FWinter

@aupatking I felt that the spare ski I had with me was more appropriate to ski the final on after the crash I had in the three pass challenge round. I think it was the right decision. I'll be using it this weekend too. And that's why we carry spare skis, to give us back up as well as choice.

@WaterSkier12 Looking forward to having you here :smiley:

@WaterSkier12 Looking forward to having you here :smiley:

As the post says, I'm really excited to be here at TBS. The place is unreal for skiing. Looking forward to having a lot of you guys out here to ski. If you need any info give me a shout.

@skibug , we don't have any skis to test currently but I'll get hold of the the powers that be at MC Skis and see if we can get some. For the record if you do want to try one Boris has a lake in Clermont to do just that. Having said that we'd still love to have you here. I'm going to off topic myself for this one

Happy to have you guys here at The Boarding School. Brand new MasterCraft Prostar and two perfect slalom lakes await you

@Jack_Haase You're not wrong, mate. And that is why we all practice as much as we can. Always improvements to be made. (Also I've only ever been injured once

@Jack_Haase I totally agree. What the hell does that Winter guy think he's doing? And his hair is completely absurd.

@MS Hey, that's unfair. When have there been judging controversies in three of the last four years?

@jcamp Can't say fairer than that. Better off out of the messy business.

@jcamp @Wish Some very, very good skiers between Manon and the top for the moment. The question is, do you think that boat path should be discredited for helpful driving?

@gmut approved by the European Tournament Council and as far as I know by IWWF but not by AWSA, given the shenanigans that were talked about on another thread. Therefore the record cannot be approved. Very political.

@Horton The only thing that's stopped Hamilton so far is McLaren shitting themselves for a few years and some shoddy engines last year. The new rules will do nothing. Don't be a hater, accept the higher power.

Up that to 10 dollars. And I further sub bet you a dollar each that Hamilton will have more wins and more poles. I look forward to my 12 dollars in early December after postage. I will be buying an XL Zaxbys chicken meal with all the trimmings including a milkshake 3 miles down the road from The Boarding School.

@Horton 4 months, 4 days,19 hours, thirty minutes

Ligament reattachment on right leg medial malleolus. My first and hopefully last surgery :)

@thrix I'm 195, on a 66.5. Never tried the 67.5. What I have is already a beast.

Thanks @MattP, it's a good feeling. With Nate and I having eight 41s between us in Italy in the last two tournaments, it's cool to see some 43 action in Europe again.

Yes, @Horton, meeting Nate in the semis sucks. Having said that I think I might just be the only guy ever to get 4@41 in a pro event head to head and lose. At least thats something :smiley:

@Orlando76 every scene? You must be familiar with Oxford in the UK for the drone shots :wink: @ScottScott I'm living in Orlando for the most part now apart from the summer when I'm back in the motherland. September onwards I'll be at MC Training Centre in Clermont, the lake that held the Worlds in 2003. It's beautiful. Get in touch with me and come on over!

@eleeski While I agree with you that 'pro skiers' are somewhat the face of water skiing (after the Big Dogs. JOKE). However I don't see that extend to a responsibility to run more buoys than necessary. Currently there is no incentive to go further than is needed in pro events. There is only the disincentive of hitting a roller trying to do an unnecessary turn and come second when standing up and taking the full buoy would get the title or get injured. Last year I made the mistake of taking the extra pass at 41 in the semi final of a pro head to head that I'd already won by running 39. I crashed really badly and broke my bindings. The end result was that I only just managed to make the final after fixing the bindings and couldn't ski for a few days in the lead up to the next big event because I'd injured myself. It was a lesson. Don't do too much in pro events, don't be a hero. As for the crowd not witnessing the best possible score, is it not enough that you've seen the best skiers in the world try their best and then the last guy go out and beat them all? For me that's a show and what I used to love about pro skiing, far before I became a pro skier. I agree, Nate was in good enough shape to turn 5 and get the full pass which would have stopped this whole debate but, as I proved on Saturday, it is not easy to ski there. That side of the course near the pavilion is very rolly and that's his off side turn as a righty. He's obviously easily a good enough skier to have turned it but none of us can blame him for ensuring (so far as he knew) the win with a solid 5 count instead of a potential 4.5.

@eleeski I'm interested in the 'pros have a bigger responsibility to stoke the show' statement. Care to elaborate on that?

@Horton Some further detail. After Wills score was reviewed and he was given the score of 5@39 that retroactively tied the lead, Nate was given the option of either: -a rerun in which he could go out again and beat 5@39 for the win. Will would not ski again. For some reason the judges stated that for this rerun he had to start at 38. -a run off with Will for the title. Nate would go first and, unlike in any other run off, Will had to beat Nates score or he would be the loser of the tie and therefore Nate would get the title. Nate initially chose the former option and was on his way to the dock until he asked if his score was protected. The judges said that it wasn't meaning that if Nate got a score of 3.5@39 or less he would end up in 4th place. Obviously Nate didn't want to risk this on the rolly water having already got the score to at least get 2nd place so he chose to take the run off. And we know what happened there. But yes, if we had better video Will would have been scored correctly first time round and Nate would have turned 5@39 in the actual final and this whole situation would have been over before it began.

@LeonL In an ideal world five judges making perfect calls would be enough. I know that this would not work. Judges get things wrong at many of the big events even with video reviews available so if it was just eyesight then there would be far more. At one of the bigger pro events last year they were judging by eye and scored me a half buoy when I S turned and went through the exit buoys (very similar to Will Asher at 5 buoy this weekend). I asked for a review as I knew I should have the full buoy scored and was told that there was no camera and the judges call was final. I then looked at the judges position - on the bank about 150 feet from the exit gates and behind where my spray would have been. I didn't see that as fair. As I said before, the technology is there to do this better and at a low cost (not that it should matter at what we are forever told is the 'most prestigious event in water skiing', perhaps they can buy part of a new camera or SD card with my $300 entry fee). The fact better tech isn't used already is puzzling, perhaps some of the older judges are happy with a 'it worked before so it will work again' mindset. We all know that it has not worked before, multiple times, hence this conversation. @Wish great to talk to you yesterday. On a far more positive note to my most recent posts, it's great meeting Ballers in the real world. Water skiing does still have fans and hopefully a brighter future than what we are experiencing now.

My honest impression is that the reason we have such a lengthy and complicated review system is because the frankly pathetically poor level of technology that is used to officiate skiing. Currently to review the situation such as todays (the five ball exit gate) the video that is used is the boat cameras wireless feed that has been transmitted to the judges tower. This fees is maybe 5 frames per second and blurry as hell having been transmitted at 500ft at 36mph. Basically it's 1992 level video. Of course the judges are going to struggle to make a good call based on this shocking video. This is why the last year we've seen decisions change so frequently when challenged. It would actually be unjust for the judges to make a definitive call on what they could see. In the end confusion reigns. This could not be more in contrast with the nfl, the premier league or the nba. As someone said to me last year very eloquently, the standard of skiing is at an all time high but it's being judged with sub Walmart level tech. Of course this needs to be changed and until it is I don't think a new system can be put in place that would allow for a more definitive, correct and informed decision system to be put in place.