Versatile Elite: The Skiers Who Have Won Professional Titles in All Three Events

Versatile elite: The skiers who have won professional titles in all three events

August 8, 2026

Modern water skiing has become increasingly specialized. The best slalom skiers are chasing fractions of a buoy at short line, trickers are pushing the limits of speed, precision and difficulty, and jumpers are reaching distances that demand an entirely different set of physical and technical skills.

That makes Joel Poland’s achievement in Calgary particularly significant. He did not simply add a professional slalom title to an already impressive résumé; he completed a feat that has become increasingly rare as the sport has evolved. Poland has spent years competing at the highest level in all three disciplines, against specialists who have never been better.

It is a club dominated by Australians, largely because Australia was the birthplace of professional water skiing. For its first 11 years, the Moomba Masters was the world’s only professional water ski tournament, before the California International Cup launched the first American professional event in 1972. Those early competitions gave Australian skiers a head start in building the kind of all-around résumés that have become increasingly difficult to replicate.

Poland is now the latest to do it.

Here are the 12 athletes who have conquered all three of water skiing’s disciplines at the highest level.

Poland celebrates his maiden professional slalom victory (image: @johnnyhayward_photo)

Joel Poland

Confirmed professional titles (2021-Present): 35 — 1 slalom, 2 tricks, 15 jump, 17 overall

Poland’s arrival is perhaps the most fitting addition to the group because versatility has been the defining characteristic of his career.

After a breakout 2021 season in which he broke the world overall record and became embroiled in one of the great modern overall battles with Dorien Llewellyn, Poland has gone on to win four consecutive WWS Overall Tour season titles, remaining undefeated since 2022 and setting nine world records.

The Brit has also developed a reputation as one of the sport’s most innovative and exciting trick skiers, inventing multiple new flips while consistently featuring on professional trick podiums. In jump, he has established himself among the best in the world, winning back-to-back Waterski Pro Tour season titles and the 2025 World Championship.

Until Calgary, though, there was one conspicuous omission.

Slalom.

The water skiing world had few doubts about Poland’s ceiling in the event, particularly after his redemptive and dramatic entry into the 41-off club at the 2023 World Championships. He had found his way onto multiple professional slalom podiums, but gold had eluded him.

That changed at the Rocky Mountain ProAm.

After tying Charlie Ross at 3 @ 10.25m (41′ off) in the final, Poland took the runoff when Ross fell coming out of five at 10.75m (39.5′ off). Poland then completed the six-buoy pass to claim his maiden professional slalom title.

The reaction made clear what the victory meant. Poland had won almost everything else there was to win. Now he could finally say he had won professionally in all three events.

At 27, there is still plenty of time for 35 titles to become a much larger number.

Jaquess is arguably the greatest water skier of all time, male or female (image: @regina_jaquess)

Regina Jaquess

Confirmed professional titles (2000-Present): 84 — 72 slalom, 5 tricks, 5 jump, 2 overall

If Poland’s inclusion is new, Regina Jaquess has been sitting in the club for years.

It is difficult to find a more complete résumé in the history of the sport. Jaquess won her first World Championship title in tricks at 17 and went on to win five World Championship overall titles, along with 19 World Championship medals and three Pan American Games overall titles.

Slalom, however, became the foundation of her career.

She has broken or equaled the women’s slalom world record nine times and has held the record continuously since 2009. She has run 10.75m more times than every other woman combined and has won more than 60 percent of the professional slalom tournaments she has ever entered.

Her professional record now stands at 84 titles.

That includes five professional trick titles, five in jump and two overall titles, enough to make her the only woman this century in the three-event professional club.

Her longevity is almost as remarkable as her dominance. Jaquess has continued to win professional titles into her 40s while also running a business outside the sport.

Poland joining her in this particular club feels appropriate. Both are skiers who have spent much of their careers refusing to be defined by a single event.

Karen and her husband Mick made up one of the sport’s greatest duos through the 1980s (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Karen Bowkett Neville

Confirmed professional titles (1979-1993): 26 — 3 slalom, 9 tricks, 2 jump, 12 overall

Karen Bowkett Neville was one of the central figures of Australia’s golden generation and one of the greatest overall skiers of the 1980s.

