First 2017 competition

This week was all about preparing for the competition that took place Saturday (08/04). The conditions were quite rough, there was a lot of wind at our lake, so slalom skiing was reserved for very early in the morning, or just before dark at night. This wasn't ideal of course, but sometimes those are the same conditions as at the competition, so you have to learn how to ski in them too.

In order to be as prepared as possible we went to ski at Jack Travers waterski school the 2 days
before the competition. This is based at sunset lakes, which is also where the tournament took place. Even this slice of paradise was not safe from the wind. The conditions on Thursday and Friday were not too good, at times there were white-caps on the wakes. To make up for the rough conditions I was tricking in, a wind gust blew the water so far out of its direction that it completely showered the boat driver 😄. In my preparation, I struggled a little with my trick runs. I didn't want to keep the same run as last year, because there's no room for me to put down a better score than last year with that run. Therefore I wanted to incorporate some of the new tricks I've been working on, but they need just a bit more practise. Eventually I decided to try to do two wake 540 turns at the end of my hands run, in this way if I fall there is no problem, because they're the last tricks. My goal for this season is to start off that run with a WLO -which is a 360 over the wake where you step over the line-, but since this has to be the first trick, I felt like this was too big of a risk. My toe hold run I would keep the same as normal, but I would try to do my wrap in, wrap out, 360s at the end. The start of my hands run went great, I did what I wanted to. Then I got the 540s, I was able to land them both, which is already an upgrade from the many face plants I used to do. I did feel that they were not really in the air, so they wouldn't be given credit. Getting them off the wake and in the air is the main concern in training now, but this will take some time. After I did both of my 540s and was still standing, I felt like I still had a lot of time (in hindsight this was not true), so I did a WLB, which eventually I want to do with the WLO in the beginning. This turned out to be out of time and also wouldn't have been credit, because I didn't pop it off the wake... It felt like a total mess during my run, but I was actually quite happy with it, especially because I didn't expect to have it so stable already, even though I didn't get the points for it yet. Then it was time for my trick run. I didn't change anything, so it was still hard wired into my body. I did everything and earned credit for all my tricks, then tried the wrap in, but fell, so no extra points compared to last year's toe hold run. With just a bit more practise, I'll be able to change this run too and break the 3000 point barrier.

On the competition day, the wind was a lot less than all week, so conditions were very good. In slalom, I also changed something, because I was going to start at the 16 meter line for the first time in a competition. It shouldn't be a problem, because I've been running those passes very consistently and I had been starting on 16 in training for a while. In the competition, I did what I had to do and ran my first pass, which was now 16 meters. I was already quite excited that I did this, so I wasn't fully focussed going in to my next pass. I was skiing really well in my 14 meter pass, which I desperately want to run in a tournament, because I've ran in so many times in practise. At 4 ball I was still going so well that I started thinking about skiing my first 13 meter pass at a tournament. Famous last thoughts of course... I should've stayed focussed and made sure I actually finished the pass, but in stead, I fell at 5, giving me a score of 4.5 at 14, which ties my PB. It was my own mistake, but it does give me confidence that I'll run it next tournament.

Finally later that day it was time to jump. I decided to jump two rounds, because I want to gain confidence in my new jumpers. I also just wanted to do two rounds, because I like jumping, and I'll get my shot at slalom in two weeks. My first jump, the boat went too fast, thus my score didn't count. After that I jumped my farthest jump out of all 6 remaining jumps, which was 23.7 meters. It's not a PB, but it's not too far off and I'm happy with that score, because I still need to get used to my new skis a bit. This will definitely happen next week, as we'll be training with Ryan Dodd.

All in all great first tournament, which brings me back to last years first tournament, where I set 2 PBs to start the season. Even though I didn't do that here, I still had a lot of fun and I'm content with my results!