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ODBF

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Everything posted by ODBF

  1. I have about 10 bankers boxes of documents from the mid 50s thru the early 80s with tons of stuff from Bill Clifford and other AWSA board members. From reading most of the documents it looks like they did fight against pro skiing and failed to promote the sport as they should have. Sometimes it seems the sport grew to where it was in spite of the leadership. At the same time there were some board members that worked to build the pro levels as well.
  2. @mattp does the ski swing at all in the wind? I have been trying to figure this one out as well.
  3. I think term limits are a very good idea, keep new blood flowing into the leadership positions. Its very important to get new ideas flowing at the highest levels and our current leadership has shown they are adverse to change. I am all for Jodys idea for term limits.
  4. @East Tx Skier very well said! @jody seal So be it. @shaneh the show ski driver training manual i saw at no point showed skiers and boats in the same place. Boats do follow each other in the show course and if there is a fall the following boats are supposed to be far enough back that they can drive around without causing their skiers to fall because of sudden boat turns. The training program is not perfect by any means and I am all for more safety in the sport. I am not saying their is no danger in the sport, there is, quite a bit if those involved do not follow the rules and use their heads. That is why I liked @behindpropellers idea about separate insurance levels for the different sports disciplines. I don't know much about insurance premiums and how they are calculated, maybe we would lose some of our purchasing power by splitting 6 thousand people off into a separate policy but its worth a look at the very least. @richarddoane is it apathy or contentment?
  5. @behindpropellers regional guide: Kill the printed guide yesterday. There is no excuse for spending money printing a guide that can easily be made a searchable document online. If people want hard copies they can print it off on their home computer. Magi zine: Kill the printed magazine as well. I work in the printing industry and I watch as more and more print shops close and its sad to see the jobs go. My phone is 10 times more useful then a magazine is as it can show me up to date information. If people still want the info then they can make it all online. They already have been utilizing RR Donnelly's digital magazine so why still send me a hard copy? Insurance: This is an interesting idea, not sure how it would be executed exactly. I could see that being a route that would be worth exploring at the very least. It would be interesting to see how they break down the premiums. But now how long before the slalomers and trick skiers say "hey, those jumpers are messing up our premiums, we need to get rid of them as well" Safety Tracking: This is something I really think needs to be done. I bet the results would surprise you, show skiing probably has a higher injury per participant but its probably a lot closer then everyone thinks. Most clubs are not dangerous morons that ski during lighting storms like the ones you mentioned. And if they actually are skiing in lighting someone needs to call child services on them, they are going to kill their kids. Most show skiers are the most anal safety conscious people I have ever met. I prefer 3 event as it is more open, less regulated. @ShaneH you are wrong about the drivers certification for show skiing. @jodyseal I post anonymous for a reason and will not be giving out my identity. But yes, I am on my states water ski association, I have been on regional boards, have run many tournaments and been involved with multiple pro events over the years both as an organizer and as a sponsor. If the powers that be read forums to find out how to govern...well thats just disapointing. The noisy bird gets the worm is not how the best decisions are made, that just pacifies those that speak the loudest instead of governing for the majority. Maybe the loudest talkers here are in the majority, I have not seen that in my region, as the majority could care less about the new rules.
  6. @Dusty I actually agree with much of what you are saying. The records checks are overboard I think. But at the same time when you get car or boat insurance thru someone else they do check your records as well. My club when I was growing up did not use USAWS insurance and things worked well most of the time. Are there other clubs/lake owners that use other insurance companies? What do the costs look like?
  7. I guess the main question is, what insurance will a seperate 3 event organization supply and how will splitting our pool of payers in half cut our rates at all? Does the governing body really need to supply insurance? Should this be something that lake owners handle? Do I like the direction USAWS has been going? Not at all, I think the entire organization from top to bottom needs to reevaluate what they want our sport to be and how best to serve the paying members. Does that mean I think we should leave? Of course not, because we are not children who can just stomp off and pout in the corner when things don't go there way. You fight to fix it, you buckle down, do some research and come up with a proposal to fix what we have. If you think AWSA is not representing you then go and push for greater autonomy. Breaking up just causes us to lose even more of what little clout our sport has in the eyes of legislators. I don't know exact numbers (I could look it up but wont because...f doing work when hungover), but we have something like 15-18k members right now, which is pitiful as it is, but you break that in 2 and you end up with two groups that become more polarized against each other and have less respect in the eyes of the legislators that USAWS should be lobbying lawmakers to put forward laws that help us as a sport. @Horton there are many injuries every year in water skiing. We are competing in a dangerous sport, if some how an extra 10 or 20 bucks a year is going to bankrupt participants in our sport then they really need to reevaluate their life decisions. We are adults that play with 50k dollar boats, 2 thousand dollar skis, and burn 100 bucks in gas for a day on the water. I know of the one death on the Southern Extreme show team, I believe there may have been another serious injury on a team in Alabama, but I do not know if that was during a sanctioned event or not. I can not remember another death in years before that.