She won the World Championship overall title in 1985 and 1991 and stood on the overall podium at four consecutive World Championships. Her influence extended beyond her individual results, too, as she helped lead Australia to three consecutive runner-up finishes in the team competition from 1985 through 1989.

The Moomba Masters was where Neville was particularly dominant. She won eight overall titles and accumulated 20 titles across the four disciplines, placing her alongside Kaye Thurlow Faulkner as the most successful skier in the history of the tournament by total victories.

Her versatility was not an accident. Tricks were arguably her strongest event, but she was capable of winning wherever she competed, including overall victories at both the U.S. Masters and U.S. Open.

She remains one of only six women to have won the World Championship overall title more than once.

The Queen of Water Skiing (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Deena Brush Mapple

Confirmed professional titles (1977-1993): 99 — 25 slalom, 1 tricks, 58 jump, 15 overall

Deena Brush Mapple’s résumé is enormous even by the standards of this group.

Known as the “Queen of Water Skiing,” the American spent 25 years at the top of the sport, winning back-to-back World Championship overall titles in 1987 and 1989 and collecting 15 World Championship medals.

Her dominance at the U.S. Masters was even more striking. She won 20 titles across slalom, jump and overall, including 14 after the event became professional in 1985. In women’s overall, she lost only once at the Masters between 1985 and 1993.

Jump was her defining event. She won four World Championship jump titles and broke the world jump record five times, pushing the mark from 39.3 meters (129 feet) in 1979 to 47.5 meters (156 feet) by 1988.

But she was hardly a one-event skier.

Brush Mapple also broke or tied the world slalom record five times, won three U.S. Masters slalom titles and claimed a Moomba Masters slalom title. She even won the overall season championship on the PAWS Budget Rent-a-Car Waterski Tour in 1990.

Her presumed 100-plus professional titles remain one of the largest totals in the history of the sport.

Mick Neville

Confirmed professional titles (1981-1990): 15 — 2 slalom, 8 tricks, 1 jump, 4 overall

Mick Neville was the last man to accomplish what Poland just did.

Neville was one of the great trick skiers of the 1980s, winning the Moomba Masters trick title seven times and appearing on every World Championship tricks podium from 1981 through 1987.

He was also a formidable overall skier, winning two World Championship silver medals in two of the closest overall races in the history of the tournament.

His greatest season came toward the end of his career in 1990. Neville won overall at the U.S. Masters, took the tricks title at the U.S. Open and added two tour victories on the Michelob Dry Waterski Tour, one in slalom and one in jump.

That was enough to give him professional victories in all three events.

It took 36 years for another man to join him.

Todd’s comeback season in 1975 was an almost instant success (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Cindy Hutcherson Todd

Confirmed professional titles (1977-1988): 25 — 10 slalom, 2 tricks, 9 jump, 4 overall

Cindy Hutcherson Todd was one of the defining figures of professional water skiing before the U.S. Pro Tour fully took shape.

After stepping away from the sport as a teenager, Todd returned to competition in the mid-1970s and immediately made up for lost time. In her comeback season in 1975, she broke the world slalom record and won the Open Women’s title at the U.S. Nationals.

Over the course of her career, she would break the slalom record four more times, moving the mark from 2 @ 12m (35 off) to 2 @ 11.25m (38 off).

Her versatility was remarkable. Todd won three World Championship slalom titles, four U.S. Masters overall titles and eight Masters titles across slalom, tricks and jump.

She was also a seven-time World Championship medalist and one of the great overall competitors of her generation.

Image: Yvon le Gall

Mike Hazelwood

Confirmed professional titles (1977-1987): 50 — 3 slalom, 2 tricks, 39 jump, 6 overall

Mike Hazelwood is perhaps the most obvious example of how many great jumpers begin as talented overall skiers.

The Brit became one of the biggest names on the professional circuit during the 1980s, winning jump in three of the first four seasons of the Coors Light Water Ski Tour. But his career began much earlier as an extraordinary three-event skier.

