National Champions!

The National Collegiate Waterski Associations hosts the national championships every year for the best 12 university teams. Today marks a week ago that the ULM Warhawks won the title! 

It has been an incredible experience to participate in the national championship alongside such a strong and supportive team. This is the competition that all team members had been working towards since day 1 of the semester. I have worked hard on improving in all my events in order to be as valuable as possible for the team. I was for sure going to ski in tricks, but jump was added to that when one of my team mates got injured in the first competition of the season. This also left 1 spot on the slalom team to be filled, but in order to earn that spot, I would have to prove myself. I didn't count on having to slalom at nationals for a long time, so I focussed my training on tricks and jump. In trick I was working on a new run to be able to place as high as possible by the time nationals came. It was going very well and I practiced this run at regionals. This worked out great and after the extra practice sets in between regionals and nationals I was confident in my new run. Jump was also going great. Even though I wasn't able to measure my practice jumps, I could feel that I was going farther than before. 

Just a couple of days before nationals I was sure to fill the last spot on the slalom team. This meant that I would be the first of our team to ski at nationals. On Thursday morning at 7, the event started and I was up around 8. The sun was on the course, which made it hart to see the buoys going one way. However, I had practiced in these conditions, so I wasn't going to let that affect me. I ran 14, which I was struggling to do throughout this entire season. I'm stoked to have done it under this much pressure and finishing with 1.5 at 13. 
Jump was my next event and I was feeling good about it, because I had jumped at the tournament site a couple of times before. My first jump didn't feel far, but it felt stable. I couldn't see the number the boat judge was signing to me, so I just looked at the directions that were being given to me from the shore. I tried to have a better cut and be better on the ramp and this time, I knew I had a good score. Again I couldn't make out the score, but I did know it wasn't the 100 feet (30 meters) I wanted, because I only got 2 signs. On my last jump I tried to go later and harder, because I just wanted to break that 100 foot barrier. I had a great cut, but lost it all when I hit the ramp. On the landing I hurt my shoulder a bit, so I got back to the shore disappointed  The team was not having that, because apparently I jumped a PB, so I wasn't allowed to be disappointed. My farthest jump was 96 feet (29.10 meters), so I'm definitely happy with that.

On the last day, again early in the morning, I was up for tricks. I had done my run countless times, so I just had to do the same thing as always. I had even been skiing early in the morning back at school, so there shouldn't be a problem. When I was up on the water though, the nerves still got the best of me and I went down on my first trick. Lucky enough, I turned so slowly that the first 180 degrees of my planned 540 degree turn still counted as a trick. This got me 100 point total, and some team points! Not a great end, but I did great in jump and slalom and I'm happy to be skiing collegiate tournaments in order to handle the competition stress better and better.

At the end of the day, collegiate waterskiing is not an individual sport anymore. I skied my 3 times, but I got to go through the nerves and adrenaline another 27 times, when my team mates skied. It is amazing to experience waterskiing as such a team event. To have a whole group of people be there to cheer you on and unite every time one of us skis. The atmosphere and support that I experienced this tournament was amazing, and to come away with a national title, even better.

Settling in

It has been quite a while since I have written here. This is because everything is changing so rapidly and I feel like I am on a rollercoaster ride. I'm trying to let everything that happens sink in, but it is challenging at times. That is why I didn't put much priority on my blog, and more on settling in at school, in the ski team, in my house, etc. I want to prioritize building a life here, so that is why I might not be writing every week. I do want to update you though, because many exciting things are happening!

