Inliner
07-11-2004, 07:33 PM
Well, this weekend was a most unusual one for me. As many of you know, my wife is a disabled skier who participates in able-bodied events for tournament experience. In WSD tricks, she uses a kneeboard and is slowly becoming pretty darn good at making that thing handle. Normally we ski in events together. But kneeboarding is one thing I will never be able to do courtesy of a blown MCL from a snow skiing injury about 6 years ago. You also know that I am generally intricately woven to these events in some way. I am either competing in them or am working in some format such as driver, spotter, etc.
This weekend I wore a new hat. Before I was a professional ski bum for a living, I worked for a local auto dealership as a New Car Service Manager. In that position I performed numerous radio talk shows, filmed movies, commercials, etc. The event had trouble on the first day with keeping somebody in the announcer's booth. That evening at the banquet I said I would do announcing duties since I had nothing better to do.
Well, if you hadn't noticed, the announcer gets the best seat in the house next to the judges. I had a perfect view as the tricks portion of the tournament unfolded. With that said, here is a brief look at our state championships from this weekend:
The pace was set Saturday for the records by Al E. Gator when he nailed one ball and a skier at 10 mph! ;) As we arrived, right before the first skier hit the water, an alligator took a stroll between the number 4 and 5 balls as the entire competition contingent looked on in shock and awe. Welcome to Florida! :)
But no one let that worry them. We had at least 3 national records and 6 state records fall in the slalom course that day. I wasn't yet doing announcing duties at that point but did get to see most of what went on. One of our top kneeboarders nailed 4 at 26mph and 38 off. When asked what he thought about his new record today, Mark Ritchhart said "I'm in virgin territory here!"
Saturday night I was at the banquet and I was discussing with one of the organizers their problem with the announcing. I offered my services and they readily agreed to put me to work. I requested certain paperwork in the morning so I could have everything ready at the start. Talk about organized! They provided me with almost everything I needed in the morning AND it was organized by starting order!
Well, tricks went awesomely! Many of the kneeboarders are getting ready to head to England for the Rider Cup and let me tell you what, they have been practicing! I saw kneeboarders doing flips and getting major air! Even my wife set a personal best as I watched in awe. I had a great time with the tricks announcing and unfortunately due to the nature of tricks and how records are determined there, can only attest to one pending record change. Odds are, as everything is verified and qualified, more will come out.
I was then asked to announce the Flip-Out contest. The flip-out is when skiers who can flip, do as many as they can in 25 seconds. If they hit 10, the skier who hits 10 the quickest wins. Mark Ritchart took this one hands down with 10 in just over 22 seconds. His closest competitor came in at 7. Lest anyone think this is easy, I watched as a rather dizzy Mark Ritchart almost lost it on #8. But he was able to regain his composure and finish his unbelievable run.
After that, it was on to the Freestyle event. For Freestyle, the boarders declared their first 5 tricks, then it was katy bar the door on the second set. Once the second set was complete, they then hit a double-up for the Big Air competition. One of our boarders, Jared Bohlen, nailed an unbelievable double-up, clearing the tail end of the Malibu Wakesetter he was skiing behind, by feet, not inches!
All in all, I had a great time! I saw the event from a totally new perspective and had a blast doing it! If you are not involved in your local ski community in some way, I highly recommend getting involved. I now hit a lull while we prepare for the WSD Nationals in Fergus Falls MN. If you want any more info about the Florida State Kneeboarding Chamionships, feel free to visit the Skionee (http://www.kneeboard.us/) website. There will be photos posted as well as results in short order I am quite sure. See you on the water!
This weekend I wore a new hat. Before I was a professional ski bum for a living, I worked for a local auto dealership as a New Car Service Manager. In that position I performed numerous radio talk shows, filmed movies, commercials, etc. The event had trouble on the first day with keeping somebody in the announcer's booth. That evening at the banquet I said I would do announcing duties since I had nothing better to do.
Well, if you hadn't noticed, the announcer gets the best seat in the house next to the judges. I had a perfect view as the tricks portion of the tournament unfolded. With that said, here is a brief look at our state championships from this weekend:
The pace was set Saturday for the records by Al E. Gator when he nailed one ball and a skier at 10 mph! ;) As we arrived, right before the first skier hit the water, an alligator took a stroll between the number 4 and 5 balls as the entire competition contingent looked on in shock and awe. Welcome to Florida! :)
But no one let that worry them. We had at least 3 national records and 6 state records fall in the slalom course that day. I wasn't yet doing announcing duties at that point but did get to see most of what went on. One of our top kneeboarders nailed 4 at 26mph and 38 off. When asked what he thought about his new record today, Mark Ritchhart said "I'm in virgin territory here!"
Saturday night I was at the banquet and I was discussing with one of the organizers their problem with the announcing. I offered my services and they readily agreed to put me to work. I requested certain paperwork in the morning so I could have everything ready at the start. Talk about organized! They provided me with almost everything I needed in the morning AND it was organized by starting order!
Well, tricks went awesomely! Many of the kneeboarders are getting ready to head to England for the Rider Cup and let me tell you what, they have been practicing! I saw kneeboarders doing flips and getting major air! Even my wife set a personal best as I watched in awe. I had a great time with the tricks announcing and unfortunately due to the nature of tricks and how records are determined there, can only attest to one pending record change. Odds are, as everything is verified and qualified, more will come out.
I was then asked to announce the Flip-Out contest. The flip-out is when skiers who can flip, do as many as they can in 25 seconds. If they hit 10, the skier who hits 10 the quickest wins. Mark Ritchart took this one hands down with 10 in just over 22 seconds. His closest competitor came in at 7. Lest anyone think this is easy, I watched as a rather dizzy Mark Ritchart almost lost it on #8. But he was able to regain his composure and finish his unbelievable run.
After that, it was on to the Freestyle event. For Freestyle, the boarders declared their first 5 tricks, then it was katy bar the door on the second set. Once the second set was complete, they then hit a double-up for the Big Air competition. One of our boarders, Jared Bohlen, nailed an unbelievable double-up, clearing the tail end of the Malibu Wakesetter he was skiing behind, by feet, not inches!
All in all, I had a great time! I saw the event from a totally new perspective and had a blast doing it! If you are not involved in your local ski community in some way, I highly recommend getting involved. I now hit a lull while we prepare for the WSD Nationals in Fergus Falls MN. If you want any more info about the Florida State Kneeboarding Chamionships, feel free to visit the Skionee (http://www.kneeboard.us/) website. There will be photos posted as well as results in short order I am quite sure. See you on the water!