Hazelwood won the men’s overall title at the 1977 World Championships and remained a fixture on the World Championship podium for the next six years. He won eight consecutive European overall titles from 1976 through 1983 and four consecutive U.S. Masters overall titles from 1978 through 1981.

One of very few skiers who can sincerely say they conquered the Yarra River, Hazelwood won titles in slalom, tricks, jump and overall during his golden run in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That included setting his first world jump record at Moomba in 1980 and an incredible five consecutive Moomba overall titles from 1977 to 1981.

Image: Graine de Sport

Bruce Cockburn

Confirmed professional titles (1970-1978): 14 — 5 slalom, 3 tricks, 4 jump, 2 overall

Bruce Cockburn was a prodigy in tricks before becoming one of the best slalom skiers and jumpers of his generation.

He won the World Trick Championship in 1969 and helped pioneer tricks such as reverse toe turns that would become staples of the event. As his career progressed, he shifted toward slalom and jump, eventually becoming a dominant force on the Yarra River.

When professional skiing got a foothold in the United States, Cockburn became the first Australian to regularly compete abroad, winning multiple titles at the California International Cup in the mid-1970s.

His 14 professional titles were spread across all three events and overall, making him one of the earliest examples of the kind of versatility that would become increasingly difficult to find as the sport specialized.

Kaye Thurlow at the 1969 World Water Ski Championships

Kaye Thurlow receives her Australian team blazer for the 1969 World Championships in Denmark (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Kaye Thurlow Faulkner

Confirmed professional titles (1968-1977): 23 — 2 slalom, 5 tricks, 7 jump, 9 overall

Kaye Thurlow Faulkner was one of the dominant women of the early professional era.

She represented Australia at five consecutive World Championships from 1967 through 1975, collecting eight medals across tricks, jump and overall. She also competed in the 1972 Olympic demonstration in Munich, finishing second in tricks, jump and overall.

Her greatest stage was the Moomba Masters.

Thurlow Faulkner won 20 titles on the Yarra River, including eight overall championships. To this day, no skier has exceeded her record haul of Moomba Masters victories.

In the early years of professional skiing in the United States, she also tasted success. At the 1976 California International Cup, she narrowly missed a clean sweep after falling in tricks to Florida’s Pam Folsom, but took the slalom, jump and overall titles.

image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS

Colin Faulkner

Confirmed professional titles (1965-1970): 4 . 1 Slalom, 1 Tricks, 1 jump, 1 overall

Completing the second husband-and-wife duo on this list, Colin Faulkner was a mainstay during the first decade of the Moomba Masters, winning jump in 1965, slalom and overall in 1967, and finally tricks in 1970.

It may be tempting to dismiss his achievements as coming at a far-flung tournament that was still in its fledgling years, but Faulkner’s victories came against visiting superstars such as Chuck Stearns, Mike Suyderhoud and Ricky McCormick throughout the late 1960s. They were no small feats.

Faulkner also set an unofficial world slalom record in 1966, before the IWWF kept official records, with two buoys at roughly 13 meters (32 off) and 61 kph (38 mph). It came in the last year before the men’s top speed was reduced to 58 kph (36 mph).

During this period, he also became the first Australian to win a World Championship medal, finishing runner-up in men’s slalom in both 1967 and 1969.

Image: Waterski and Wakeboard Australia

Margaret Calvert

Confirmed professional titles (1963-1967): 10 — 2 slalom, 3 tricks, 3 jump, 2 overall

Margaret Calvert was the greatest champion of the early years of the Moomba Masters.

In 1965, she became the first, and to this day the only, woman to sweep the Moomba Masters, winning slalom, tricks and jump and, naturally, the overall title.

She came close to repeating the feat in 1967, again winning all three events, although the overall title ultimately went to South Africa’s Deidre Barnard under the scoring system used at the time.

A professional show skier who honed her craft at Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens, Calvert’s winning streak across the Moomba Masters and Australian Nationals during her short competitive career remains unmatched.

