Edbrazil

@ntx agreed. As far as I know, the Team members have pay for their own travel, etc. Someone can confirm that? Think that the Elite Team is the only one that gets things paid for. I know for sure that the Senior Team has to pay their own way.

Event is all finished. Find results at: http://www.iwwfed-ea.org/classic/16IWWF03/ Where the US finished 4th, behind Canada, France, and Great Britain. 4th!! Good Grief. I remember when the US used to crush all other teams. Best as I can tell, won most of them, and never finished below 2nd.

One time record-holder a few times in M6, M8, M9, and M10. Of course, so was Thelma, who still holds some National Records going back as far as 1998.

Jim and Thelma: neat people. At one time, they had a house near Okeeheelee, in the Banyan Lakes development. Jim had a self-created analemma at his doorstep.

A woman posts a 200 foot jump.

The best placement that Kris had in his prime was 2nd at the 1979 Worlds in Toronto. Finishing 2nd to his brother. At another Worlds, Kris had the best score in one round. He was unable to ski in a lot of Worlds because you had to be on a country's team, before qualifying by Rankings. However, he did compete in 1975, 1977, and 1979 as World Record holder.

When I was only about age 6, some older kids told me about the Santa Claus myth. My parents confirmed, but it really didn't spoil Christmas for me. We always made a big deal about Christmas, with a real tree that we decorated. Great time, that I remember well. Now, Christmas is a lot simpler for me, getting gift certificates, and going online to order gifts for my daughter and grandson. No big family anymore.

Every once in a while, you need a good old M-80.

Regarding Jacinta, she may be closing on Deena's run of 38 jump wins in a row. A mark that was thought to stand "forever".

I stupor-vised the setout there, working with Lucky Lowe. Not a lot of room, but it works with an 8-buoy overlapping configuration. Kris and Jen are good people. I also worked with both on other projects. Including Jen's WOW Tour events. Such as the "impossible" site on the Ohio River at Parkersburg, WV.

Best as I know, the cheater course was only used for Dr. Jim, and not others. I was at the site when the scam was discovered.

Ahem: the phrase is "pigeonholed". This is a broad accusation: what is the evidence and what are the people and the sites?

Posting an endorsement for Travers. Good guy from back in NH. Jack has been involved with the sport for nearly 60 years.

I worked with @brettthurley some 20 years back, when WaterSki Magazine was doing its own version of Boat Tests. He helped out a lot, and skied many passes. Even had a compliment for me. I figured that I did well with driving for some 400 boats over the years, that I never chomped out a buoy. Some real specimens of boats there.

There sure would be some nasty wrecks if the speed went up. Entertaining for the crowd, maybe. Back when Men went from 34 to 36, there was an article in the Water Skier by Larry Brown that criticized it. Partly because a lot of boats of that era couldn't pull a solid 36 mph. Could maybe sell some "38" skis, scaled down in size just a bit.

The Worlds went "38" at one time (60 kph). Would have been early 1960s. Before lots of things like speed control and boat timing. Jimmy Jackson won the 1961 Worlds with a score of 5 @ 60 kph. At the 12 off loop. Long Beach, CA. In 1965, at the Worlds in Australia, Roland Hillier won with 4 @ 18 off, 60kph. At one time, speeds above 60kph may have been used, vs. shortening the towline.

Note to @auskier Yup, that was correct about the Olde Daze. And, you had to start at the minimum speed. After 4 passes, everyone with no misses would come back to the dock. Then, they would go out again, maybe for just 2 passes. I need to go look up a Rulebook from circa 1960. At the Bay State Open in 1960, Warren Witherell ran up a score of something like 116. A number that I'd thought would stand forever, but it is now surpassed, thanks to scoring that starts at 25kph, even if you opt up to deep short line. Now, in Men Open, some skiers have exceeded a score of 120. Meaning that they ran a full 41 off. Best as I recall, you got a point for the gates than, so a complete pass scored 8 points, and not 6. Warren's passes would have started at 24 mph, and worked up to 34, which was the max. speed then. Then 12 off, 18 off, 24 off, etc. Also, passes were repeated up & back, so you'd go up at 12 off, and back at 12 off. Tournaments weren't required to have short line loops if they weren't expected to be used. I expect that Warren made things really busy for the sponsoring club that day. Would have been 14 passes complete, and then some add buoys.

At one time, some 30 years back, Cypress Gardens had a head-on-head jump event. It was double-elimination, so if you lost, you got a 2nd chance. It was in the show circle, so conditions could be challenging. As the rounds went on, I think you got fewer jumps per session. Maybe 2 or even just 1. Someone like Lynn Novakofski would have a better memory of the format.

I do not remember the people involved in the 1977 runoff in Open Men, but the really deep shortline stuff did not involve first place. From my viewpoint, running off for places other than 1st is a waste of time. OK, maybe got to cough up some more medals. Big deal. Note: Kris LaP won that SL event.

I remember going to the 1967 Nationals in Austin, TX. Rolly backwash for SL. Scores were way down. Chuck won by a good amount; don't remember the exact score, but I believe it was a few at 24 off, when hardly anyone was running 12 off. That event was a milestone event for a few reasons. Such as one jumper in Men getting an "impossible" distance on first plotting.

First time I ever skied at Callaway Gardens was when I qualified for the 1974 Nationals. The setup people did a very spazzovian job of laying out the jump course. That was a big disappointment for me.

Note to @Mark_Matis But how do you know that the numbers that ZO gives you are correct? I remain a bit of skeptic about their system of "Virtual Times". Seems like a bit of Voodoo to me. I know that initially, there were comparison tests run, but does the ZO actually always give accurate times via integrating the GPS velocities? I have done some work with a Stalker radar/computer system, pre-ZO, and the speed variations in the course are a lot more than a speedometer will indicate. But, I have not done any of that research recently. Would be a fun project, though. And, of course, the "speed over the bottom" is still a good concept. Initially, meant to be compensating for any current at the site.

Interesting discussions about how different legitimate (?) passes can feel. There should be some old Al Lockett timing boxes and magnets around somewhere, and cheap. To verify that you are getting Kosher times, totally independent of ZO.

Quite a few years ago, Cypress Gardens had a head-on-head jump event. It was double- elimination, so you got a 2nd chance. Was in the ski stadium area, and so it was a good site for rough-water and show skiers. Very entertaining event to watch. Of course, every year, Moomba has their Night Jump, where there are groups of 4, and successive elimination rounds where jumpers keep getting eliminated, but the number of jumps you have keeps decreasing. Don't know if they still do it, but probably they do, as it was very entertaining, even when the top-level elite jumpers weren't involved. One year, Mike Hazelwood had the longest distance of the whole tournament in the night.

Chuck won the Catalina ski race 10 times, over the period of 1955 to 1982. Yes, ski racing is big in the West.