Number of tournaments this year

[Horton]

Looking at the number of tournaments in California (central and southern) this year and it seems like there are hardly any. For Newberry and Arvin, I am going to miss one because the Baby is coming but that leaves me with about 6 weekends for the year. One Friday night in June, nothing in July and then one in August and a few in September.

[GOODESkier]

@Horton you know babies can go to tournaments too........ My wife went with me to a snow ski resort for me to ski and snowmobile 6 days after our second child was born. BREAT WEEKEND. My daughter at 6 days old was at over 6500 feet in elevation when she rode the gondola to the top!

 

BUT, my wife is basically the founding mother and current president of the TOLERANT WIVE'S CLUB!

 

To answer the question. In Washington you could do a tournament every weekend it seems like.

[ForrestGump]

.

[Horton]

What I am saying is there are hardly any to go to.

[Chuck_Dickey]

@horton We dropped ours here at Cheyenne because all the good, non holiday weekends were already taken.

 

Still have my new ProStar scheduled for most all the other Newberry events.

[Kelvin]

In the Houston area there's a tournament every weekend from Memorial day thru Nationals plus a few in September/October after people recover from Nationals.

[Razorskier1]

@Horton. Seems somewhat similar here. Fewer every year.

[ForrestGump]

Ahhhhh. Yes, Kelvin is right on. You can ski in a tournament in Texas every weekend of the month. Sometimes I've done one site on Saturday and another site on Sunday.

[skidawg]

road trip to the south central

[MISkier]

There are 16 tournaments in Michigan this year, not including at least 2 other Collegiate tournaments.

[MattP]

Including the ProAm there are 4 in Ga before States and 2 after Nationals. Only 2 are 3 event 1 of those being States which is the norm for us. Looks like some traveling will be going on for scores this season..

[Jody_Seal]

@Horton, Don't you have your own lake now? just hold a couple class "C" tournaments during the week day afternoon.

[Horton]

@Jody_Seal‌ missing my point.

 

My regional guide was thinner than I have ever seen. Not joking. Sort of worried.

[Jody_Seal]

@Horton, Your missing my point! Step up and hold a couple of your own and thicken your regional guide!

[MrJones]

We have been struggling with the idea of hosting a tournament at our place. We haven't made the jump as we really wanted to have a slalom/trick tourney for our kids to get some trick scores. Problem is the logistics of doing a trick tourney in an area where there aren't hardly any trickers.

 

We may do a small 1 day slalom only at some point this summer. I agree with Horton that we need to do our part to promote the sport. There are actually a fair number of skiers in the area who don't compete. If we do a low stress one day class C/F they might actually come out for it.

[schroed]

@horton - you should come to nor cal more often. We've got some good tourneys happening up here this summer. LZ will have a couple good ones. The Redwood Shores tournaments that just started happening in the last few years are always a good time as well. I think they're holding a night ski informal "tourney" after the class C tourney on May 31st with glow buoys. That should be a good time.

[Chef23]

I am looking at maybe 5 or 6 max this year. My son is playing a bunch of lacrosse this summer and that might impact our ability to ski in some tournaments.

 

We do tend to have a gap after Regionals if you aren't going to ski at Nationals there isn't much around for tournaments.

[Horton]

@Jody_Seal‌ my plate is a little full. The decrease in tournaments is not caused by the fact that I am but putting any on the first year at a new lake, the year my first born arrives and while keeping this mess of a website together.

 

Across the board there seems to be a lot less in the west this year.

[GOODESkier]

@Horton‌ get another lake owner to do it! DELEGATE! You'll have plenty of "delegation" coming your way (change the diaper, warm the milk, etc....)

[Horton]

@‌goodeskier

I am trying to make a point about the health of the sport. Yes in future years I may put on tournaments. I do think I already contribute a lot to the sport but I will do more when I can.

 

Perhaps it is time for you to support some USAWS events

[ripa38]

You mean INT does not count?

 

[GOODESkier]

@Horton sent my money for a couple already......Would be happy to host a tournament on the narly Columbia, but most AWSA guys wouldn't come......

 

You do do a lot! Your in a position to be able to and contribute in the meaningful ways that you do. Thanks for that!

[Horton]

Ok beware of @richarddoane‌

[ripa38]

I tried to add another tournament to our lake in July and had membership approval to do it. We could not get boats for the approved weekend. Not a single promo boat was available in our area. There are 14 ski lakes in Bako and not one USA Waterski sanctioned tournament in July or August. I think the boat issue is a big problem for many, and has been discussed previously.

 

 

 

[Dirt]

@ripa38 can't you use @Horton s Centurion

[ForrestGump]

@ripa38 It's a chicken or an egg situation. Manufacturers aren't going to add promo boats in certain areas until there are tournaments. And lakes don't want to try and hold tournaments without easy access to promo boats. I feel your pain. Did you discuss this with your Regional EVP? I know I've been asked to get promo boats to areas without them for tournaments. Sometimes as far away as 350 miles.

[ripa38]

@Dirt, Horton struck his deal too late in the year to make it happen in 2014, same for Bob E. Centurion. We are talking about a fun format with those boats in mind for July 2015.

[Horton]

There will be 2 Carbon Pros at my lake that will see some tournament action but generally there is a real shortage of promotional boats in the west

[klindy]

@ShaneH Are you suggesting there aren't enough tournaments any more to support promo boats? If so, I'd disagree. The total number of tournament (nationwide) has held pretty constant over the last few years. I can dig up the hard numbers.

