darinmontgomery

55K WEST #6 will held Saturday and Sunday, October 21st and 22nd, at Swiss Waterski Resort in Clermont, FL The two preliminary qualifying rounds to determine the Final Head to Head brackets will be held on Saturday. The highest scores out of the two rounds are used to seed Sunday's Final Head to Head pairings. Everyone is welcome to attend in person and the event will be Webcast Live. Live Webcast links below Saturday Sunday

Regarding the PB Invitational….. The final Running Order Head-to-Head brackets

Thank you to the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches for hosting the 81st US Nationals, as well as, all the volunteers, officials, sponsors, families, and skiers who attended. Completing an event of this size in four days is unprecedented. Obviously, the weather presented a few challenges that caused some shuffling and late nights for some. Again, EVERYONE, who attended… THANK YOU!!!

@Horton we are working through all of the details and will publish in the next couple months.

Auto-steer will definitely be in the not too distant future. I believe it will be implemented more quickly than we think. The technology has been used for years in other industries with precision beyond what is required for waterskiing. I know a laser based system was developed 20 yrs ago that didn’t receive funding for implementation. Sure-Path is collecting hundreds of thousands of slalom pulls currently. It has data on all of the top drives pulling all of the top skiers on the planet. It will it be easy to create the algorithm from this data to match the best driving and specific skiing style. I’ll go so far as to say we will pick our ZO and Auto-steer settings. Synchronizing the speed control with boat path is the ultimate combination that will take performances to the next level. I’m fortunate to have been one of the early adopters of Sure-Path. I know what the majority of slalom skiers think they want the boat path to be versus what they ski better with are not the same. I’d also bet most top level skiers would prefer a straight boat path than a random or weave. Slalom is simply a rhythm of speed and path for every line length. Once we are successful at mastering the rhythm of a line length it becomes easy regardless if it is 15-off or 41-off. Auto-steer together with ZO creates a repeatable constant for the skier to match the rhythm. For us slalom skiers the question is, can 43 be run? I believe auto-steer will make it much more likely and shorten by a decade or more.

I highly recommend the c85. Caldwell and Cord created a very special ski. The c85 is effortless, the most forgiving ski on the market. You will be skiing more passes with less impact on your body and as a result, adding buoys to your scores.

@Horton First, congratulations to Brian for a phenomenal weekend of skiing! He’s been skiing great and close to knocking down 41 for years. Hugh accomplishment. Second, great driving from Greg and Will. It was cool to see the SurePath data so everyone could celebrate Brian’s performances. Unfortunately, prior to SurePath there was always some skepticism regarding boat path when skiers would put up huge scores. Like it or not, perfect or not, SurePath removes any boat path gossip. I’m fortunate to be using SurePath on every practice and tournament set for over a year now and it is an incredible tool. I’ve become a much better driver as a result. It has also been very beneficial to the drivers I am blessed to have drive for me which happen to be among the best in the World. (Jeff Kepchia, Becky Lathrop, David James, Paul Santangelo, Roger Clark, Chet Raley, Noah Vieke and Jaret Llewellyn) While it’s great to have the data, the breadcrumbs are the key to understand how the boat and skier dance down the course. As we all know, slalom in its most simple form is nothing more than establishing the correct rhythm and path for each line length. The breadcrumbs illustrate this perfectly and should be used by the driver and skier to determine what is working and what can be improved. From my experience, it’s making a big impact with my shortest line length. I can’t speak for @Xpropman, however, I assume the breadcrumb request is to better understand how the driver and skier were dancing for all of us to learn what is required to drive and ski a full pass at 41 and not to criticize. Sorry for the long rant…. Congratulations again the BRIAN DETRICK!!!

@6balls Yes and Yes

I do believe the window is closing for a full 43 pass. The boats continue to get stronger and SurePath will be developed into auto steering. Unless the SurePath Auto Steer has boat path settings similar to Zero Off letters and numbers, running 43 with no boat path deviation is highly unlikely, IMHO.