Colin Birmingham 1961 World Championships

image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS

Colin Birmingham (1962)

Confirmed professional titles (1962): 4 . 1 Slalom, 1 Tricks, 1 jump, 1 overall

At the second edition of the Moomba Masters, Colin Birmingham became the first, and to this day the only, man to sweep a professional tournament.

Admittedly, Moomba was effectively a local derby in its first two years. It was not until 1963 that organizers managed to lure big names from abroad, including Hall of Famers Jimmy Jackson and Chuck Stearns.

But Birmingham was a mainstay of the Australian team from 1961 through 1967 and won four Australian titles. His sweep in Melbourne established the standard that every subsequent member of this club would strive to meet.

More than six decades later, Joel Poland has joined him.

Note: The records of professional wins from the last century are incomplete, and despite extensive research, some totals are almost certainly undercounts.

Joel Poland Makes History at a Rocky Mountain ProAm Full of Drama

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Joel Poland makes history at a Rocky Mountain ProAm full of drama

Image: @bearwitnesssportsphotos

By Jack Burden

August 5, 2026

For a tournament making its debut, the Rocky Mountain ProAm did not lack for material.

There were world-record performances, national records, personal bests, a runaway winning streak extended, a handful of bone-crunching crashes and, at the center of it all, a professional water skiing milestone more than a decade in the making.

Joel Poland finally won a professional slalom title.

Poland had already done almost everything there is to do in professional water skiing. He has won world titles, professional jump titles, overall titles and trick titles. He has been the dominant overall skier of his generation and, in recent seasons, the best jumper in the world. Slalom, however, had remained the conspicuous omission from his résumé.

It took a fairly chaotic final to change that.

Poland opened the men’s slalom final with 3 @ 10.25m (41 off). It was a good score, but not one that seemed likely to hold up. Poland himself looked frustrated after failing to turn the third buoy and missing the opportunity to push farther down the pass.

Then the specialists started skiing, and one after another they failed to beat him.

Charlie Ross, celebrating his 21st birthday, matched Poland with 3 @ 10.25m, continuing a remarkable 2026 season in which the Canadian has established himself as the dominant force in men’s slalom. With Will Asher still waiting on the dock, however, it looked as though the veteran might once again find a way through. Asher had posted the best score of the preliminary rounds, 5 @ 10.25m.

Instead, Asher popped the handle around one at 10.25m.

He came out of the water with both hands raised, seemingly unable to believe what had just happened.

That left Poland and Ross tied for the win and headed into a runoff.

Ross went first and looked to be cruising through the opening 10.75m (39.5′ off) pass before falling coming out of five. Poland then had six buoys standing between himself and the title. He made no mistake.

The celebration that followed said more than the result itself. Poland threw his arms into the air and celebrated on the water with the kind of emotion that comes when something has been sitting in the back of your mind for a long time. He had finally won a professional slalom title.

The victory also completed an unusually difficult three-event résumé. Poland became only the second skier this century, after Regina Jaquess, to win professional titles in slalom, tricks and jump. The last man to accomplish the feat was Australia’s Mick Neville over 35 years ago.

For a skier whose career has been built around being good at everything, it was a fitting box to finally check.

Tricks were just as good

The men’s trick competition produced some of the biggest numbers of the weekend, beginning with Matias Gonzalez’s 13,140-point performance in the first preliminary round. The score is pending as a new world record and continued a remarkable run of record-level tricking from Gonzalez this season.

He did not win the tournament.

Jake Abelson took the final, but only just. Thirty points separated Abelson from Gonzalez, a margin smaller than a side slide, in another men’s final contested around the 13,000-point mark. Abelson’s 12,820 was enough to beat Gonzalez’s 12,790 and give him his fourth professional victory of the season.

The depth of the field was notable, too. Dominic Kuhn broke 11,000 points in qualifying, setting a new personal best and Austrian national record, while Gonzalez and Abelson once again showed that 13,000-point performances are becoming less of an anomaly and more of a regular feature of elite skiing.

The women’s trick event was similarly deep.

