Waterski Florida

Monday, April 24, 2017

Bye for now

I have been thoroughly enjoying and appreciating my last week in Florida, which is why I post this one day late. I spent most of the week further in the South of Florida, in West Palm Beach. I was very happy I could be staying with a friend I made during my first week here while training with Whitney. I've heard about the site she skies at, Okeeheelee park, but I'd never been there. On Wednesday I arrived and we immediately skied. There was a slalom tournament in the weekend, which I would be skiing as well, so I mainly slalomed. However, I did want to take my trick skies as well, since there was plenty of time in between Wednesday and the competition to also get some tricking in. I'm really glad I decided this, because I did a TWO, which I first did when I was training with Whitney, for only the second time since I learned it. After this, I was so stoked that I landed it first try, that I couldn't think of what else to do, I just couldn't focus any more. Since I'd already been tricking for a while, I figured I'd just stop there, whilst I was feeling great. On Thursday, I did 2 slalom sets, because the first set didn't go very well and I did want to practise for the tournament. Then on Friday we didn't ski, but went up to a different town to check out the ocean and go for a run.


On Saturday, there were 2 rounds of slalom for the competition, on Sunday there would be 2 more. The 2 days were listed as separate tournaments though, so a score on both days could count in the ranking. This means that in stead of one good score out of the 4 rounds, it would help my ranking if I skied well on both days. On Saturday I was so set on finally running 14. This meant that I could not fall on my first pass, which is 16, no matter what. Due to this mind-set, I skied really bad, I barely turned my ski to get angle, so I didn't go too fast. I barely moved my body in the turns and therefore I only just went around the bouys and got later and later throughout the course. Eventually that of course resulted in a fall at 16... I was very upset, but I did know exactly why I fell, which meant I could do something about it in the next round. In the following round, the wind was a little better than before and I knew exactly what not to do. I cleared my first pass without a problem and was ready to finally run that 14. I pulled out for my gate, and knew that I just had to go for it at 1 with lots of angle and speed, because I wasn't going to get through the pass playing it safe. When I was going through the gate, I thought I had missed it. I had a really good first bouy, but I thought that was because I went in front of the right gate bouy. I was a little distracted, but figured I should keep skiing just in case I didn't miss the gate. Still, with the lack of focus after that, I went around 5 and thought I finally had a shot at going around 6 as well, since I was past the point where I usually fall. However, after cutting to 6, I saw that it was still too far away, I just couldn't reach it. It was a new pb of 5@14, but I can't say I'm genuinely happy with that score, I really just want all 6. The 2 rounds on Sunday were cancled due to a heavy rainstorm that just wouldn't stop...

This afternoon I will be flying back home. I'm really sad to go and I know everything will feel like a roller coaster when I get back. My weeks are completely packed and before I know it, I'll have to get back to school...

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