Regina will run 41. She’s had a couple opportunities and Chad was not driving. Unfortunately, they were not behind a Malibu….

I received this from a close friend of Marc. “Marc is intubated and non-responsive. He has C2 fracture and fractures in his sacrum region as well as ankles and legs. Obviously the head trauma is the worst of it and it’s a wait and see thing as they deal with the swelling. All we can do now is hope and pray for the best.” I spent Thanksgiving with Marc and his family 30 years ago yesterday along with a few other guys from NLU/ULM. Unbelievably tragic, I always enjoyed seeing his father at tournaments throughout the years, RIP. Praying for Marc and his Mom

I’d like to have Caldwell, TFin, Rossi and any others at this event or future Big Dawg. I believe TFin and Rossi are eligible and we’re invited, hopefully, they will be able to make some events next year. The rules are the rules so the guys skiing at Malibu or other Open tournaments won’t be eligible for WEST or Big Dawg under the current formats. Perhaps a new Open to all over 35 format is worth exploring or even just an Open to all 55k tournament. It’s great to see there is a high level of interest in this style of tournament format that will hopefully lead to more and more events in the years to come.

I’m a Nautique guy, skied behind one for 40 yrs and have owned 196, several 200’s and fortunate to own the new Ski Nautique. I’m also lucky enough to get to ski behind Malibu and MasterCraft, all are great boats on the skier end. Both Malibu and MC did a great job addressing wake issues for slalom so I have no issue skiing behind any of them. IMHO, the best slalom boat to ski behind with a driver that could drive it was the Centurion Carbon Pro. No boat will ever please everyone and people will always have a preference for their own reasons, that’s what keeps everyone in busn and pushing the limits. That said, Nautique is the only 3 event boat that is made for all 3 events and should be recognized as such. The other two can pull slalom and jump but are not designed for tricks. As has been stated here already, the Ski Nautique is far from an epic fail. Nautique designed the only true 3 event boat, created the best slalom wake, and power to pull the current jump record. They incorporated carbon fiber in the haul design to save weight and went in a completely new direction with the overall shape and design. They innovate and forever changed the 3 event ski boat while keep the highest quality in the busn. I’m not knocking the other manufacturers but they are not made anywhere near as well as a Nautique, that’s a fact. I agree the cost of 3 event boats is crazy high and doesn’t help our sport. That said, all of the Ski Nautiques made are sold so they obviously know what they are doing. I’ll continue buying Nautiques and those of you who own MC or Malibu will most likely continue buying them as well, that’s great for everyone and vital for our sport.

Huge Thank you to Anne and Jay Bennett, Bennett’s staff, volunteers, sponsors, and all officials for making the 2020 Nationals possible. TWBC did an outstanding job with the webcast and set the bar high for all future US Nationals. I agree with the all suggestions for bios, roving interviews, leaderboard, skier data, etc to continuing improving the viewer experience. As SurePath becomes adopted, even more data can be easily linked making the announcers job easier. I happen to agree that Freddy is one of the best announcers and ambassadors of our sport. Unfortunately, it’s not realistic that he can do more than what he did on Saturday given his family and sponsor commitments. However, if the TWBC and LOC can get Freddy, April, TFin, Rossi, Wade, MB, and others to cover some of the events we all will be in for a real treat - next level stuff! Regarding costs, it is awesome if USAWS & USOC can cover the majority of the costs. Crowdfunding can certainly be a bonus. I’d like to see an option for all AWSA members to donate set amounts with the annual renewal. I would also like to see a $10 broadcast fee added to the National entry fees. There are always advertising fee options as well. Combining all sources will ensure we can adequately support TWBC at the US Nationals for the enjoyment of all members, families, and friends while expanding our audience to help grow our sport. Looking forward to building on this years TWBC success and 2021 season with US Nationals in Chicago, IL

@Chad_Scott well said