GK

Yes, I organize the tour and it's been successful thanks to help from a lot of officials, lake owners, and tournament organizers who are willing to try new ideas and formats. We just try to make every event fun and competitive. Also, our sponsors really help give the events a great feel with prizes. Especially D3 skis who donated a Nate Smith autographed Quest for the Tour Slalom Champion.

 

The 4th round finals this weekend to determine the winner of the tour stop had all skiers running 2 mph below their maximum speed which allowed some people to shorten the rope a little further than normal. It was fun. No, the 4th round was not scored towards AWSA, it was just for fun and EVERY single skier stayed just for fun and a chance to win!

The analogies to most other sports don't hold water in my opinion for one reason. In most of the sports mentioned you show up and play an entire game. If you make a mistake you still have the opportunity to play hard and potentially win. In waterskiing, if you miss your gate, you're done. No redo, no mulligan, thanks for the hundreds of dollars you just spent coming to Regionals, we'll see you next year (if you decide to put up hundreds of dollars and come back).

Don't force people to change every slalom course in the world. Change the rule but use the buoys we've got in place. I agree with this order...

 

1) Skier must cross left to right somewhere between the right-hand green and left-hand red.

2) Don't judge the gates.

3) Some kind of mulligan rule.

4) Nothing.

I thought some of you might be interested in lending your support to a fellow skier trying to do something positive. Watch this video and see his comments below...

 

 

 

Skiers,

 

I know many of you but for those of you who do not know me my name is Adam Helbling and I used to ski in three event tournaments every summer from 2008 to 2011.

 

My greatest passion was always slalom skiing but I also served as captain of the Ohio State Waterski Team. I worked very hard to build up the team and in my final season my dream came true when we won the Division II National Championship in the fall of 2010. Little did I know that that would be the last time that I would ever ski competitively.

 

In January 2011 I was in a very serious car accident that left me paralyzed from the chest down. Waterskiing was my life and it was all I knew. During those first two years I could not even stand being by a body of water. It would bring tears to my eyes.

 

Recently I gave a speech at the Junior US Open for Waterskiing in Cincinnati. It was my first time being around slalom skiing since my accident which was my true love. It actually gave me motivation to get back out on the water and try something. I really enjoyed watching and realized that I could no longer separate myself from waterskiing.

 

So this past week I went to the Clarion River in Pennsylvania with my family where we would go every weekend when I used to ski. I got over my fear of water and decided to try keyboarding even though I only have the use of my right hand. I went tubing and I even got to drive the boat up and down the river. I was so happy to be able to coach people slalom skiing even though it has been so long. I even taught a few people how to ski for the first time. I really enjoyed myself and I cannot wait to go back. I plan to attend many three event tournament this summer.

 

Since my accident I came back to Ohio State and finished my degree in civil engineering. I have given motivational speeches around 40 to 50 times in the last year to audiences ranging from fourth-graders to scientists that study spinal cord injuries.

 

I also started a blog at AdamHelbling.com

where I share my story of dealing with bipolar disorder and my spinal cord injury. I also recently finished a book that I am working on getting published which is why I am looking for your support.

 

Please take five minutes to watch this video and hopefully you can donate to help my cause. There are several incentives to donate and one of them is for me to come and speak at your business or school or wherever. I would love the opportunity to come and speak somewhere!

 

I have found a new passion in writing and in public speaking that fills the void that waterskiing left. I'm incredibly happy these days and have long since accepted my disability.

 

Please take five minutes to check out this video:

 

 

Please share this link with your network and anyone that you know that could help. Thank you so much for your time!

 

Thanks again!

 

Adam Helbling

No matter how you approach 1 ball, 2 @ 43 off is still going to be 2 @ 43 off and it's going to take some insane skiing to beat it. Nate or Chris or Will or ??? will beat it eventually with or without the gate rule. You could make the same argument that there should be a distinction from records run on a fiberglass ski instead of wood, and a carbon ski instead of fiberglass, and behind perfect pass instead of hand throttle, and behind Zero Off instead of Perfect Pass and smaller buoy sizes instead of larger buoys, and 55 meter buoys instead of no 55 meter buoys, and man made lakes instead of public lakes. Does that mean we shouldn't have allowed those changes? That's the problem with records in any sport, you can't keep the same constants forever and since 99.9% of skiers will never be chasing those records, we shouldn't base our decisions around them if something could better the overall sport.

I think the argument for the change isn't about one group of skiers. If it was only going to benefit the pros then there probably wouldn't be much of an argument. The argument is for the good it would do for the sport overall. 1) It would benefit EVERY tournament skier in the world who spends anywhere from $100 to $1,000+ to attend a tournament only to have their day ruined because they missed a gate. 2) It would reduce the amount of controversy and time delays at events. 3) Most importantly on the professional level, it will make for a better show for the crowd if you don't have skiers pulled from the field for a missed gate. 4) It will make running the slalom course a little bit easier for novice skiers and collegiate skiers who are just learning and just entering the tournament scene. 5) It allows the skier to choose the optimal start for THEM as opposed to a set point that some pro skiers chose back in the day. 6) It reduces the amount of technology needed for an event.

