Clark’s Regionals Results

Not the results I was looking as I failed to meet all of my goals except for one. I did make the podium in jump which automatically grants me my first invite to the USA Nationals. My jump set was upsetting for more than one reason. My first mistake was a mental one in not dragging my right (sling) arm long enough to rudder myself back towards the boat causing my left (handle) arm to topple my upper body over on the landings. All week long I had been jumping pretty solid around 115ft. in late afternoon crosswinds and swirling tail winds. I was getting coaching from the shore but none of them caught what was really going on. My first jump was a single wake cut that I failed to ride away. For my second jump the head wind was just perfect. I took a quarter cut and went further than I had ever gone before. At least 125ft., the grid read 117ft. as I failed to ride that one away as well. My third and final chance at the podium was a jump of 108ft.

Trick was really fun as I stood up my run of 1430pts. without falling and got credit for 740pts. I just trick for fun and I had fun. If I want to get credit for tricks I just need to learn flips. That way they can’t take points away. Slalom was feeling really good until I slipped around 3 ball on my second pass. I guess that’s what you get when you don’t slalom for 9 days before a tournament.

“Grape Vine” – Regionals Bound

USA Western Regionals; A Look At [M1]

As of tonight’s registration, the Mens 1 Division looks pretty exciting for next weeks matchup. With 15 of the top collegiate skiers going head to head outside of the collegiate arena.

Although the team format does not apply here, the friendly rivalry lives on. San Diego State University, on it’s home turf, is sending the most representatives to Mens 1 this year with 4 skiers. Brandon Barrett is the team’s newest recruit and first waterski scholarship recipient in school history. Barrett is a slalom specialist but plans on returning to three-event for his collegiate career. 4 SDS, 3 SAC, 2 CSD, 2 ASU, 2 CSC. Usual suspects not yet registered include Gavin Rhodes (CSC), and Karl Garrett (SAC).

There are many reasons to watch Men’s 1 this year. Alan Podawiltz (UCSD) is three eventing out of his mind right now. Look for Podawiltz to get 3 PB’s next weekend. Slalom scholarship rookie Brett Fish (ASU) just picked up a trick ski and is already close to 1,000pts. Coming off a week of jump training watch for “Big Jeff” Rush (SDSU) to add 10 feet to his best jump. Will BK (CSC) walk away with the jump and trick title again?

As for me…I will be three eventing for the second year and I would like to take home three PB’s. I am looking forward to the Friday evening jump event. I have put my rib injury away and my jump confidence is at an all time high coming off the summer training with the Goodmans. My goal of 130 is not out of reach and a jump like that should place me near the top 5 which would constitute an invite to the USA Nationals. I need to swerve into 32off on Saturday to get my Masters rating to meet my goal for an Overall accomplishment. I just recieved my Masters in trick last weekend and I am but an opportunity away from tricking 1400 pts on Friday morning.

LIVE LOVE SIMR

Can/Am Record Results

Slalom (round 3): This morning I went back to the Malibu and ran the usual opening passes and finished with 2.50 @ 14.25. I am going to run that pass at regionals!

Jump (round 2): Still at 5ft./35mph, I started with a single to warm up. I crossed my skis on the landing for a fall on jump one. I decided to stay with a single on my second jump so that I could make some adjustments and get a solid feel before moving out to quarter cut. I poked out a solid 107ft. Now with only one shot at the quarter cut I knew the warming up was over and it was time to put one out there. I reminded myself to stay aggressive yet be patient on my turn. I settled in off my counter made a smooth turn towards the ramp and set my edge. Off the second wake the speed picked up all the way through the base of the ramp. As I rode away I knew that had to be close to a personal best. 123ft.

Can/Am Day 2

Slalom (round 2): Today we’re behind the MasterCraft. I did slalom well behind this boat once back in 2005. To make matters worse the boat crew decided to start me at 34/28 instead of the requested 34/22. When I ran the pass and got to the other end I said, “Damn that felt oddly difficult to get wide. Are you sure that was 22?” Well, I wasn’t about to opt up to 36/28 so we started all over at 34/22. I ran my first two passes and recieved my worst slalom score of the tournament 1.50 @ 14.25.