Five women broke 10,000 points across the two preliminary rounds, something that had never happened at a single tournament before. Neilly Ross opened the weekend by setting a new Predator Bay course record with 10,280 points, only for Erika Lang to move the mark to 11,310 in the second round.

None of it ultimately mattered in the final.

Ross was the first skier to break 10,000, but Anna Hunter edged her by 40 points. That left Lang, who had just scored 11,310 in qualifying, with a chance to win the tournament. Instead, she fell on her second flip and finished well short of the score she had produced the day before.

Anna Hunter took the win with 10,500, just ahead of Ross at 10,460.

The most interesting number from the weekend, though, may have been 10,030. That was the score posted by 16-year-old Alexia Abelson, who broke 10,000 points for the first time and became just the eighth woman to reach the mark.

That list is getting longer.

Jaquess is still the standard

Women’s slalom offered another familiar result, although the way the weekend began suggested that it might not be so straightforward.

Jaimee Bull had one of the standout performances of the preliminary rounds, running 3 @ 10.25m and setting both a new personal best and Canadian national record. She matched Regina Jaquess’s score, and for a moment it looked as though the tournament might finally produce a different winner.

Bull could not repeat it in the final. She pulled up short at 3 @ 10.75m, leaving Jaquess in position to win yet another tournament.

Jaquess did exactly that, running 1.5 @ 10.25m to take her fifth professional slalom title of the season.

The 42-year-old remains undefeated in professional slalom in 2026. She may not appear at every event on the schedule, but when she does, the standard in women’s slalom still seems to move with her.

Jaquess also finished third in women’s jump, giving her another podium across the weekend.

Another win for Danisheuskaya, another for Poland

Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya began finals day by doing what she has done at every professional event she has entered this season: winning. Her victory in women’s jump extended her unbeaten run to all six professional events she has entered in 2026.

Poland followed with his first win of the day, taking men’s jump ahead of Luca Rauchenwald.

Poland jumped 64.4m (211′) in the final, enough to hold off Rauchenwald’s 63.3m (208′). Rauchenwald came into the event off two consecutive victories in Europe, but could not reproduce that form when the title was on the line.

It was Poland’s fourth professional jump victory of the season.

The cost of jump

For all the good skiing at Predator Bay, jump also provided the most uncomfortable moments of the weekend.

Maise Jacobsen and Damien Eade, two of the younger names beginning to establish themselves in the professional water skiing scene, suffered serious crashes that are expected to end their seasons. Will Roberts also took a nasty spill in the finals.

It was a reminder that the pursuit of bigger and bigger jump scores comes with a difficult trade-off.

The Rocky Mountain ProAm produced some spectacular skiing. It also produced several moments where there was nothing particularly spectacular about what happened afterward.

A tournament that still has some work to do

The skiing was not the problem in Calgary. The format was.

The best-of-two qualifying format is popular with athletes because it gives them two opportunities to put together a score and generally rewards consistency. It is much harder to make it compelling viewing, particularly when the field is small.

That problem was especially obvious at Predator Bay. In four of the six professional disciplines, there were not enough entries to require a cut to the finals, meaning everyone advanced automatically. The first two days therefore contained plenty of excellent skiing but very little that actually changed the outcome of the tournament.

For the athletes, that is probably not a bad thing. For spectators, it can feel like watching a series of practice rounds with a broadcast attached.

The distinction became obvious on Sunday.

When Poland and Ross took to the water, every pass mattered. When Asher unexpectedly dropped the handle, it mattered. When Ross faltered in the runoff, it mattered. When Poland went out knowing that six buoys at 10.75m would win him his first professional slalom title, there was no need to explain the stakes.

The same was true in tricks. Thirty points separated Abelson and Gonzalez, forty separated Hunter and Ross. One side slide could have changed either winner.

That is what professional water skiing needs more of. The skiing is already extraordinary. The challenge is creating a format that makes the audience feel the significance of what they are watching while it is happening.

Weather complicated things further. Strong winds affected Saturday’s skiing, and the Sunday schedule was rearranged so that the jumpers were on the water as the sun was still rising, followed by slalom and then tricks.