I agree that no run-off was disappointing. I understand the time constraints, but until we're giving the audience something enjoyable to watch, slalom will continue to be somewhat boring. A run-off would have been enjoyable to watch, especially knowing Mapple would have been in the mix.

I'm not sure why a zero ball is necessary either. Why do we need skiers to start on the left side of the wakes. We all know that in deep shortline the optimal path would be to start on the left and ski approximately through the gates so nothing is going to change there. How many more collegiate skiers could be getting a good start at 26 mph and running some buoys if the gates weren't in the equation? What's wrong with pulling out wide and early for 1 ball? Scoring doesn't have to change. Like someone said, you get NO points for going through the gates, so why make it a requirement? Don't change the course, just allow a skier to start their run at the point they feel is optimal for them. I just don't see the downside.

Will Asher and Nate Smith both miss a shot at the podium after their gates were pulled. Made for a much less interesting event in my opinion. I've always thought that the entrance gate requirement is a silly one in our sport. I know it's been discussed before, but I would support doing away with the requirement to go through the entrance gates. It would help from a novice standpoint and put the focus on the real task at hand for all levels which is going around buoys!

@Horton - Yeah, I'm just an excel hack.

Sent.

Not bad for a rookie Horton, but I could have saved you a lot of time! hahaha See attached spreadsheet.

 

The "Slalom Input" tab is where you enter your scores and the "Head-to-Head" tab is where you fill out the brackets. Just type in the name of the winner in the brackets and it automatically updates their average for that round and their score.

 

This spreadsheet has been used for a dozen plus different Buckeye Buoy Tour formats. We get a big screen TV and display the brackets live throughout the day so people always know where they stand. This spreadsheet is for a true head-to-head from round 1 on, but I have lots of variations for different formats. If anyone is interested in putting on one of these fun format tournaments just give me a shout and I'll be happy to get you what you need and walk you through the spreadsheet. At some point I do have visions of updating it so it's very user friendly because more and more people across the country are using it. gk at rounding6.com

Just a shout out to my alma mater, the University of Cincinnati. They qualified and competed in D-I without one single skier who could run the slalom course, trick ski, or land a jump prior to coming to the University of Cincinnati. That's good team building!

We use a very similar handicapping structure to Than for our Buckeye Buoy Tour. Go to www.skiowsa.com and click on Buckeye Buoy Tour for more details. Contact me if you have any questions. gk at rounding6.com

I think most judges THINK that the ruling should be 1/4 buoy as soon as you break the plain of the buoy line (as someone mentioned above) but that is not the case as clearly shown on Page 94 of the AWSA rulebook. I think a 1/4 buoy is most common when a skier is running late, throws their ski out around the buoy landing on their side before the ski even has a chance to arc back across the buoy line.

I'll be at Midwest Regionals Friday afternoon through Sunday morning if any of you Midwest skiers want to learn more about these fun formats that we use. I helped Indiana get their Buoy Tour started this year and I'm happy to help any other states that are interested. Just reply here or shoot me an email gk at rounding6.com. Remember, all of our formats are run as Class C so they're good for novice through deep shortline.

BBT Stop #2 is FULL. 48 skiers, Head-to-Head w/loser's bracket down to a 15 skier final where they'll spin it to win it one pass below their average. Should be a good time!

Details of the finals are on the front page. It was a lot of fun and it's funny that @AB, @ScarletArrow, and I all ended up on the same team. Stop #2 format... "Spin It to Win It".

Yeah, we encouraged Indiana to model their tour as closely to ours as possible so that in the future we can potentially have some cross-over events. Any states interested in setting up something similar are welcome to contact me and I'll download you on everything you need!

 

I'm on my way to the first BBT stop right now and heading over to Indiana on Saturday night to help them get their's kicked off. Look for the results on Ball of Spray next week!

Malibu TXi or LXi with a wedge and tower. Come up with an easy option (such as a fat seat) to put extra weight in the boat for the boarders and everyone should be happy.

Gary, the tour will be in your neck of the woods at the end of August in Youngstown, OH. Should be fun, hope to meet you there.

Memories of Lucille are being posted at www.skiowsa.com if anyone would like to contribute or read more comments.

Great video. Love the non-stop action and voice-over. Until we get back on TV, that's the way to bring skiing to the masses!

Than, I think you could actually do a better job of comparing skiers. The best skiers are going to run 36 mph which could be translated across all age divisions. Those who feel 36 is too fast would ski 34 mph like they already are but still have the opportunity to compete with those who choose to go 36. I think it simplifies scoring because your buoy count chart now has 2 columns instead of about 10 columns for all the different divisions.

Get rid of maximum speeds in all divisions. Make it 36 for all men and 34 for all women and let the skier decide what speed they want to max out at. Then the skier can decide what speed is best for them. Maybe it's 36, maybe it's 32? You could be a newer skier to the sport and run into 28 off at 30 mph if you'd want and could be scored accordingly. I don't see a negative.