ALPJr

That’s some great skiing @swbca

No reading or posting in the 2021 is My Last Year thread :)

On the other side of the coin I haven’t seen the cost of anything really go down over the past ~45 years or so that I’ve been skiing. Started out behind 20 to 40hp outboard boats with cutoff shorts, gradually moved up from 60 to 140hp outboards, owned a ~15 yr old inbound for ten years, have bummed rides from buddy’s for the past 6 years. In all that time about 30% of skiing was spent on public waters and I’m sure happy that a boat operator’s training and license was required. Trust me our household income and assets are nowhere near a millionaires budget. Again I don’t see the cost of anything going down over time and an extra few bucks a year, or spending a little time to watch a video intended to promote health and safety sure won’t keep me from skiing, going to a tourney or two, watching TWBC, browsing BOS, and supporting the organizations as best as I’m able too.

Agreed @bananaron. SIA is an awesome resource for our sport. Happy to help support their efforts.

Thank you. An excellent discussion and good way to mark the end of the season.

RIP LAR a true legend in sport!

I believe this is/was Bob Maha’s property. If I could swing it I’d buy it in a hot minute. Imo it’s in one of the nicest areas in North America, 90min. from San Fran/Aquatic Park, an hour from the coast, Marin/Mt. Tam’, 1/2 hour from Clear Lake, and on the northern edge of wine country. Major concerns are water and wildfire, the drought has been tougher than tough in that neck of the woods.

Yes they are awesome! Back in 1990 I contacted Connelly about an issue with the plates on my year old high wrap and rear toe on my year old Concept. They said box it up and send to us and we’ll see what we can do. My buddy heard about this and called them about his mid 80’s Shortline that had a few dings and scratches on it. We’ll they sent me a new high wrap and rear toe and they sent his Shortline back looking like new with a new adjustable front boot and rear toe. All we paid was the shipping. Sound like they’ve maintained that high regard for their customers.

Interesting, looks like they are hiring paid officials, an others, hmm. Could USAWS do something along these lines?

 

Full-time, part-time, seasonal and internship positions available.

 

Sales

Event Planning

Event Marketing

Event Operations

Event Announcers

Officials

 

 

 

My sense in the East region is that participation across the board, especially at the club/grassroots levels is as strong as it’s been in the past ~20 years. It doesn’t seem that a significant number of people will be discouraged by any of this. We may even see an increased interest in helping as an official in one way or another among the younger, newer skiers. Perhaps leadership at the Regional and National levels could be persuaded to create incentives for officials to help drive participation such as tournament entry fee discounts, travel reimbursement or other rewards or recognition?

moved to met last year thread…

Moved to the stay or go thread…

Where’s the laugh out load button?

Great job Keith and WWC!

Good job guys. Imo the 2021 season was the best for pro water skiing in ~20 years or so and an amazing achievement given the challenges of the pandemic. I’m looking forward to an NFL films style season recap by TWBC.

Yummm!

Looks and sounds good @Horton. Is it wrapped in Carbitex? Did you run it on a Radar plate or with a mechanical release?

Bump… Too cold for me so I sponsored one of the club’s up and coming skiers. Have fun!!!

That’s a good thought @Jody_Seal. Create a non-profit waterski officials association that participates with AWSA in writing and interpreting rules, is responsible for training and developing officials, and assigning officials to AWSA sanctioned and other grassroots, recreational tournaments, for a fee.

From the other side of the coin… I became a basketball official because I wanted to continue to be part of the game and give back to a sport that I’d enjoyed playing and coaching for decades. To get started in this the organization requires clearing a criminal background check, an initial ~30 hours of classroom and on-court training, successful completion of a 75 question rules exam, annual dues and assessments(a fee that’s a small percentage of games paid that goes back into the org’) and purchase our own uniforms and equipment. Annually we are required to complete training sessions, the rules exam, and attend ~8 hrs of in-person (virtual during Covid) training. For all of that, we are able to be part of - an org’ with a rich heritage, support and promote a great sport and community, grow our skills and knowledge, stay in shape, and make enough to cover expenses. Personally I have no complaints and hope to a member of the org’ for many years to come. I really appreciate all of the time, work and expense that waterski officials give back to their sport. Perhaps it’s time to ask more of the org’ and the membership to make the officials even better and reward them with a modest compensation for their successful efforts in return.

Another excellent episode! Year round health and fitness all good and glad to here about another skier using the cross bar.

Just hope the offspring of the black swan at Spencer’s pond doesn’t show up :D

Looks like Evoy is moving forward https://www.evoy.no/

To me it depends on what level of organization you’re happier with - playing pick-up ball on Wednesday nights in someone’s driveway or the local park, or if you want to play in an organized league with hardwood floors, nice hoops, bleachers, rules, scorekeepers and trained officials.