Most importantly, I have had my first collegiate competition! It was the farthest one we will have this season, a 9 hour drive... We went in a van, with the 4 freshmen on the back row for the first part. Luckily after a while, we got to spread out to more comfortable seats. We got to the hotel late Friday night, so we just had dinner and went to the hotel. The next morning we were going to leave to the lake at 7am, so after a welcome shower, we went to bed on time. We had been warned about the site, last year it was extremely windy and people were having trouble running through their first pass. Also someone crashed and the competition ended in the hospital, so we were warned to go easy on the jumping. Luckily the wind didn't look too bad, so we had a good competition day ahead. First up for me was tricks. In a normal competition, this consists of two 20 second trick runs. Here, it is only one. My toehold run is worth the most points and also the most consistent, normally, so I will do that run in the collegiate tournaments. I was first from our team to trick, however I fell too early and lost many points. Next for me was slalom, the wind was picking up, but still, I have skied in worse. However, because of the nerves, I didn't run my first pass with the ease I would have liked. It was all a bit stiff and I only barely made it. Again, at 16, my next pass, I made a mistake and had to fight to make it through the pass. Luckily I did make it, because I would have been very unhappy to fall on that pass. Then came 14, where I normally have issues. I had a nice head wind and figured that the way I ran the previous passes has nothing to do with this pass. I can still make it better. I was going quite well, but then I didn't fight until the end and didn't turn 4 ball well enough, so I didn't run the pass. Still, it's a score that I do on most competitions, so it is not too bad, even though I always want to run it. Finally, it was time for jump, they were alternating guys and girls, so I got to ski immediately after Tycho, which was fun. He was still skiing back when my boat pulled me towards the ramp, so we were literally on the water at the same time. I started with 2 single cuts, because of all the warnings about the ramp. These were fine, but not far. Then I had to do a 3/4 cut, to get a bigger score. Sadly I didn't ski away, so the score didn't count. I knew what I had to work on after this competition. Do my toehold run until I'm sick of it and will stand up through it all if someone dragged me onto the lake at 3am. Also, do 3/4 cuts from the first jump so that I will have 3 chances and also much more practice. And that's what I've been doing the last week. I did toeholds twice a day some days and start with my run twice every time. I also did a set where I started with a 3/4 cut from the first jump and managed to ski away on all of them. Next weekend, there is a competition in Arkansas, luckily a little closer than this competition, so I will show what I have been working on there.

Watch this university video where I am featured twice: Facebook: Liekewaterski

Warhawks!!

Since last time I wrote a blog, quite a lot has changed. I have moved half way across the world to ski and study at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. I have already skied a lot on the site and had my first week of school. 

Being here is the perfect opportunity to get a bachelor degree whilst being able to ski any time I want. I have skied before, in between and after classes and since the first week is not that challenging at school, I have been spending a lot of time at the ski site. I thought I lived close to my ski lake back home, but now it is even closer. If I go from campus it is just a minute on the bike to get to the river. My apartment is also only 4 minutes away, so I really can go down there whenever I want. 

This has been something I have been planning and working towards for around 2 years now. I met Kate, who had skied here as well and she told me about the opportunities. Then I started doing research on how to get in and how everything works. I even took my gap year to improve my scores so that I could have a chance of skiing for the team. They offer really good scholarships as well, which get bigger per event that you can ski at tournaments. I get a partial scholarship, because only the top 5 scores count at tournaments and I can't put up a top 5 score in all events. I knew that I could also get a scholarship based on academic results. My high school scores were pretty good, but those wouldn't get me a scholarship. The school wanted to see an SAT score, which is a standardized test in reading, writing and basic mathematics. I had to do well on this test in order to get a scholarship, and even if I did well, the scholarship was not a given, because the deadline had well passed by the time I did my test. I took the test in May and results came in June, which was quite late, so getting a visa and organizing myself was pretty last minute. Especially since I couldn't spend a lot of time on thinking about it in between Worlds and Europeans. The news if I got my scholarship came even later, because some favors had to be asked so far after the deadline. I had a plan B, so I was going to go no matter what, but a scholarship would really help. Luckily everything came together shortly before I left: my scholarship, my visa and all the other documents I needed. 

When I was finally here, furnishing my apartment, it all started to feel a bit more real. But no matter how many things I bought and how many sets I skied on the Bayou, it still didn't sink in yet. It wasn't until classes started and I was all alone in my apartment that I realized that I actually did what I was dreaming of 2 years ago, but seemed unattainable. And that I will be living this life for the coming 4 years. Even though the thought kind of scares me as well, because I didn't mentally prepare for actually living on the other side of the world by myself as it all kept feeling like a dream I may not reach, I am also really excited and I can't wait for all the adventures I will have!

