Let the University of Iowa Waterski's Season Commence!

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

The 2009 Mastercraft Prostar 197 coming out of storage! Likely hitting the water Sunday. Highs around 60, water around 40. Now while we aren't going to do the math I would say that is an unfortunate Baller Index value but that's why the dry suit was invented!

[XR6Hurricane]

Still got ice on the lake here in northern IL. River is thawed but water is high and swift. Don't own a dry suit and my drivers don't do good in cold weather. Probably about 6 weeks to go :(.

[Razorskier1]

Nice!

[BraceMaker]

Where's the Moomba?

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

Iowa hit the coralville reservoir for the first time since last October. Feels good to be at it again!

@BraceMaker‌, the moomba was sold last fall to a group of Iowa ski alumni in Colorado.

[6balls]

That Moomba Boomerang at Iowa was fun...many thanks to the "Fat Cat" aka Brett for initial funding. Big carb motor, tiny little boat built on the cheap, nice wake. Riot to drive, nice to ski, tracking a little tough with aggressive short-liners. Was better than our puke yellow/brown '82 stars and stripes with 2000 hrs...but we were thankful for her as well back in the day. I went from 15 off 34 thru 32 off 36 behind that beast during my time at Iowa.

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

Yep, she may have fallen from her former beauty but she still ran, could pull skiers, and was very nice to have for some dirty work like putting the course in that we wouldn't have wanted to do with the 09 Pro Star. We had the Pro Star on Campus today advertising our spring recruitment meetings tonight and tomorrow, hoping for a big turnout!

[Than_Bogan]

GOOD LUCK!

[BraceMaker]

I always thought college waterski teams needed to do a better job of fall recruitment of freshmen. I know there is always the rush for tourney season etc - but catch up right off the bat.

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

As a team we like to double up the recruitment efforts because while significantly more people join in the fall it is still a busy time and especially so for freshmen trying to figure out college life. Every fall, shortly before the tournaments start up, we will typically have our boat on the walkway in front of the business building two days in a row advertising new member meetings and again in the spring once we take the boat out of storage and the weather starts warming up.

[BraceMaker]

Do the fliers on bathroom mirrors?

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

That's an interesting thought but currently we do not. We send out a mass email to all University of Iowa email accounts that they receive a day or two before our new member meetings, we also get a permit to have our boat on the T. Anne Cleary walkway for 2-4 hours both meeting days where we hand out flyers to the students walking through.

[BlueSki]

I would think it would be pretty easy to recruit with a combination of the boat and pictures of what the tournaments are like. Back in the long-ago '90s, the idea of 200 college kids hanging out at a lake by day and partying in a tent city by night was a pretty easy sale. It sure beat the hell out of the golf team.

[Razorskier1]

@BlueSki‌ You would think! Iowa didn't have a team when I was there. If someone told me I could spend my afternoons skiing with girls in bikinis, then go to tournaments and party, I'd have been on board fast!

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

The bikini thing is pretty effective for getting guys to come out and ski, doesn't work as well on the women though. As anyone who skied collegiate knows, what a team needs to succeed is a men's team that can hold par and a strong women's team.

[6balls]

Hmm...maybe a way to market to the sorority community?

[The_MS]

You guys better get to work, the UWL skiers were at our place practicing today.

[BlueSki]

@Iowa_Ski_Team‌, I completely agree. I think one of the biggest issues a college team faces is keeping the women's team happy with men's team's behavior. Never an easy task. We sure had fun though. Nevertheless, we did have a number of ski team marriages (no shotgun weddings) and I think all are still going strong, mine included.

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

@MS, we've been practicing for over a week now, our problem is that the water level isn't high enough at our marina launch to put our boat (or course) in the water so just open water slalom and jump. Fortunately all you need for trick is water. Thank goodness the Coralville Reservoir has 800 boat ramps on it!

 

@BlueSki, I don't think it's as much keeping the women's team happy with the men's behavior as much as just getting them on the team. Our new member meetings earned us 6+ new members (more than are graduating which is nice) but more men than women. I doubt the women who do join are complaining much though, good ratio for them.

[BraceMaker]

Too bad lake macbride doesn't let power boats huh.

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

That would be a beautiful thing indeed. Smooth water, low boat traffic. A little farther away but for the vast improvement in conditions I don't think anyone would complain. Unfortunately we're kind of stuck with what we have.

[MattP]

@6balls‌ they would not last a night camping let alone through the days of the week in the East! Recruiting is hard I can also attest to that.

[Iowa_Ski_Team]

@MattP‌, it is definitely a challenge. Any collegiate skier would likely also agree that the nights at a collegiate tournament (particularly around Team Midwest) are more than most greek life boys and girls can keep up with.