Crazy new event formats?

[Horton]

I was asked to consider different BallOfSpray event yesterday. For a number of reasons I do not think the standard BallOfSpray Cash Prize format works for this event and that got me thinking about what how we could totally retool a water ski tournament so there was strategy. With all formats I have ever skied you basically go and ski your best score and that is about it.

 

Maybe some wacky game where ZBS comes in and you chose your opponent's speed but then they can do something to impact you. Ok maybe that is not it who has any but WAY out of the box ideas.

 

Anyone?

[RazorRoss3]

Reverse tournament:

You choose your opener still but whatever that is is effectively considered long line

From there, each completed pass yield the next line longer

When/if you achieve long line, the boat begins to slow down

 

Strategy: Obviously the shorter you start the greater your advantage but if you start shorter than you can run then you fall on you're opener and you're out. Could potentially level a playing field of experienced and novice skiers since the has more slow speed long line experience but the experienced skier can start shorter.

 

I'm not convinced I would pay an entry fee to USAWS for this but I might put a few bucks into a pot for a winner takes all with a few friends some random day at the lake.

 

 

Team:

There has to be something you can do here

Split the field into teams of two or equally divide the skiers into 4 teams of 15 or something

From there you could do whichever team beats their averages by the most or whatever team puts up the most total buoys with some handicapping factor.

 

Going in you'd just want to try and split out the teams in a manner that they are close to even and handicap away any large discrepancy.

 

This event I might be interested in and there could also be some side money involved for a winner takes all kind of pot.

[lottawatta]

How about, "pick your poison", a Buckeye Buoy Tour format, where you pick your competitor and you both ski against your ranking list average.

[RazorRoss3]

@lottawatta, to clarify, skiing against your own average or your self chosen opponents average?

[jcamp]

I've done a poker run on a motorcycle and always thought that you could do something like that at a ski tournament. For each round, each buoy and half buoy, regardless of line length (i.e 2.5 buoys is a Queen of hearts) is a certain card (not revealed until after each round). At the end of the tournament, you compare the best hands and hand out prizes. Wouldn't require any work or reconfiguring.

[lottawatta]

@RazorRoss3 You ski against your average, your opponent skis against theirs. Whoever beats their average by the most buoys (or gets closest to it) wins and advances to the next round. Pretty easy to do, and you have a chance of skiing more rounds. Have a loser's bracket where the losers get their second round.

[ColeGiacopuzzi]

Everyone skis with the wrong foot forward, best score wins.

[PatM]

This is the 'I got too much time on my hands thread'

[DaveD]

I still like @horton's wooden ski tournament. Everyone has to make their own ski.

[ntx]

I get the fun part of it....... but do you expect people to pay to ski in this??

[brody]

Teams of 2 you ski a pass, partner runs the next one, then you run the one after. So you skip a shortening and partner has to run it for you to keep going. So I would run 22, partner runs the 28, then you run the 32, etc

[DmaxJC_ski]

How about a team event, have an elite captain ( or equivalent/similar ) every team requires a skier of a certain level or handicap (like golf) if you will, every team requires a man, women, and child. Hold a draft to choose teams, greatest total buoy count wins. Throw a jumper and tricker into the mix on each team

Run it on a points system

[brettmainer]

We had a fun 3 event comp last summer between four guys. Total buoys wins.

Slalom

Trick Slalom

Jump ski slalom

 

I was ahead after slalom and trick slalom but got crushed in jump slalom by the other 3, who were all 150'+ jumpers back in the day.

 

Rick Todd won. I got last. Mike Todd almost ran 36mph on jump skis.

 

I expect @Horton would do well in this format. He might even beat @dirt.

[brettmainer]

A simple tournament tweak is to have @Horton ski 34 and make @Dirt ski 36. Dirt can tower judge for Horton to even it out a bit.

[ALPJr]

Best of 6 passes or 2 misses/falls which ever comes first. 2 rounds. Cumulative scoring for every buoy made.

[Rpc29]

@MattP and I have talked about a BYOBinding tournament where everyone skis on a wooden ski. (sorry if you use tape) Organizer rounds up a few wooden skis in different sizes and everyone swaps out bindings. Some logistics would be involved to avoid huge delays in binding switches but could be fun.

[Hockdog]

Everyone skis on the same ski format, use some ski from the 90's era like a Maha 360, have 2 equal skis on the dock so there's no waiting.

No fin or binding adjustments to fuss over, first pass is a practice run (a mulligan), use a double handle rope, and award style points,

 

 

[escmanaze]

I'm not sure what the answer is to the question, but after playing at Top Golf for the first time tonight, I think you are at least asking the right question. We are always wondering how to grow the sport, and there is no doubt that Top Golf makes golf appealing and fun to a TON of people who would likely otherwise never step foot on a golf course.

[disland]

38 spin it to win it was a cool format. You just let people pick their line length. You need a lake that wont give you rollers. It adds an endurance and consistency aspect.

[skidawg]

Shiner bock big easy slalom tournament---- @jdarwin ?

Trick slalom tourney?

Wooden Ski/sloppy adjustable binding tournament?

 

[lottawatta]

It is my opinion that skiers will not pay to travel and enter to ski on a wood ski, or be forced to ski goofy foot, or start at their hardest pass and work down, or whatever else. That stuff sounds fun for a group of guys getting together at the local ski pond or a club tournament, but who is going to pay to travel to a BOS event to do that? Most of the skiers I know that ski buoys do it to challenge themselves to ski faster / shorter. Most skiers I know will still need that traditional tournament round aspect to justify the costs of travel, family time, entry, etc. Not to mention how upset someone would be to get hurt before state, regional, or nationals or whatever event they ski while screwing around on a wood ski when a binding flies off.

