymore to justify two major events every year. This isn't crossfit, we aren't in the explosive growth phase.

 

The cost for a family to attend regionals/ nationals is far too great in terms of time and dollars. Why throw two mediocre events (Boise nationals being the exception). When you can pool all of your resources and throw one great event?

I ran the most 35's on an A1, but I was also 22, working at a ski school, and skiing 12 sets a week. Actually now that I think about it,I haven't run 35 on any other ski.....

I think a lot of it comes down to access. Of the 5 girls on my collegiate team. (Graduated in 09) Only one is still skiing buoys and the rest occasionally ski recreationally.

 

It's a similar story for them as it is for most post collegiate skiers. Access is not realistic for most people who are making 50k a year out of college so they drop out of the sport and lose the bug. It's an unfortunate reality of the sport.

 

It's not a gender problem, it's an access problem.

I would have skied nationals but I couldn't get out of a meeting that was the same day as regionals. I actually ended up going to Nationals and not skiing.

I went to Broadside this week as a spectator. A couple of things:

1. The tournament was run very efficiently, there was almost zero downtown between events, boats were in and out of the water very quickly.

2. OM scores were a little low given the perfect conditions, which obviously leads to everyone on site to start wondering about the driving, lets just put Chad Scott, Chris Eller, Tommy Harrington, or Jeff Gilbert behind the wheel for the open skier events and call it a day.

3. Broadside is an awesome site as a spectator, very easy to watch both lakes at once. They had a couple of food trucks and even a mobile bar on site.

4. Night jump was a great event. No need to change anything here, the even just plain worked and was fun for everyone. Only thing that could make it better would be inviting non USA skiers like Dodd and Schipner. Def don't need to add slalom or trick to the event to make it drag on longer.

5. I would love to see it back in Boise next year!

 

Downtown Boise is pretty awesome. I go a pretty decent amount for work so here's a short list of my favorite restaurants:

Bittercreek Ale House

Red Feather Lounge

Bardenay

Goldy's Breakfast Bistro

Barbacoa (full disclaimer, I haven't been here but have heard nothing but great things)

The Matador

It was the wait timer. Someone had set it on 05 so it was causing all of the extra beeps.

My perfect pass stargazer has recently started making several extra beeps for no reason after the skier exits the course. Anyone know what this is caused by?

@horton any thoughts on how far this would go into Sunday in Austin? My buddy is bugging me to come into town for ACL and now I just realized this is the same weekend and might as well ski so @MattP doesn't get mad at me.

@ClaiCouture you need to talk to @MattP about starting a team at your school. You'll make some of the best friends of your life at NCWSA tournaments, spring break trips, and all of the other shenanigans involved with collegiate waterskiing.

Just a thought but would the stipulation of "any approved hull with ZO" be good enough to bring a significant increase in the # of available boats for at least C level tournaments?

If you come to Utah I'll pull you for $10 a set. I've had great luck dropping in on people in both Idaho/Montana and getting great skiing at reasonable prices.

@akale15 I was in a similar situation to you last summer looking for my first boat in about the same price range you are in. I ended up with a 1995 Prostar 190 for under 10k and less than 400 hours. I had to drive 30 hours round trip to pick it up (12 on the way there and 18 on the way back but that is a whole other story). With the Mastercrafts from that era you get a great engine with the LT-1 and the ski wake is great.

Crossfit didn't really even exist 10 years ago but I can get up to the minute results from a 99% amateur competition (The Open) on their website at any time. Why aren't we stealing more ideas from these guys? Just go take a look at their YouTube channel, profiles on athletes, footage from events, etc. This isn't rocket science, just smart marketing and video production that an intern could handle if USA Waterski can't afford a real employee.

 

It's some of the little details that hold us back as a sport.

Yes, Department of Transportation, should have made that clearer.

Does anyone here ski on DOT owned lakes? I'd love to get some information on the details of your arrangements. I've stumbled across a very promising lake that was recently bought by the DOT and was a farm lake beforehand.

@BRY oops! Errant click.

If you want more people interested in a pro event, you need more people who have actually slalom skied. A beer tent, magical glowing skiers, and dual slalom will not fix that.

 

We have a governing body (USA Waterski) that does almost nothing to help get people on the water. Waterski Atlanta dies, what did USA Waterski do? It sounds like @jipster43 is having issues with liability at his site in Bozeman, Mt isn't this a great opportunity for USA Waterski to come in and say "we are the experts in private lake skiing, here are some insurance companies we've worked with that can help you with your issues."

 

It's hard to have better events with a powerless governing body.

These look great, unique idea, going to have to try them out in the spring.