Europeans 2017

Finally I begin to reflect on the European and African championship that took place August 3-6. I didn’t write about it last week, because there was so much happening! I moved to Monroe in Louisiana to start studying at the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM). They have a really good ski team and I will be able to ski a lot more than before. This was a huge step in my life and I had to say goodbye to a lot of people and not to forget my dog. This was quite the rollercoaster, so I wanted some time to myself to be present for all of it and let it sink in, because even now that I have an apartment, which I already filled with a bunch of stuff, it still doesn’t feel real. I set my mind on achieving this maybe 2-3 years ago, and it seemed a little unreachable at the time. A lot of people around me didn’t think I could pull it off, and honestly at some points I didn’t either. Maybe that is why, now that it’s actually happening, I still have a hard time believing it. I am sure that will change once I start skiing here and when the introductions and classes start.

But more about that next week, first it’s time to share my experiences at the u21 Europeans. Having had the training results I did before, I was sure that I could set a PB in each event. I did a jump PB in training and was running constantly through the 14 meter line, no matter the weather and setting 4 or more bouys at 13. Also my trick run was easy and stable to be sure I could break the 3000 point barrier. We were with a big and especially young team at this Europeans, so that was really fun. I also think it’s very good that the youngest kids are getting to experience these competitions now, because that’s the hardest part for me: I lack experience at competitions and thus don’t perform what I should do too often. That’s also what happened this time... In tricks, I did both my runs as planned, I was really happy for a bit, but soon realized I shouldn’t celebrate too early, because maybe not everything was credit. Turns out a lot was not credit and I scored really low... Then in jump my timing was different from in training and I jumped 25 meters. I knew I had to go later to go further, and my next jump that’s what I did. However at the landing I just couldn’t hold on, so the score didn’t count. This was 27 meters, so I would’ve been really happy with that. However, after a jump like that, I go earlier again to be safe and did another 25 meter jump. I was really disappointed, because I jumped 25 meters when I still did a single cut, and now I’m doing it with a ¾. However, now I know that my jump PB is just a matter of time and practise. Once I’m really comfortable with the ¾ cut and dare to go later and understand the timing better, I think my scores will improve. Soon after jump was slalom, which made jump a little scarier, because slalom was the most important event for me, so I really didn’t want to hurt myself in jump and jeopardize my slaloming. My slalom passes were feeling pretty good, but at 14 I made my old mistake of screwing up the gate. I was too early pulling out and thus got pulled back in a bit and couldn’t take the angle I needed. Being left foot forward, this didn’t affect my 1 ball too much, but it has consequences for 2 ball, where in this case I was so narrow that I hit the bouy. After that, it’s really hard to get back, so eventually I fell at 4. 

Overall, my results were really disappointing, but luckily some teammates skied really well and I can take away a lot of motivation from that. And most importantly I really enjoyed spending time with everyone, and made great memories that can last me for the time I will be studying on the other side of the world. For example, I went to the casino for the first time! I’m really thankful for everyone that supported me both on and off the site, because you all really make me feel loved!
I post more pictures of this and other events on Facebook!

Euros training

First of all, apologies for not having uploaded last week, and too late this week. Last week I was training at Vincent Soubiron ski school in order to prepare for the upcoming European and African championships, but the wifi broke, so I was unable to upload.

The training with Vinney was going really well. I ran my 13 meter pass for the first time since I did it in Nemours, so I was really happy! I had another slalom set that day, so Vinney told me I had to run the 13 meter passs again, but this time 'off the dock', like in a competition. I ran 18 and 16 no problem, then came 14, and Vinney said oke no pressure, but.... you have to run it. So then I did, and after came the real pressure. I really wanted to run that 13, but then again, I'd only done it twice before. I just thought how easy both of the 13s that I ran felt and that I should be able to do it. And I did. I only got to half or maybe 1 bouy at 12, but it felt great to be slalomming  like this just before Europeans. Once I got to the site of the Europeans, I ran 18, 16, 14 easily, even though the water did feel quite different than before. I haven't done 6 bouys at 13 in the training here, but if I am able to at least ski into 13, I should be happy with the results.