  8. @OB I am not saying we need to change 3 event skiing to be like show skiing. I reread my post about it and I did not explain what I meant very well. Show skiing in itself is goofy but it introduces more people to water skiing then any other discipline does. My club when I was growing up skied several shows a week all summer in front of crowds of anywhere from 2,000 on a slow night to 15,000 or more. We gave lessons to anyone that wanted to learn to ski as well, and as the majority of the skiers were 3 eventers we taught what we loved. We also brought in anywhere from $200-300,000 a year in donations and advertising. That money went a long way to help promote water skiing in the area. That club over the years has taught thousands of people how to ski and influenced thousands more to buy a ski and give it a shot at home. The club also hosted a 3 event tournament for 37 years, and would still today if local regulatory conditions allowed it. So yea, its just ridiculous as you said... My point is not changing 3 event to be like show skiing, its that if our sport wants to survive we do what show skiers have done and move our events to where the people are. I never suggested that pyramids or swivel skiing are the answer to 3 event. But we can learn from the business decisions these clubs make and how they promote their events. They get people to come watch while we have empty beaches at most of our tournaments.
  9. also @onside135 to your second point, my points may fall flat on a site that caters to slalom skiing and some 3 eventers but many of us in this world like to 3 event as well as wake board, hydrofoil, show ski, collegiate, etc. Why force the issue. If we want more money as a sport division why don't we push USAWS to drop the insurance? Well...because then we will have to show proof of full insurance at every event we go to. Our problem is not our sport governing body, it is our sue happy society and the lawyers that push it. The blame going to show skiing for the jump in fees this year stems from one accident. A show skier on a small team in southern Florida was killed when he hit the side of another boat. This was a tragic freak accident that could happen in any of the divisions. I have seen skiers hit shore at three event tournaments, saw a skier break his neck barefooting and one break his neck jumping at a state tournament. We are in a dangerous sport, things happen that are out of our control. Instead of trying to lay blame lets push USAWS to do what governing bodies are supposed to do and push for legislation that blocks no ski rules on lakes and fights local environmental groups and helps us build more lakes. We live in a time when people get millions of dollars for spilling coffee on themselves at McDonald's, insurance is not going to get cheaper by breaking our sport into smaller sections.
  10. @onside 135 Yes, most show teams have 100 or more members and some are over 200 members. The Wisconsin State show tournament is the largest waterski tournament by number of pulls. They are pushing 30 teams competing over 4 days as well as a day of individual competitions. I have traveled up there to watch it a couple times, and I have to say the show skiers know how to put on a very enjoyable event. There is a large beer tent, lots of bleacher seating, tents to get out of the sun, food vendors and equipment vendors all over the place. If you average 100 skiers per team which would be a low estimate you have 3000 skiers at this one tournament and most of the skiers are on the water multiple times. I have been involved with many tournaments over the years, some pro as well and the show skiers are a great example of what we should be doing, but instead our sport likes to say "oh thats just corky the clown, we dont want that". As a 3 eventer that wants to see our sport in front of big crowds again it is very disappointing to see this attitude from our leadership. so to answer your question, yes, really.
