GK

I understand the whole "make becoming an offical easier" but does that really hold any weight whatsoever on the topic of what USAWS can learn from the INT and making tournaments more fun? If someone wants to hold a tournament with less officials then sanction a Class N tournament which only requires one judge in the boat.

I think I've posted this on here in the past, I've been contacted by a couple people about doing this in their neck of the woods, but I don't think anyone else has run with it yet... In Ohio, we've come up, in my opinion, with the answer to most of these questions. We even attempted to work with the INT here in Ohio in an effort for some "crossover" between the INT & AWSA skiers. I'll start by saying that I don't think INT's ability levels are a great structure either because ultimately you 1) have skiers at the top end of the talent pool and the bottom end in each division so it's not necessarily competitive when you know who is going to win and 2) you could go to a tournament and be the only skier in your division which still leaves you with no competition. Here was our solution in Ohio to bring both FUN & COMPETITION back into our tournaments which is known as the "Buckeye Buoy Tour"... 1. We run "fun formats" on top of the Class C platform. All Class C rules are followed so there are no issues with ranking list scores for the higher end skiers. The fun formats are all based on a scoring system that we've designed around a skiers "average buoy count" which would be the same as your national rankings buoy count averaged over your top 3 tournaments. So, if a skier gets 1 buoy beyond their "average buoy count" they've just scored a certain percentage and you now have a base to compare 2 skiers of different ability levels. This alone isn't enough though because a skier at 30 mph is much more likely to run 2 buoys over his average than a skier at 38 off. That's where the "format" comes into play. We have multiple formats that we use for different tour stops but they all have a similar design. First you have to set your running orders based on seeding. A skier with a average of 105 buoys might be top seed down to a skier with an average of 3 buoys at the bottom. This is your running order. Now, if you want to do a head-to-head bracket, seeds 1&2 go against each other, 3&4 against each other, and on down the list. Even in a head-to-head though you're the person who does the best against their average wins. If you exceed your average in any given round, that becomes your new average for the day, so by the time you get to the finals where you might have a 38 off skier against a 30 mph skier each skier has already had 3 or 4 sets and the 30 mph skier will have increased his average to his "top ability level" for that given day. 2. We guarantee 2 rounds to all competitors with the chance for anywhere from 3 to 6 rounds if you advance to the finals. 3. We adjusted our novice division rule in Ohio to allow novice skiers to get a mulligan AND ski in the mini-course (boat drives between 1,3,5 and boat guides so the skier can go around 1 ball, boat guide, 3 ball, boat guide, 5 ball, boat guide, as the mini-course). 4. We have 5 tour stops per year and all of them are required to have an announcer, provide online registration, and either have a concession stand or provide lunch for the skiers. 5. All tour stops have a grassroots sanction attached to them so anyone with a $30 grassroots membership can participate. 6. Prices for all stops are set at $50 with a 20% discount for any officials rating & 35% discount for juniors. 7. All tour stops include awards and overall tour awards are given out at the end of the year. 8. Because running orders are seeded, it allows us to put coaches in the boat for the novice/beginner groups and make sure that we're catering to their inexperience on the starting dock. 9. All events are slalom only on Saturday (so no sitting around waiting on the trickers and jumpers) and all events are trick and jump only on Sunday (trick & jump is also scored on skier averages and part of the tour). 10. All tour stops are encouraged to have a cookout, bonfire, party, etc on Saturday night along with on-site camping. This will be the 3rd full season for the Buckeye Buoy Tour. We've seen tournament participation almost double at these events over 3 years and our biggest problem now is formatting these events so we don't have to turn people away! You can see all the details at this website: http://skiowsa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=635&Itemid=67 As an example, here is the format for our first tour stop this coming weekend: It's called the Shortline Shores Pick Your Poison. It's a variation of a head-to-head format. Skiers will be seeded from top to bottom. Seed 1 vs Seed 2, seed 3 vs seed 4, etc. The losing skiers from round 1 will be placed into a "pool" and the winning skiers from round 1 will CHOOSE who they want to ski against head-to-head in round 2 (Pick Your Poison). Top seeds will choose first so they can pick a skier close to their own ability level if they choose to do so. If you win round 1 & round 2 you advance to the finals, if you lose round 1 & round 2 you're done for the day, if you win one round and lose one round you advance to a 3rd head-to-head round to either make the finals or be eliminated for the day. Ultimately all skiers in the 4th round finals will compete against each other and the skier with the best score of the finals against their average will be crowned the winner. Should be FUN & COMPETITIVE!

I don't think we need anymore divisions, but I think they should allow the other age divisions to ski 36 mph and give them credit for 6 additional buoys. It would just add one more element of choice for each individual skier when he enters a tournament. I think this is a better option than being allowed to stay in M2, however staying in M2 would be better than the current system.