In tricks, we decided to change my run back to what I was doing last year, because the 540s I was trying wouldn't be credit in the competition and thus a waste of time. I want to go over 3000 points, so I couldn't do the exact same run as last year. I added a WO, which is a wake 360 at the beginning, to start with some extra points. I normally never train this trick, so I had to get used to starting with it, but luckily the trick that follows is so easy for me that it doesn't matter if I get out of the WO a little bit sketchy. My toe run stays the same, but hopefully I do wrap in wrap out at the end for an extra 200 points. When training in Spain, there was a different boat and my WO wasn't credit anymore. This caused quite a bit of stress. Talisa thought that making my rope a bit longer would help, but I didn't have more practise time to test it. I ended up giving my jump training to Tycho in return for his trick training, because his tricks are so good that he doesn't need more practise than the official 5 minutes. I also wanted my jump training to gain more confidence and figure out the timing, but it is more important to PB in trick than in jump, and also more realistic.

Finally the jumping: at Vinney's, it was going quite well. Sadly on the second to last day before training, I landed with my skis facing inward. I got kicked out of my skis into a front flip and twisted my left leg. Everything from my pelvis, knee and ankle was hurtng and it took the ostheopath quite some time to try and fix it. Still it hurts a bit, but I jumped the day after just to see. I lost a lot of confidence in that fall and when I got to Spain and had jump training, I passed my first 2 jumps. I was in good body position and the timing was oke, but I was just still too scared to go over. After, I really forced myself to go over with a single and a 3/4 straight after. I would have liked to jump more before, but if I jump over my score at worlds, I will be content. I still have the official training for jump, so 2, maybe 3 jumps to figure out the timing of my 3/4, because I was really early the one I did in practise.

Aside from the skiing, the team spirit is absolutely great and we're having a lot of fun together. I can't wait for the competition to start and I really hope everyone skis their best!

Worlds!

"We're at the worlds"

First of all, apologies for uploading a little late, as I was enjoying the last competition day too much, I didn't write it Sunday and on Monday I was really sick, so I fell asleep any time I could.

After the training results at the competition site, I had high hopes for the actual competition. I was performing really well in training and doing exactly what I would be really happy with in tournament. After having a massage and spa day on our last day off before the tournament, I felt that the preparation couldn't be any better. On Thursday, there was quite a lot of wind to consider, but nothing that I didn't train for, so it didn't worry me too much. I had two nice and easy passes to start off with and ran the 18 and 16 meter pass without problems or doubts. I was also able to control my nerves quite well and wasn't skiing really cramped up or safe like I had done in previous competitions. Then time for the 14 meter pass, which is the one I really wanted to run. I had a good gate, which was better than some passes in training. Even with a bad gate in training I was able to run it, so this shouldn't be a problem now. However, at 4 ball I still made a mistake, because I was thinking I had the pass in the pocket already. You should never ever think that before actually having gone through the end gate, so this was a really stupid and unfortunate mistake. I could, and should have done much more and immediately started hoping that I could make a come back at Europeans.

There was not a lot of time to be disappointed with the slalom result, because I had to pin my team mate Tycho Hof in tricks and soon after that trick myself. I was nervous to pin for him in such a big competition, because if you make a mistake, it can ruin their score. I had to pin Tycho on his second trick, so that was quite stressful, but I was sure of my case. Luckily for us, the camera wasn't working and he had to do a rerun for both his hands and toes. This time, he did all his toe tricks, like I'm used to him doing, and also all his hand tricks, so that was a much better feeling for me to start tricks with than my slalom result! In training I stood up my runs every time, so I was confident I would do the same in the competition. I really tried to take my time, because I really just had to make my first sequence, since I fell on it in some previous competitions. Sadly, after doing my first sequence well, I still fell on my 540, losing lots of points in my hands run. Since normally I am able to do all my toe tricks very steadily, I wasn't too nervous for that. I came out of my first tricks a little shaky, but tried to take my time to regain balance. However, I couldn't regain enough stability and still fell early in my course. I ended up with the lowest trick score that I set in a while... I know that with an easier run I can score more points than I am scoring now, but I won't be able to set a PB, so I'm still committed to making this new run work.

My first and only jump... (picture by Lena Klein Hofmeijer!)