  11. @ShaneH Am I incorrect that the old AWSA created USAWS so there could be specific units of the group that focused on each sport group? By that I mean AWSA created USAWS so its not like they joined anything. They already covered all of these sports. @jdarwin If you look at total numbers of participants in each of those events you will see that 90% of the participants are not in AWSA. I am a 3 eventer at heart but I have show skied and skied in the NCWSA as well. Show ski tournaments have thousands of competitors per event. From my experience with the NCWSA they want nothing to do with AWSA. I can not speak for Jeff or the regional chairs as it has been a few years since I was involved with NCWSA but they are proud to be separate from AWSA as college skiing is the only feeder into AWSA that there is right now. They would be lost in the mess that is the AWSA if they were involved. I quit skiing tournaments in my state years ago because the leadership for my state, and in my view the country, lost their way years ago. A complete overhaul is needed to get this sport growing again. My previous post was not for or against creating a 3 event specific group, it was just pointing out that people on this board, yourself included, are viewing the past thru rose colored glasses. If people want a group that focuses on 3 event then talk about the pros and cons of that. I personally think forming another group is a bad move. It would not be as troublesome in some parts of the country but in some states it would force many skiers to pay dues to both groups. I have many friends in the midwest that show ski and three event and many of them would not pay dues to both organizations. I grew up spending my summers with a ski club that did shows to pay for us to go to three event tournaments. I spoke with several of them about this and they say they would stop going to 3 event tournaments and just use their own course. Our sport is not mutually exclusive, there is a lot of cross over that splitting USAWS would damage. We as a sport are not strong enough to bear a break up. We are already a small sport.
  12. Many of the arguments for AWSA to split away from USAWS and become what it once was are comical. The serious lack of understanding of what AWSA was and why the creation of the current body were needed is wide spread on this board. AWSA was not some 3 eventers utopia before USAWS somehow muddled the water with a bunch of ski racers and show skiers. AWSA was started and run by show skiers and some of those show clubs developed into 3 event clubs. Not the other way around. I have in my possession about 30 years worth of AWSA documents which includes most of the communication from head quarters as well as between members of the AWSA board and many of the yearly meeting summary reports. From all of this info it is very easy to see that AWSA was not what many of you think it was. 3 event (4 event for years) was a major focus but far from the only focus. Hell I have boxes of paperwork that just focused on the creation of a kite flying nationals. (kite flying is sweet if you have ever seen it) So my point is when you discus breaking away don't act like its going to take us 3 eventers back to our core as we have never had one. USAWS has given AWSA and the other divisions something they never had before, the ability to focus on one type of skiing while other groups focused on other aspects of skiing.
  13. My name is Old Dirty Bass Fisherman. Why is everyone talking about waterskiing on a bass fishing website? Vital stats:Ski Club – CRB fishing club PPB is 22 lb large mouth Current boat – 2010 Bass Tracker with 200 hp Yamaha Current ski – ski? whats a ski have to do with fishing? Current bindings - huh? Camo life vest, can full of sardines, 6 pack of Mountain Creek beer, and a playboy
  14. The CRB offers to keep the Ball of Sin up to date while you are gone. Of course by up to date we mean post pictures of random stuff with a bunch of photo shop pics of Tacocat, awesome Sammy and naked chearing guy cut in. No actually useful content would be added
  15. The CRB has decided we are moving to Alaska based on those pictures alone. Al Gore's basement has gotten kinda warm recently anyways. http://www.creakyrowboat.com/2010/08/alaska-looks-sweet.html
  16. oh and also this is a press release from Locke's new digs in CO http://www.creakyrowboat.com/2009/12/usa-field-hockey-press-release.html
  17. We are sad to see him go as well. We loved that he actually read some of the blogs and chat rooms out there and kept up with what was going on within the sport. Lets hope the new search committe has as much success as the last one.  He (like horton often does) asked who the CRB is and where we are from, and ill tell you all what I told him. We are waterskiers and we live in Al Gores basement.  Our '81 MC stars and stripes runs on BioDiesel baby!!*  *not true
  18. Not to lead traffic away (sorry horton) but we are having a little fun with this and think it might intrigue those of you who were all about the old school slalom league that was being thrown around on here a while back. Old school jump challange
  19. http://creakyrowboat.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-swear-we-will-post-another.html kinda cool vids of 720s. I think they should bring freestyle jumping back to the tour.  Wakeboarding brings in fans cuz its high flying and all that. well whats bigger then that? mobes of the ramp.  It packs in the people for show skiing, why not take advantage of that to help bring in numbers to 3 event tournaments.  doesent have to be a full event, maybe just filler between events or something. just my thoughts.ÂÂÂ
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