It was not an easy weekend to stage a tournament, but Predator Bay still delivered some remarkable numbers.

The Rocky Mountain ProAm was also the first event held as part of the new partnership between Nautique and Predator Bay, and the second stop of the inaugural Nautique Water Ski World Series. The series arrived in Calgary after a record-heavy opening event at Botaski and left with another collection of course records and a pending world record.

That is a pretty good start.

The next question is whether the series can turn those performances into a better sporting product for the people watching. Calgary showed that the athletes are capable of producing the drama. The next step is making sure the format gets out of the way and lets that drama breathe.

For one afternoon, at least, it did.

Joel Poland had five and a half buoys to win the slalom title he had been chasing for years. Erika Lang showed us that even the greatest of champions are mortal. Danisheuskaya put her winning streak on the line one more time. Nobody knew what was going to happen when each skier left the dock.

That is professional sport.

Water skiing can produce plenty of moments like that. It just needs more of them to feel like they matter.

Poland and Straltsova Named IWWF Athletes of the Year

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Poland and Straltsova Named IWWF Athletes of the Year After Dominant 2025 Seasons

Joel Poland and Hanna Straltsova were named the IWWF male & female athletes of 2025.

By Jack Burden

January 11, 2026

The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) has named Joel Poland and Hanna Straltsova its 2025 Male and Female Athletes of the Year, honoring two seasons of near-total dominance at the sport’s highest level.

Both athletes entered 2025 as reigning IWWF Athletes of the Year. Both finished it as world champions, tour champions, and the clear benchmarks for elite jump and overall skiing.

For Poland, the season bordered on perfection. The Briton went undefeated in every professional jump event he entered, capturing both the World Jump title and the Waterski Pro Tour Jump Championship. He was equally untouchable in overall, sweeping the WWS Overall Tour for a third consecutive season without a loss. The year’s defining moment came at the WWS Fluid Cup, where Poland set a new World Overall Record—the eighth of his career—further extending one of the most extraordinary résumés the discipline has ever seen.

Straltsova’s 2025 was no less remarkable. The Eastern European claimed World Championship gold in both jump and overall, securing back-to-back world titles across the two disciplines. She also captured the Waterski Pro Tour Jump title, reinforcing her status as the most dominant women’s jumper in the sport. Most notably, Straltsova broke the longest-standing world record in waterskiing, eclipsing Natallia Berdnikava’s overall mark that had stood for more than a decade.

The Overall Athlete of the Year honors were selected by the IWWF Executive Board from the broader list of 2025 IWWF Skiers & Riders of the Year, announced December 29. Both Poland and Straltsova were also named Waterski Discipline Athletes of the Year, underscoring their supremacy within the sport’s flagship category.

In a season defined by rising performances and relentless competition, Poland and Straltsova stood apart—not just for what they won, but for how completely they controlled 2025. The IWWF’s recognition merely formalized what the results had already made clear: they remain the mark to beat.

Straltsova, Poland Named Skiers of the Year | IWWF

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Hanna Straltsova and Joel Poland named IWWF Waterskiers of the Year

Joel Poland and Hanna Straltsova were named the IWWF male & female waterskiers of 2025.

IWWF

December 29, 2025

The IWWF is proud to announce the 2025 Female and Male Skiers & Riders of the Year, as selected by each respective sport discipline’s Council.

Discipline	Female	Male
Barefoot	Teri Larson Jones (USA)	Luke Van Den Heuvel (AUS)
Cable Ski	Alena Parkhomenka (IWWF)	Kay Strohmeyer (GER)
Cable Wakeboard	Julia Rick (GER)	Raphael Trinidad (PHI)
Disabled Ski	Jana Shelfer (USA)	Connor Poggetto (USA)
Ski Racing	Sylvia De Spiegeleire (BEL)	Carter Robertson (AUS)
Show Ski	Bea Lebda (USA)	Boden Strawhorn (AUS)
Wakeboard Boat	Alice Virag (ITA)	Stefano Comollo (ITA)
Wakesurf	Bailey Rush (CAN)	Songkrod Jomboon (THA)
Waterski	Hanna Straltsova (USA)	Joel Poland (GBR)

These outstanding athletes have demonstrated exceptional talent, dedication and passion, consistently pushing the sport to new heights. The IWWF extends its heartfelt congratulations to all the athletes honoured with this recognition.