Then on Friday it was time for jump. I had high hopes after my PB last competition. The main goal however, was to set a higher second score, because the ranking list is based on your best 2 performances and right now I had 27.6m from the Benelux, but 23.6m as second best score. My timing was pretty good on the first jump, which I was happy with, since that was an issue in training. However, during the landing, I hurt my arm and when I got up, I couldn't even put my arm up to grab the handle... I had to stop jumping and see the doctors. Still, even after watching back the live stream, I don't know exactly what happened, all I know is that it hurts quite a bit. I really hope I will be able to get back on the water soon enough so that I can indeed get my comeback at Europeans. I surprisingly got a score for that jump, because I didn't actually fall, and it was 25.2m, so a better second result for my ranking. Sadly, I don't think it is worth it, because I'm really scared for how fast the recovery will go. I want nothing more than to ski the long awaited PBs at Europeans, but I will have to get back to training soon if I want to do that!

Hopefully I will have some good news next time!

World(s) here I come

After a somewhat dissapointing competition of last week, I wanted to do some more training at home before leaving for worlds. I tried to find time for as many sets as possible, which were mostly trick sets. I couldn't jump at my home lake, but that was the only event that I felt positive about after the Benelux, so that was oke. I did a lot of tricking and was able to repeatedly, so I gained some confidence there. I also tried 1 slalom set, but the course didn't feel the way it should, and I didn't want to get used to a wrong rythm, so I didn't ski more. Still, I felt more secure about it than before, so I was happy to have done it. I also paid 2 visits to the physio to loosen up my back, since it's been under constant tension. All in all I felt more ready than the start of the week to leave for worlds on Saturday!

Since we had a 7am flight, I had to leave for the airport at 2.30, as we had quite a long drive as well. I was hoping to catch some sleep in the car, but I was a little too excited to go to my first worlds! In total I slept 30 minutes before going to the airport, but I was in a surprisingly good mood at the airport. Checking in my bags and going through security went smooth and we had quite a lot of time before boarding. Then at the airport saw the text World, here I come, which I thought was made for us, if you change it to worlds, here I come.

Finally on the plane I was able to sleep a bit after breakfast was served. Our transfer was quick as well, we got off one plane and on the next without having to wait too long, and then I slept again on the second plane. When we landed all our bags were there too, which we really shoudln't take for granted, as some people are still waiting for ski bags after 3-4 days. Afterwards we went to the hotel, which is really great, except for a disco with really loud bass that was playing till 4.30 in the morning. But the facilities are fantastic.

On Sunday we had our first training slot, but it was at 17.00, so we wanted to fill the time before actively so that we wouldn't nap all day. We went to check out down town and  some shopping malls on the hunt for a local sim card. Talisa now has enough internet to live stream the competition, so I will share where you can find that on Facebook soon. Then finally time to ski on the location!! We had 30 minutes with the team, so 2 skiers haha. Since we jump at different ramp heights, we opted for 1 person to jump, then both slalom, then the other person to jump, so that the height could be changed in between. Tycho was going to jump first, so my first set was slalom. There was quite a lot of wind and I didn't adapt enough when I pulled out, so my timing at the gate was a bit off. However, that is the exact reason I start with a really easy pass, so I ran my 18 meter pass. I wanted to do another one, because I want the rythm to feel good as well. After running the next one, I also ran my 16 twice and I started at 14. A bit of a mental issue, after not running it at the last competition or during the week. I fought for it and ran it both passes. It felt good to run it with both head and tail wind, first try, on a new lake. Definitely gained some confidence for the competition. With jumping, it took me a bit longer than Tycho's slalom set to get ready, so I wasn't really relaxt or ready when I had to start. I really didn't feel good, so I didn't jump on my first cut. The second jump I did take, but my timing felt weird. These two cuts were single, so after I did a 3/4, since that is what I want to do on the competition, but I want to feel the ramp with an easy cut first. When doing the 3/4 I cut out at the same point as normally and was wide enough. Still I was at the ramp way too early, so it is clear that the water is easier than what I'm used to and next training I should really go much later than I am used to in order to get to the ramp at the point that I want. I'm curious to see if I can figure out the timing in tomorrow's set.

All in all, really good on site training and great hotel to spend the week in. I'm super excited and will be posting updates on Facebook, so be sure to check that out!