Jump (round 1): With good jump training all week I felt very confident in round one. My plan was to still take it easy as I am done learning lessons from impatience with the jump ramp. My first single was a 97ft. I moved it out for two quarter cuts both around 108ft. A good safe afternoon of jumping for me.

Can/Am Day 1 & New Trick PB

Slalom (round 1): Since I was on a slow recovery from the ribs, Terry and I spent all week disecting my slalom at 34mph. I took one tournament set the day before and ran 3.00 @ 14.25. What do you know…round one 3.00 @ 14.25. So I know without practice I can scrap 87 buoys. Hopefully by regionals I can run that pass and set a new personal best.

Trick (round 1): The prop on the Malibu was damaged in the first round and had to be swapped for a new prop. The boat did not have enough time to calibrate but I stayed loyal to my favorite boat. My usual speed of 18.5 felt great until I got to my wake tricks. The speed was just slow enough to sink my tail edge into the wake on a wake front causing me to go down early. I ended up with a 970.

Trick (round 2): Second round of tricks I bumped the boat speed up to 18.8 to adjust for the new prop. It worked out well but I missed both chances at my W5F. I hadn’t missed that trick in over two weeks and I had to miss it on a personal best run.
New Tournament Best: 1120pts.
Canadian/American Record
Site: Borderline Lake, Blaine, WA
Date: July 13, 2007

Previous Tournament Best: 1040pts.
SDSU Teskila Sunrise Alumni
Site: Imperial Lakes, San Diego, CA
Date: April 21, 2007

Finless Trick R&D

It is hard to say that many waterski manufacturers have revolutionized the trick ski as much as Ron Goodman. But after testing a new prototype today I am going to be the first to proclaim the dawn of THE new hand tricker. I will not give away any of the design ideas but I will say that this has not been done before and will cause a lot of controversy upon its introduction. Two major developments for the hand trick ski have taken place and so far each have been tested independantly from each other. A hybrid of the two has yet to be tested. The hybrid of these two independent developments should premeir at the 2007 U.S. Open in late September.

The first major development is unassuming and will likely go unnoticed to the naked eye. I saw the first one of these come off the press yesterday. It is likely to premier at the 2007 Worlds in early September.

The second major development is not so unassuming and will be the controversial addition to the hand trick. Goodman test dummy and pro jumper, Mark Lane, was the first to test this ski. He was solid on all his flips and hand tricks. Well, if you know how good Mark is at trick, you might be saying, “Mark could do the same thing on a 2×4.” And you would be right. So that is why I was the second person to demo this new ski. Being only a thousand point hand tricker with no flips I would open up the test market to the beginner. I was able to do everyone of my tricks without getting wet. Tricks that previously required time for balance adjustment were suddenly solid. I limited myself to down the lake and back for fear that I would get too used to the ski. The only tricks I didn’t try were my side slides for fear of my life, haha.

48th Peace Arch

Taking home the hardware. Both, Jeff and I, nursing jump injuries walked away from a successful jump event today. Jeff qualified for regionals with a personal best and landed all three jumps without re-injuring his knee. Back to three-eventing, I also landed all three jumps unscathed for my first go since separating my ribs three weeks ago. My jumps were nice and easy singles at 5ft/31.7mph for a best of 79 feet.

In two rounds of slalom I didn’t get very deep at 36mph. Keeping the line length constant 22off, I was going off the dock at 32mph. I ran 32 & 34 quite effortlessly but I am not quite ready for 36 again yet.

I started over from scratch on my trick run as well. I went back to a standard run of 820 with enough time for the W5F at the end, saving my second pass for the higher point wake tricks. This method would assure me a warm up, some points on the board, and give me two chances to score the W5F. I stood up my first run but the 5 was out of time as I forgot the order of tricks half way through. I fell on my first WO on the second pass leaving me with 820.

Willie Nelson

We skipped out on the rest of the tournament weekend and opted to catch the Willie Nelson show. We showed up 2hrs. before the show and got 8th row tickets. When Willie stepped out on stage I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing him with my own eyes. Willie Nelson has been one of my favorite artists since high school. My ipod has more Willie songs than any other artist; 377 songs. Last night was a real dream come true.