From this distinguished group, the IWWF Executive Board will select the overall IWWF Athletes of the Year, which will be announced in one week.

Joel Poland’s WWS Fluid Cup Overall Record Officially Ratified by IWWF

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New IWWF World Open Men’s Waterski Overall Record Approved

Image: @bretellisphotography

IWWF

November 21, 2025

IWWF’s 2024 Male Athlete of the Year, Joel Poland of Great Britain, has once again rewritten the history books. The IWWF World Waterski Council has officially approved a new World Open Men’s Waterski Overall Record, following another exceptional overall performance during the WWS Fluid Cup, held at Lake Grew in Polk City, Florida.

During round the finals of the event on 12 October 2025, Joel posted the following scores:

Slalom: 1.50 buoys at 10.25m (58kph)

Tricks: 12,160 points

Jump: 70.1 metres

These scores combined for an Overall Total of 2,716.07 points, surpassing his previous world record and marking yet another milestone in his already remarkable career.

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This new achievement follows Joel’s 2023 and 2024 world overall record-breaking performances, cementing himself as the most dominant overall skier in history.

Congratulations Joel!

The Joel Poland Effect: When World Records Become Routine

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The Joel Poland effect: When world records become routine

Image: @bretellisphotography

By Jack Burden

October 14, 2025

POLK CITY, Fla. — At this point, Joel Poland breaking world records is starting to feel routine. It shouldn’t.

At the WWS Fluid Cup this past weekend, Poland posted 1.5 @ 10.25m (41 off), 12,160 points, and a 70.1m (230 ft) jump to set a new pending men’s world overall record—again. The scores not only secured his 11th consecutive victory on the World Water Skiers Overall Tour, but also locked up his 2025 season championship.

This is now the fifth time Poland has set a pending world record in a professional event. That detail matters. For most of the 21st century, world records and professional competition existed in separate universes. Records fell in quiet backyard settings—perfect lakes, no pressure, no crowds—while the pro circuit was left to battle under public scrutiny. Before Poland’s 2023 record at the Overall Tour Finals, no skier had broken a world record in a professional tournament in 15 years.

“I came in today with no expectations,” Poland said after the round. “Just tried to survive, and that’s usually when things click. To put that together in a pro tournament—it means a lot.”

Since that breakthrough, Poland’s dominance has helped collapse the wall between record chasing and professional competition. The sport has followed his lead. Regina Jaquess’s 5 @ 10.25m at the 2023 Malibu Open marked the first slalom record in pro competition since 2008. Pato Font has equaled or exceeded the world trick record multiple times at pro events in the past two seasons. Erika Lang and Neilly Ross traded records this summer at the Botaski ProAm.

In the early 2000s, world records at pro events were common; between 2006 and 2022, they virtually vanished. That they’re now reappearing points to something bigger—the collective level is simply that high.

And it’s not just Poland pushing it. At this year’s World Championships, both Louis Duplan-Fribourg and Dorien Llewellyn posted preliminary-round scores higher than any world record prior to Poland’s current reign. Even Tim Wild’s bronze-medal total would have won nearly any Worlds this century. The field has caught up—and in doing so, it keeps pushing Poland even higher.

That’s the Joel Poland Effect: a circular feedback loop of greatness. His world-record form forces everyone else to raise their ceiling, and their response, in turn, drives him to break through again. What began as one skier’s exceptional run has become a rising tide for the entire sport.

At the Fluid Cup, Edoardo Marenzi, Rob Hazelwood, and Jake Abelson—all ranked inside the world’s top ten—missed the finals cut entirely. Poland himself trailed both Duplan-Fribourg and Llewellyn in prelims before storming back in the final.

“It’s a challenge to stay even across all three events,” Poland said. “You have moments when jump’s good, slalom’s good, tricks good—but getting them all in one round is hard.”

