No three event men from the US at worlds

[Horton]

I am not sure this has ever happened before. As I understand it overall scores have never been part of the team title. I think this is too bad. Overall is really the most prestigious title.

 

On the other hand the US did send 3 completely bad ass Overall ladies.

[ral]

I think overall can be compared to Decathlon. The most complete athlete wins. But everybody remembers who won the 100m, and none the decathlon winner.

 

Happy to have a friend and a Chilean winning it, though!!!

[disland]

it would matter if there was money for it. The beginning of the end was when the Masters stopped having it

[Horton]

I still say overall is most prestigious.

[ral]

There is no money for skiing in general...

[madcityskier]

Carl Roberge, Sammy Duvall, Mike Hazelton, Patrice Matin...

Overall have been the world's best.

Also, of course we think that slalom is the most important single event, this is a slalom site. Check the night jump crowds, that is it's own level of cool. Pretty sure the Nightmare would say jump is the most coveted title.

[Edbrazil]

Interesting to see that the US sent essentially 3: single-event men. Although they can also ski at least one other event to some extent. Recipe for a disaster, but it is now looking like a US big team victory, like Days of Old. Actually, out of all the 6 team members, none of them really messed up.

 

Yup, I do miss the Overall battles, although there is still one pending in Women, with Regina and Whitney trading back and forth. By my figuring now, Whitney will need to improve to at least 51.2m after Regina came back with a higher trick score after Whitney added 1/2 buoy for a temporary very slim 1/3 point O/A lead.

 

I remember the Golden Years of the Masters, where Overall was the big title. And, many times, it came down to the jump event, and even a calculation of "How Far" was needed. Which would also be back in the days of slide rules and hand calculations. With the jump event overall being figured using the square of your distance over the winner's distance squared. This was a bit of a challenge pre-1970, when you couldn't just enter numbers and press a button on your TI or HP palmtop calculator.

[brody]

Wish more skied three event

[mylemsky]

Was Sledgehammer there to defend his title?

[MattP]

@mylemsky yes.

[ral]

Well, thanks to Overall, waterski made it to the front page of the main newspaper in Chile...

[Jody_Seal]

The demise of overall in our sport can be directly attributed to the six flip rule! USA has a number of skiers that could compete at the world level in three events provided they did not have to do toe tricks. get rid of the six flip rule and see how many skiers step up to compete. Zack Worden has run into deep 39 in the past and can trick near 8000 with a world class hand run and a Girls 2 toe run we all know ho far he can jump. Freddy was another skier that had the potential but again he was stifled because of toe tricks. Some skiers are just not built to to do toe tricks. BK, Steve-O, and a number of other men overall skiers would show at team trials if they had the affordability to open up their their hand runs with more then six flips.

[ral]

@Jody_Seal, however, the golden era @Edbrazil mentions was not huge on flips.

[ral]

@OB, that is totally right.

[Horton]

@ral you have every reason to be proud of your countryman

[Horton]

@Jody_Seal maybe that is why there are too many flips

[eleeski]

@Horton is right, overall rocks! @OB is looking too narrow. Yes, amongst the couple hundred private lake owners, slalom rules. But that's such a small subset of waterskiing. The wakeboarders, barefooters, kneeboarders and people who just love getting towed behind their boat respect the overall skier most.

 

We on this site are guilty of perpetuating the slalom centric focus of skiing. I wonder how much of the decline in general interest (as measured by TV time, sponsorship money or general viewing) is due to too much of a focus on slalom. We could just as easily have feted Regina's overall win as her slalom performance. And Miranda is a true star.

 

Eric

[Horton]

@eleeski the owner of this site was a 3 eventer many years ago but this is a slalom web site.

[eleeski]

@Horton , aren't we in the "other stuff" thread? And I carefully follow the "tricks" section. There is a "slalom" section where my 3 event comments might be out of line. Outside of the internet I am looking over my shoulder with great concern as your trick prowess regains its earlier glory. Really those Goodman jumpers have to be tempting. Rotten from the top down (if you are a slalom snob - and not enjoying a new Radar trick ski). This is certainly NOT a slalom only web site.

 

@OB Whatever the rankings numbers say, the decline in AWSA numbers trumps the slalom dominance. Still, whatever I say about the value of three event, I'm stoked that you have passion for slalom.

 

Eric

[jcamp]

A little bit off topic but want to address a common myth @eleeski mentioned above that gets a lot of play here on the forum. The decline in water skiing's presence on TV has nothing to do with water skiing getting old, unpopular or uninteresting. It has EVERYTHING to do with ESPN growing from a small start up, hungry for any sports rights they could afford, into a huge behemoth that owns rights to all the major sports - even Monday Night Football! ESPN doesn't need water skiing any more to fill it's on-air schedule, or jet ski racing, surfing, arm wrestling or anything else the used to air.

