By Jack Burden

Another season of the Waterski Pro Tour has drawn to a close, delivering 10 events across six countries and more than $300,000 in prize money. With its mission of weaving a season-long narrative by uniting standalone professional tournaments under one banner, the Pro Tour has largely been a resounding success. Much like the glory days of the Coors and Budweiser U.S. Pro Tours, the goal has been to elevate a season title into one of the sport’s most prestigious prizes.

But the full story is more complicated.

For the fourth straight year, the sport’s two longest-running and most lucrative tournaments—the U.S. Masters and Moomba Masters—opted to remain outside the Pro Tour. The Nautique-sponsored Botaski and California Pro Ams also sat out, as did smaller events such as the Fungliss Pro Am. That left the Pro Tour as the centerpiece of the calendar, but not the whole picture.

So we asked the question: what would the standings look like if every major event was counted, much like the old IWWF Elite Rankings once did? Using the same points system as the Pro Tour, here are the Unofficial Professional Water Ski Rankings for 2025—a more complete view of who really owned the season.

Slalom

At first glance, little changes in slalom. But the drama intensifies once the Fungliss and the California ProAm are factored in. Instead of Freddie Winter running away with the Tour title, his battle with Nate Smith would have come down to the final event at the Travers Grand Prix. Winter’s win there—sealed in one of the highest scoring finals of all time—proved the clincher, capping one of the greatest comeback seasons of all time.

Tricks

No discipline highlighted the split between circuits more clearly than tricks. The Pro Tour featured four smaller trick events, but the three biggest tournaments—all Nautique-backed—opted out. That left the season feeling fractured.

When you include the Masters and Moomba, the world record holders rise to the top. Jake Abelson and Erika Lang each dominated when the stakes were highest, winning more titles than anyone else and proving themselves as the sport’s most consistent forces. Yet both largely skipped the European Pro Tour circuit, where prize purses barely covered travel costs. The quantity of trick events is growing—but until prize money grows too, the top fields will remain scattered.

Jump

Jump is where the expanded rankings have the potential to shake things up most. Only two star level jump events—the LA Night Jam and MasterCraft Pro—made the Pro Tour calendar this year, leaving the Nautique-backed majors on the outside. Yet no matter the venue, one result held true: Joel Poland and Hanna Straltsova were untouchable, both going undefeated across the season.

The women’s leaderboard remains unchanged, with Brittany Greenwood Wharton, the only other jumper to snag a pro win in 2025, holding second. But the men’s podium sees a reshuffle when the full calendar is considered, with Ryan Dodd, Luca Rauchenwald, and Igor Morozov all climbing the ranks.

Overall

Finally overall skiing, which is not officially recognized as an event by the Waterski Pro Tour. The last few seasons have heralded in a resurgence for the discipline, with competition across four professional events on the WWS Overall Tour. These rankings, although using a different methodology, line up almost exactly with the final standings of the WWS Tour.