I have not yet skied in a turn and burn event, but my initial concerns have been official growth. It's already a bit of a struggle not killing the few officials all day long and now you're telling those most dedicated skiers that they need to hang around until the end while everyone else knocks out their 2nd & 3rd round and take off. What if those you're counting on to officiate in the 3rd want to T&B and leave? I like the idea from a skier standpoint and would probably utilize it as a skier, but I'm not convinced it's what's best for the sport? Do we really want to encourage people to ski and leave? Isn't that one of the things that's been effecting whether a tournament is FUN? My guess is that the BOS view is going to be tilted pretty far to one side with deep shortline skiers who are more likely going to a tournament to get a "score" as opposed to enjoy the tournament as a whole? Instead of speeding tournaments up, maybe we should be slowing them down? More awards, more chances to EARN additional rounds, more emphasis on FUN instead of scores, etc? T&Bs sound great to me as a fun alternate format from time to time to keep things fresh but I'm not convinced it's a good idea long term for the majority of tournaments across the country.

www.skiowsa.com

I think the concept behind INT was great, but I think even they missed the boat when it comes to scoring tournaments. They have so many different ability divisions that on any given weekend you're still only competing against 2 or 3 other people in your division if you're lucky. Is that good competition? In my opinion, the only way to hold a really fun and competitive amateur event is to utilize handicapped scoring so that every skier is competing against every other skier at the event. I can say that I've "won" dozens of tournaments, but if you ask me which tournament performances are the most memorable, the ones at the top of my list are placing 5th at regionals, placing 5th at collegiate regionals, and placing 2nd in our state ski tour. Why? Because I had to ski to the best of my ability and beat a lot of competitors to get those awards. Maybe it's just me, but competition makes the weekend a lot more fun.

Sounds like fun. The only thing that I would change is I'd throw in at least one round of standard slalom also. Ideally it would be sanctioned Class C so the score would count towards rankings if you skied well, but probably wouldn't have to be. My Buckeye Buoy Tour events have been designed around "fun and competition" but I made sure to maintain a format that would allow for the average tournament skier to still participate. It would be tough to fill the event without some long-time tournament skiers.

Yeah, the computer tracking is great if you're already a rated official. It's the people who don't have a rating and are working towards an assistant rating that can not be put into the computer system. They have to track their requirements to become an assistant by hand and that typically takes 3 seperate tournaments. I agree, it would be great to get some clinics via webcast. OWSA is hosting a judges, scorers, safety, CPR, and drivers clinic this spring if you're close to Ohio. Online registration is up for everything except for the drivers clinic which is still being planned. www.skiowsa.com

USAWS customer service is usually excellent if you give them a call after running into a problem. If you need to be re-instated as an official, call Traci Baylon and explain the situation, she may re-instate you on the spot and give you the season to make up for any missing clinics or events. I think they've made becoming an official about as easy as possible. I think there has to be some level of "requirements" to maintain the integrity of new officials (not that some people couldn't just jump in and start counting buoys). They do have some "fast track" options for some people. My biggest problem with the official process is the fact that people have to keep track of the paperwork. Shouldn't be that big of a deal, but for a person who only goes to 2 or 3 tournaments a year, it can be tough to keep track of a single piece of paper. Now on the other hand, if someone isn't willing to hang onto their paperwork, their heart probably isn't all that much into officiating. It could go either way. It would be nice if aspiring officials could be tracked in the computer system like all the other officials. That would take care of the paperwork issue. We've brought it up to USAWS in the past but evidently for the amount of computer programming it would take, it's not real high on the priority list which is understandable.

I just read through this thread for the first time. As an active supporter of collegiate waterskiing and the organizer of a number of collegiate tournaments over the past 10 years, I think that the lake owners expressing concerns have good reason to be worried. They've worked their entire lives to build up to owning their own lake and no one should expect them to risk it all so that a few idiots can get obliterated on a Saturday night. I worked with Lottawatta and UC to host the Bearcat Buoy Battle this fall and it went extremely well. We were hoping to hold it again, but when we found out Lottawatta was no longer going to allow camping, we decided to move our bid to our home site, which is a two lake site, and put in a bid for conference. The reason we didn't use our home site to begin with was that they too will not allow camping. Without camping, we might as well utilize the two lake site as opposed to Lottawatta. We're seriously considering utilizing downtown Cincinnati for hotels and let the party happen as it may in the downtown area. Let's the bars worry about policing the underage drinking and partying. It will be interesting to see if less skiers show up since they'll need to stay in hotels (assuming we win the bid). Lottawatta is one of the best places in the midwest to host a collegiate tournament or any tournament for that matter and I have a feeling we'll be attempting to hold more collegiate events there in the future assuming we don't need a multiple lake site.