 

Still, it certainly hasn't helped skiing's popularity, but not being on TV isn't water skiing's fault. And coincidentally no matter what we do we probably won't ever get back on TV like we were again, unless another programming-starved network launches.

[disland]

Jeff Bezos said on 60 minutes last night "The internet has changed every business either adapt or die"

 

If you watched the webcast of the worlds you saw adaptation to the internet. Now what we need is more promotion of the distribution vehicle that has been created.

 

Pretty soon you will see webcasts with more cameras and in high def

[ral]

By the way, Felipe Miranda has been the only skier ever to win the overall World title in Junior, U21, University and Open...

[klindy]

@ral all at Los Morros?

[jimbrake]

I agree with @Horton - overall is the most prestigious and in my book is by far the most impressive. People that come into the sport from a slalom-only perspective are missing out. I think it's a travesty that the Masters doesn't award overall anymore.

[Chef23]

I think it is too bad that there were no overall men at Worlds. I know there are some strong overall skiers in the Boys 3 ranks it will be interesting to see if they continue on to compete at the World level as they get older.

[MattP]

@klindy Yes they were.

[ntx]

@chef23 All you have to do is go back and look at the B3 overall list from 2005, 2006. Most of them are not 3 event skiers any more. Heck, some of them are out of the sport entirely. Storm is one of the few active three eventer from that list of the top guys. Real life gets in the way and skiers start to work. Zack, JT, Adam Pickos and Cale Burdick who all skied at this years worlds, were all strong overall skiers when juniors. It is tough to train 3 event as you get older. One of the few who has stayed at the top is Regina. Hats off to her to be able to balance a bussiness, hold a world record in slalom, and still be a 3 event threat on the water.

 

There is very little incentive to maintain three event for the skier. Look at the Open div overall at Nationals. Dylan, who is one of the best in the US, is only ranked in the top 35 on the worlds list.

[John Brooks]

I was under the impression that some of the skiers from other countries, Canada, France and others, were being paid to train and compete by their federations.

[jimbrake]

@OB - just curious, why do you doubt your kids will compete on the water?

[m70win]

I've always held the overall skiers at the top of my favorites. Did you see Nate Smith barefoot video?

[ntx]

@JohnBrooks Yes, I think that other countries do MUCH more for the elite skiers than the USA does. Even at the Pan an and U21 Worlds, the skiers are responsable for ALL travel and tournament expenses including entry fees. You have to pay your own entry fees to represent your country. Heck, they even require you to pay for your own warm-up/track suit.

[ral]

In France they get paid by the federation/country/etc... There is a special program and school for that.

[Chef23]

@OB my son didn't get into tournaments until his last year of Boys 1 and my daughter never did. My son is 14 now and loves going to tournaments he has made a ton of friends and they have as much fun running around the site as they do skiing which is fine with me. Now that he will be 15 next summer he has all his judging paperwork ready to go in and is ready to be an assistant slalom, trick and jump judge. I don't think it is too late for your kids at 5 and 7 my son wasn't ready.

 

My son is an avid hockey and lacrosse player as well and I love to watch him play those but it doesn't match the camaraderie that we have developed going to water ski tournaments together.

[jimbrake]

@Chef23 - very similar to my experience. My boys have a whole set of "water ski/lake/tournament friends" and their school and other sport friends. Water skiing is something we get to share, but they have their other sports, too, and I love watching them do those. @OB - any other young kids at your lake that are skiing and getting into it?

[MattP]

@ob I started at 19... In college is way more fun.

[Rpc29]

@ob I skied my first tournament at 20, 1/2 at 30 mph, 0 for trick, and 3 jump falls. Most of the people I met while skiing in college didn't start skiing tournaments till they got to college. Sadly only a few of us kept up with it. IMO one of the biggest issues the sport faces.

[eleeski]

@jcamp ESPN is way more program starved now than ever! Proof, there's always poker on ESPN somewhere! Poker! That's not a sport! ESPN was doing quite well when Sammy Duvall made the cover of Sports Illustrated and made a VERY good salary off waterskiing. And Hot Summer Nights was a quality show. It didn't displace football or other mainstream sports and probably cost less than videoing a couple of radio hosts doing their show. Some thing was really going right back then and all three events were fun to watch.

 

@OB Despair not! Kirk started at 10. He'd hang with us at the lake and was not incompetent on a kneeboard or a wakeboard. Suddenly, something clicked at age 10 and he got way into tournament skiing and developed into a high level tricker. College made him a true three eventer. I'm not sure if he now spends more time jumping or slaloming. And really enjoys all of it. Have fun with your kids - whether or not they ski.

 

Despite my incompetence as a jumper and funky slalom skis, I love three eventing. It's a game within a game. And when you excel in overall you are truly on fire. Felipe and Regina are the true champions of these worlds.

 

Eric