 

I assume as a BOS event, it is going to have to stay appealing to the sponsors who sell skis, boats, tournament equipment. I am not sure a ski company would want to sponsor a make your own ski event, or a BYObinding wood ski challenge. My 2 cents, for what its worth.

 

[walleye]

30 mph max speed on wide ride ski (12 inches min) with turn and burn option. Turn and burn option where you fail. One boat judge no appointed judges, one assistant scorer, one regular driver. Anyone with bachelor degree in medical field with cpr certification can safety.

[ThePantsManCan]

A Connelly Big Easy Tournament. One Connelly Big Easy waterski with Standard Adjustable binding and RTP will be available for use by every challenger. If you decide to bring you're own Big Easy, that is you're right. All binding configurations are acceptable (custom setups, sideways/wakeboard stances, and trick ski stances allowed and encouraged.)

 

Standard Tournament formats apply. 28mph max speed. Connelly sponsors the event. Price of admission is dirt cheap and somehow runs alongside the regular BOS Event.

[Horton]

@lottawatta is correct. I do love the whacky and you should all do that at your lake but I am looking for a brain storm that leverages the normal skill set but changes the event experience.

 

I am currently looking at a team concept with a few pro skiers like the Herb's Cup last year.

 

Note: I am working on between 1 and 3 BallOfSpray Cash Prize events at the moment and they will NOT use any wild whacky format.

[gt2003]

Ski Skat tourney (the short ski skat)

[lottawatta]

Pretty much everyone I know would like to ski more buoys. If there was a way to incorporate instruction with the tournament and the winner be decided on who improves the most, it might make it interesting. Even guys who run deep shortline can pick up a tip or incorporate a suggestion from someone they don't normally ski with to make their pass easier or ski another couple of buoys.

 

Here is my idea: Skiers will randomly be assigned a team with a captain who is either a great coach, or pro skier, or great ski set up guy, or industry veteran, or national champion, or ? Ideally teams will be 4 or 5 skiers and a coach. First round skiers will ski a tournament round. Those scores are added together to get a preliminary team score. Second round is a coaching set with the teams helping each other and being coached by their captain. Third round, skiers ski a tournament set and scores are added together to get final team score. On and off water theory, technique, ski set up, etc. is encouraged within the teams. Team who improved most between prelims and final wins the BOS prize pack.

[ThePantsManCan]

More buoys? Put two courses end to end. A twelve ball course. I'll leave now I promise.

[Mateo_Vargas]

Water Ski Cross

 

The boat will make two 28mph passes through the slalom course while a team of 3 skiing at the same time will try to round as many buoys as they can. Only full buoys will be counted and the 55 meter buoys will be used as the entrance and exit gates. A skier can skip rounding a buoy for no score but must pass between the buoy and the closest boat guide to be eligible for future scoring in a pass. If any skier falls, their rope will either be released or pulled in by the boat coach and no longer able to score in the 2 pass heat. Each skier must wear any type of ski, skis or wakeboard and each skier can determine their own length of rope. Additional protection is optional but highly recommended.

 

As H2OskiX sweeps the globe this simple set of rules will soon turn into a detailed 500 page rulebook so let me know if you have any questions.

 

[ToddL]

Slalom Survivor (3 days, 3 rds per day) - This is not a fully developed idea, but a starter one to get polished up...

 

Group skiers into tribes. Everyone skis Rd one, then each tribe votes someone off the tribe. Eventually the tribes merge and the game continues. Skiers voted off after the merge form the jury. Judging is based upon subjective assessment of best skier. So, you have to have a strategy as to who you think you can beat in the end. Have entry fees fund prize money distributed to the top X skiers. For skiers who are "kicked" off in the early rounds, they can still ski later rounds, but not for prize money. Maybe only the top surviving skiers get to ski on Day 3 or something.

[ToddL]

With all the sites installing the new green mini-course buoys for collegiate skiers, how about a Green Buoy "Record"? See who can go the shortest at normal speeds using the green buoys. Lots of normally =15/22/28 skiers will get to experience 28/32/35/etc.

[PurdueSkier]

Take a stab at ability based skiing. Here is my thought:

Set groups based on a mandatory (no higher or lower) starting speed and line length. Then set a max number of passes, probably 4, 5, or 6. I would do 4. You could either set the groups after sign up based on who was there or their average or set them ahead of time and people could select their own group. Because of the mandatory start andate the max passes it would force people to ski in correct group. Anyone who skied the max passes and didn't fall would be automatically moved to next group. If scores could count toward ranking list it would further encourage skiing in correct group.

[ScarletArrow]

I introduced a new format to the Buckeye Buoy Tour 2 years ago called "Pick Your Partner" - it's basically the opposite of "Pick Your Poison" (which is very good). It was a smashing success.

 

Skiers are seeded and bracketed head 2 head. The losers of each bracket are placed in a pool. After Round 1, we stop skiing and have a 20 minute "draft" where the winners of each bracket get to pick their ski partner for the remaining rounds. Highest seeded skiers chooses first. Lots of strategy here, especially if you are using handicapped scoring.

 

In my opinion, the best and most popular BBT formats are (in no particular order)

 

1. Run the gamut - teams of 5 collectively run 28, 30, 32, 34, 36mph; and -15, -22, -28, -32off against a stopwatch. fastest time wins.

2. Pick your poison

3. Pick your partner

4. Spin it to win it

5. 123 Slide - round 1 normal max speed, round 2 - max speed one less increment (ZBS), etc.

6. Big Dawg - same as Nautique series