This weekend there is a Pro-Am tournament at Diablo Shores in Northern California.  There is a legends division added that will include Kris LaPoint, Bob LaPoint, Lucky Lowe and Andy Mapple.  The first 3 guys were “gods” in the 80′s, with Andy being the young gun carrying his massive domination through the 90′s and into the 2000′s.

The rumor is this “Legends” division has a top speed of 35mph.  I will check to see what the deal is here, more to come.  The best part is the whole thing is going to be webcast over the weekend through the link below.

http://www.webcast-tv.com/DiabloShoresProAm/

I couldn’t make it out to the tournament in upstate NY this past weekend, so I bribed Jim Dibella to bring a camera and snap a few shots. It turned out to be a wet half of the day, making skiing a frigid experience for everybody involved. We even saw Rob break out the dry suit to try and combat the challenge.

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I took a small road trip this weekend, along with my wife, to go and see the site that Darrell and Crystal DeBay built, near Friendship NY. It was actually a sanctioned event weekend, marking the 18th time they have hosted the Buoy Bash at their lake.  The event, the atmosphere and the location itself were absolutely beautiful.

I went through a verbal bashing for not bringing my slalom ski, from every person on the site who recognized me.  While it sounds harsh, it is actually one of the most welcoming receptions I could have hoped for from the group, making me feel like part of the family.  I think Darrell even offered to carve a ski from a tree on site for me.

Crystal Springs

The site itself was nothing short of a picture perfect location, nestled into the hills of the Southern Tier of NY state.  There is another event in late September I believe. If the color starts coming out of some of the autumn leaves, it will make for a breath taking venue that would be worth the trip for anybody.

It is the first time I have been to an 8 ball course.  While I still have problems understanding 6 balls, the layout of the course makes sense quickly and it didn’t take long to get the rhythm of how it worked.  In order to make the lake long enough for the slalom course, they excavated out the south end of the lake to accommodate the course.  By having 2 extra balls in the water, you start your course run at the second set of balls and finish on the last in either direction.  While it might take some getting used to for us amateur skiers, nobody seemed frazzled by the setup.

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Videos of the finals in tricks, jump and slalom from Calgary, CA.  Very cool, take a look.

Men’s Slalom

Women’s Slalom

Men’s Jump Coverage

Women’s Jump Coverage

http://waterskiworlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=208&Itemid=32

Huge thanks to Jim for sending over the link to the Big Dawg webcast from last week.  While the video production is a little “raw”, it gives us a glimpse at the sweet 16 for the Big Dawg series final.  Hopefully we will try to find these webcasts BEFORE they are over, so we can get closer to live coverage

First reaction I had from seeing the video at the site was the wind.  It looked like a strong cross wind that day, and left me with a vivid image of the boat just drifting sideways while the skier was waiting for a pass.

It was really difficult being up here in upstate NY waiting for trickling news to reach us regarding nationals. The results are up now, but we were completely spoiled by being able to witness the regionals tournament in our own backyard. While we can’t be at all of the tournaments…yet…we do get some pictures and posts coming in from our spies around the country.

I know I was passed this picture from Rob Clarke, but am mildly sketchy on it’s actual origin. This should be Men’s 3 slalom champs from the Goode nationals.  Fitting, considering they are almost all holding a Goode.