By Jack Burden

SANTIAGO, Chile — The men’s trick landscape may have shifted again.

At the Torneo Nacional Miranda Ski at Lago Los Morros near Santiago, 18-year-old Matias Gonzalez delivered a historic performance, scoring 13,240 points in the second round to set a new pending world record and become just the second skier ever to break the 13,000-point barrier in sanctioned competition.

If ratified by the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation, the score would surpass the current official world record of 13,020 set last June by Jake Abelson. It would also mark the first world record for Chile and the first for a South American since Ana Maria Carrasco and Carlos Suarez of Venezuela held the world trick records more than four decades ago — a significant milestone for Gonzalez and Chilean water skiing.

Gonzalez’s 13,240 stands as the second-highest score ever recorded in competition, narrowly behind Abelson’s eye-popping 13,270 from the same June event, a mark that was ultimately not ratified after video review.

That context only heightens the significance. Where Abelson’s bigger number was knocked back in the review process, Gonzalez’s run now enters the formal ratification pipeline with the record firmly within reach.

And he did it just 10 days after his 18th birthday.

For close observers, the breakthrough feels less like a surprise and more like an inevitability.

The reigning world champion has spent the past two seasons circling the sport’s upper limits, regularly posting scores deep into the 12,000s. His toe pass, performed at near-blistering speed, has drawn frequent comparisons to all-time great Cory Pickos, long considered the gold standard for toe tricking.

Gonzalez has already proven he can win at the highest level. Now he may be adding the sport’s most coveted number to his résumé.

The performance arrives at a pivotal moment in the calendar.

In just days, Gonzalez will line up at the Moomba Masters, the traditional opening major of the professional season and one of the deepest men’s trick fields assembled in recent memory.

The expected showdown in Melbourne includes world record holder and defending Moomba champion Jake Abelson, former world champions Patricio Font and Dorien Llewellyn, the ever-dangerous Joel Poland, and Gonzalez’s compatriot Martin Labra on the comeback trail.

For a discipline already accelerating at a historic pace, the timing feels almost scripted.

Men’s tricks spent nearly two decades inching forward. Now it is moving in bursts.

Abelson cracked the once-mythical 13,000 barrier last year. Gonzalez has now pushed the pending mark even higher. And with multiple athletes consistently scoring above 12,500, the event is entering its fastest progression phase in modern history.

Whether Gonzalez’s 13,240 survives the IWWF review process will be the next critical step.

But one thing is already clear: the race at the top of men’s tricks just tightened, and the Moomba Masters suddenly carries even more voltage.