 

What about promo boats? Have the number or promo owners remained fairly consistent?

[ForrestGump]

Keith, you misunderstood what I was saying. What I meant is that there are AREAS which don't have the number of promo boats to support more tournaments, as noted by @ripa38 . . Something that is fact, is that the number of promo boats is over 1/3 less than it was 5 years ago. I've got numbers on nautiques and MC's somewhere and they cut way back on the number of promo boats since the high point in 2009.

[klindy]

@ShaneH ok then I guess I don't completely understand the "chicken or the egg" analogy. In this case, it seems the boat manufacturers have reduced the number of available boats to where it may be preventing some tournaments to be held.

 

So the chicken's dying cause there isn't enough to eat....or, if you wish, the eggs can't hatch cause there isn't enough chickens to sit on them.

[ForrestGump]

What I meant was.......... "in those areas where you have low tournament numbers and low promo boat counts, which caused the other. And regardless, it's a dichotomy so you've got to have boats to hold tournaments. But you've got to have tournaments to have boats. It's a vicious circle."

 

We should probably just make some chicken omelets and call it good. :)

[klindy]

Got it! Thanks for the clarification. I'll take my chicken omelet over easy without the feathers.

[Chuck_Dickey]

@‌Horton

 

I told my MasterCraft dealer that I might be talked into covering some Bako events if they don't have a ProStar Promo boat in Arvin this season. It's only a two hour drive each way and as long as it doesn't conflict to the Newberry area events, I'm happy to help. We'll see what happens.

[ForrestGump]

Chuck, you should probably tell whomever is the regional coordinator now for Mastercraft and not just the dealership.

[ntx]

Much like Houston and Austin, the North Texas area has a tourament almost every weekend.

 

Master Craft has not had a promo boat here for two years and does not look like it will have one this year. One Nautique and One Malibu for the entire area. The demand for promo boats is at a point that the owners get burned out getting boats from site to site. It may be that the promo deals are not attractive enough to get boats into the area. The Master Craft dealer here, has no desire to sell or promote 3 event boats. Pretty sad when the owner of the dealership says "I hope I never sell another three event boat again" No lie, he told me that. AND, he was not laughing!!!! I guess the money is too good in the wake board boats.

[Chuck_Dickey]

@ShaneH

 

Done!

[The_MS]

@Razorskier1 We will be sanctioning two more 1 day 3 round events. We will do a Friday warm up for the GMO and a Sunday event the weekend of the Paradise Lake tourney.

[Razorskier1]

@MS -- that sounds like fun. I have a great time at your site. Without those events, I just don't get much tourney skiing in (that and the fact that I have too much company at my house in the summer).

[RichardDoane]

@horton pack up Junior and head to the PNW, my Prostar has a list of 16 possible events between Memorial and Labor Day, much like Texas where there's an event or two every weekend if you don't mind driving a little

[MISkier]

Our Michigan schedule is basically one per weekend from the beginning of June until the end of September. The season is short, but we try to fill it.

 

Edited: It is one per week (not weekend). Several of them are on weeknights.

[Horton]

@richarddoane‌ not sure why no one gets my point. It is not that I don't have enough tournaments. The number of total events at least in the west is falling like a rock. I am worried about the sport.

 

I swear I will ban and abuse the next person who suggests I should trave more. I can get enough rounds.

[Chef23]

@Horton I get your point and we have a similar issue in the Northeast at times but we don't have as many sites either.

 

I think the promo boat issue is largely tied to the cost of the boats. When the boats are as expensive as they have become they are harder to resell which makes it more difficult to stay in the promo program.

[thager]

@Hortoon I would not dare to suggest you should trave more. Might try a dictionary? As for getting enough rounds, who in their right mind would sell you the weapon?

[Kelvin]

In the Houston area there are 6 lake sites that host tournaments. None of the sites have enough officials, etc to host tournaments on their own. There is a tremendous amount of cooperation among the clubs for the mutual benefit of everyone.

[disland]

A couple of years ago we had to use member boats to hold a tournament because of a lack of promo boat. This may be what happens in the future

[Jody_Seal]

For the record, For class C and below tournaments a out of date or a non current towboat may be utilized with the approval of the regional towboat committee rep.

 

Overall I see more tournaments across the board in most all regions then in years past. Here in Florida we are over run with REL tournaments and not enough Class C.

 

Maybe in Horton's left coast world they are singling him out and not having tournaments just to make him travel!! It is a conspiracy!

[Horton]

@Jody_Seal‌ the south might be the most prestigious region but the west is the biggest. I am starting to get pissed that everyone is laughing this off. If events in the west are in a steep decline that is a very bad indicator for the sport.

[Jody_Seal]

Nearly 160 tournaments in the western region for 2014. Anyone know the count from last year?

Maybe across the board their are too many tournaments. Or now a day's What I prefer to call them trials as we really don't have true competition until the regional and national tournaments, anyway so the last poll stated.

@Horton yes western region is the biggest. Maybe it needs to get split! West and Northwest region.

West Region: Calif,AZ,NM, Utah, Col

N-West Region: Wy, Mont,Wash, Idaho,Or

 

Just a thought.

[Horton]

@Jody_Seal‌ when I say biggest I mean most skiers. what I'm trying to point out is a decline in overall participation and events (vicious circle?) 7 or 8 years ago the Western Regional Tournament was the second biggest tournament of the year after US Nationals. I strongly suspect that that skier base is shrinking.

 

I guess if the rest of the country is thriving what I think I'm seeing is isolated but I doubt that's true