Results are continuously updated on the AWSAEast.org website for anybody looking to follow along. While you can listen and watch the results on the webcast, they are all un-official until reviewed by the judging committee.

http://www.awsaeast.org/results/2009/09E060CS.htm

We are up and live this morning. We have completely distracted the announcer by telling George we are up and running live as he tries to get this up on his phone. The service is hosted by Ustream, which may or may not work on George’s phone. Here is the live coverage again, either way.
Live video chat by Ustream

Here is the running order for Friday, for anybody interested. I am watching for John Kehrig to get out there as I ski with him in the wee hours in the mornings. My goal is to be able to still be skiing at 72 when I get there.

I think the trick to tricking is not falling.  Seriously, I have no idea what goes on with tricking and needed a better title than something normal.  After the slalom events on Thurdsay, the tricking competition went into place.  After a slow start, and middle, and most of the end the trick event consumed a huge amount of the afternoon, which I unfortunately had to leave the site for.

I did however get to snap some photos before I had to leave and watched how the officials work to score the event.  The judges actually invaded Jim’s deck, where I had the webcam setup, because it had the best overall view of the tricking area. There is an audible sensor up on the deck (something Jim created), which signals the start of the run.  Meanwhile on the water, the skier goes through a series of tricks.  Each judge sits there watching intently, and records the actions in a narration of the event before their eyes for future review. Some of the judges were given scribes or other people to help them write out the score sheets, and the scores were collected on paper while somebody ran them down to the main collecting judge.

Hidden within the outskirts of Penfield NY, a community of water skiers came together to compete at one of the most pristine water ski sites in the country. While the water ski community is a tight group of friends,  today marked the start of a four day event marked in competition on the water.  With a national audience, the Eastern Regionals marks a significant step in the road to the nationals.

With a practice day on Wednesday peppered with rain, Thursday turned out to be a picture perfect day for skiing in New York.  The main focus of the day was the Juniors and they came out in force.

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Wednesday is here and has been setup as a practice day to get oriented with the pond, if you are coming in from out of town.
After sitting through my NY state unemployment seminar (really upbeat time there), I stopped at the pond to lend a hand.
I ran rope duty for a while, and then the rain started to open up. So far nobody has complained about it, because it has been really light. I think we were all hoping that NY was rained out, after the season we have had.
The check in tent is at the far north end of the pond in the trees. A quick stop there and you are in the queue to get 4 practice pulls.

I grabbed a shot of the running order posted up for Thursday. It will probably change before the actual event, but it gives you a head start as to what is happening.

If you are thinking of stopping by for the Eastern Regionals here in Penfield, or just want to know when to expect things to happen, here are the highlights.  I grabbed the schedule from the Regionals Guidebook.

While the events start on Thursday, things are already in full swing down at the pond.  Today is practice day, and for those who registered ahead of time, a chance to get out on the water and feel the conditions before they are set for their one moment to ski.

This does not cover everything, and I will work to get some more times posted, for anybody interested in arriving and checking it out.

The week of the water ski Eastern Regional Championships have arrived.  I will have spend some time backtracking all of the work that went in to make it all come together. I don’t think I have ever pulled down that driveway without seeing Jim working on something, and the site looks clean and ready for the hundreds showing up this week.

Tonight however marked a pause in the physical work, as we tested the processes to see it all come together. A small group of highly skilled skiers, plus myself, came together to see how many skiers we could fit into a day of skiing.  The idea is to see how many we can fit in the average of an hour.

While the tournament itself spans 4 days, Jim and Dean are running practice rounds on Wednesday, starting bright and early. Many of the skiers coming in have paid ahead for some practice on this pond and we wanted to make sure there would be time to spare.  We ran two hours of skiing, with the second one being by far the fastest. I was actually in the boat for the second one, obviously making it faster.

The starting setup is pretty sweet. There is a pylon tube at one end where you can pre load the shock tube and rope of the next skier. Before I left they even attached a white board to the pylon, to write down the skier rope length, speed, name, etc for the boat crew to transition quickly.

Jim made an amazingly nice skier prep bench, making it real easy to get a ski on and fall in the water. If you can’t place where the wood came from, take a look at Jim’s house when you visit.  This was some of the tongue and groove left over.
The boat pulls up, the old rope is handed to the dock worker, the new rope is grabbed from the pylon and the skier is in the water ready to go. Most hand offs and skier changes were less time than the 55 second warning beep from the boats timing system. The skier is pulled up, around the island and lined up down the course.

For the record, we averaged about 9 skiers, each taking 4 passes, accounting for falls within one hour.  If you fall on your 4th pass, you have to swim to shore, but it is a small price to pay to take a ride on this perfect water.