My 2013 season in review

[MattP]

With 150+ practice sets and 15 tournament rounds and 9 lakes in the books for 2013. I have finally put the Prophecy on the shelf for the winter. Though I may try to make a Orlando trip here and there.

Going into this season I set a few goals for myself. I had two practice goals; 1st was to become more consistent at 32 and 2nd run 1@38. My tournament goal was to get into 35off and to qualify for Nationals. I ran my first 35 and I beat my goal of 1@38 and set a new PB of 2@38 in practice and was able to reach it a handful more times during the season. I also became consistent at 32 in practice. While I did PB during the ATL ProAm with @Horton in the boat I did not achieve my tournament goal, but I learned a lot more this year about skiing tournaments.

Big thank you goes out to @OB for doing a thankless job of running WSA and helping keep this college student on the water as well as all my ski partners at WSA @OB @rpc29 @webbdawg99 @footloose42 @slalomkenny @mmosley899. I would also like to thank of my friends and family for being supportive and understanding to my crazy addiction to this sport. The guys over at Connelly Skis, Jay Quam and @JoelHowley have been a big help with getting me setup and dialed in on the Prophecy. Of course all you crazy ballers for being the worst support group known to man, you are all a bunch of instigators for this addict. Then there is @Horton. I don't know what to thank him for there is too much, but thanks. All in all it was a fun ski season. It was my last summer as a college student and I would not trade it for anything. Now it's time to start thinking about and training for 2014 and to set new goals for myself.

 

Highlights of my season

- Attended the US Masters, ATL ProAm & the Orlando Extreme Watersports Festival

- Made the Eastern All-Star team in slalom & trick

- Achieved practice & tournament PB's in slalom & trick.

- Skied in my first regionals.

- Started my season with a week in Orlando with Jodi Fisher.

- Spring College tournament in Orlando at Rollins College & skied with Jodi.

- BallOfSpray ATL ProAm was hosted at my home club.

- Made the semi-finals in the ProAm with a tournament PB.

- Got to meet and/or ski with a bunch of ballers. @Chad_Scott @Wish @Kelvin @JohnCox @MrPruess @TylerR @skiep @Bruce55 @TFIN @chrisrossi to name a few.

- Got to ski the week leading up to the ProAm with Jodi Fisher, Greg Badal, Brent @Triplett, @the_Krista and even with @Horton.

- I got to demo the Mapple 6.0 with @Mapple coaching in the boat. Quest with Will Bush & Paul Crawford. The Goode N1 with Dave Miller & Dave Goode.

- Made a fall ski trip to Orlando to ski with Jodi Fisher.

[Rpc29]

I pulled one of those PB's, no credit?

[MattP]

@rpc29 if I could only remember your handle when I was writting this!

 

But yes @rpc29 is a great ski partner and driver.

[Chef23]

Great skiing this year. Given that you ran into 38 multiple times I am surprised you didn't get Ito 35 in a tournament. You will get it next year.

[MattP]

@chef23 let's leave my tournament performances out of the discussion... I ran my tournament PB 5.5@32 with @Horton in the boat in May. That alone should be worth something. Not much to talk about after that tournament pretty much all down hill from there.

[skihard]

Congrats @MattP that sounds like you truely had a great year.

I know I can't wait for our house to be finished so I can be on the water everyday after work and start to improve drastically too!

Going to spend some time with T$ over Thanksgiving and hopefully improve a little more!!!!!

Good stuff @MattP

[Skoot1123]

Way to go @mattp! That's great improvement and a lot of sets under your belt. You have been fortunate to get a lot of skiing in this past summer!!

[Horton]

Good Stuff @MattP

 

A few more months and we start all over again

[MattP]

@skoot1123 thanks! Lots of sets, lots of fun and very fortunate. I missed out on quite a bit of skiing due to a tweaked ankle, car in the shop for a long while and starting school but I enjoined it all.

 

@Horton thanks. A few? Try at least 5 if not 6.. But I'm looking forward to it none the less.

[webbdawg99]

Biggest advice for offseason training for you: mental training. It's the only thing that is different between practice and tournaments. I picked up a book called "10 Minute Toughness". In my opinion, doing some mental training will improve your tournament scores more than anything else at this point!

 

And as far as goals moving forward.....set a goal to become a whitestone lot owner within x amount of time!!

[ral]

My season is just starting, will see in April if I have my first good season on the scoring arena since my neck injury. Overall, though, a season where I can ski and get to go to some tourneys is a good season, and a good set is a set where I can ski the following day... Significant injuries tend to change our perspective...