The women’s side mirrored that same depth. Just days before the event, the IWWF officially approved Hanna Straltsova’s world overall record, surpassing Natallia Berdnikava’s 13-year-old mark. And at Fluid, Kennedy Hansen, Giannina Bonnemann Mechler, and Regina Jaquess delivered one of the season’s tightest title battles, with Hansen emerging victorious.

Overall records are supposed to be the hardest to break. Every variable—conditions, timing, performance—has to align perfectly. Before Poland, no skier in history had broken an overall record more than four times in their entire career. Poland now stands on the verge of his eighth in just three and a half years.

He’s 27. His best may be yet to come.

Joel Poland of Great Britain is consoled by friend Edoardo Marenzi of Italy after Poland fell early in his trick run during the 2025 IWWF World Waterski Championships at Parco Nautico del Sesia in Novara, Italy.

The Unsolvable Puzzle of Joel Poland at the World Championships

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The unsolvable puzzle of Joel Poland at the World Championships

Image: @bearwitnesssportsphotos

By Jack Burden

August 29, 2025

The storm had blown through. The lake flattened. The crowd, swelling with anticipation all week, angled in for a clear view of the skier many consider the greatest of his generation. After seven world records and nine consecutive professional overall titles, a Joel Poland world crown was beginning to feel like a foregone conclusion.

His toe pass was vintage Poland: powerful, explosive, all big tricks and high-octane energy where most competitors rely on precision and speed. Only a slight miscue at the end hinted at vulnerability. Then came his hand pass — his strongest suit. Commentators couldn’t help but bring up the ghosts of two years earlier, when he submarined on his signature super-mobe-five, only to mount one of the most famous comebacks in World Championship history.

But this time, Poland never even got that far. Midway through an otherwise routine sequence — mobe, mobe, half-jack — he stumbled on a front flip, one of the most basic tricks in his arsenal. Suddenly, the man who makes the impossible look effortless was swimming, staring in disbelief as the moment slipped away.

On the shore, images of Poland sitting slumped, head in hands, echoed the heartbreak of 2023. For the swashbuckling superstar who has turned everything he touches to gold, it was another inexplicable collapse on the sport’s biggest stage.

Since claiming his first world title in 2021, Poland has been untouchable on the professional circuit. He has entered 14 pro overall events, winning all but two, and hasn’t lost a WWS Overall Tour event since October 2022. Tricks — the most cutthroat of the three disciplines — have been the foundation of that success.

In 26 rounds of tricking on the Overall Tour, he’s dipped below 10,000 points only twice, both back in 2022. Across 35 pro starts in tricks, he’s failed to hit that mark only once in the last three years. His career average since 2021 sits comfortably above 11,000. Most remarkably, he has never missed a final at a professional overall or trick event.

Measured by consistency, no male tricker can match him. Pato Font and Matias Gonzalez have piled up more outright wins, but neither boasts Poland’s 80-plus percent podium rate. As Joel himself has put it countless times: “Overall’s about not screwing up.” For half a decade, no one has been better at not screwing up.

Except, it seems, at the World Championships.

For the second straight cycle, Poland’s Worlds campaign unraveled in tricks. The contrast couldn’t be sharper: invincible on the Tour, error-prone at the marquee event. It’s hard to reconcile the two Joels — the unstoppable force who has redefined overall skiing, and the athlete undone by the same mistakes at the same tournament.

This wasn’t always the case. Poland burst into public consciousness with a triple-gold performance at the 2019 Under-21 Worlds, nearly breaking the world overall record in the process. Later that year, he shocked pundits by medaling twice at the Open Worlds. His defining moment came in 2021, in a gladiatorial duel with Dorien Llewellyn that ended with Poland setting a new world overall record to clinch gold.

But since then, Worlds has turned from proving ground into stumbling block. Whether it’s the weight of favoritism, overtraining, or just cruel coincidence, no one — perhaps not even Poland himself — can explain why the sport’s most consistent tricker has reserved his only missed finals for its most important event.

Poland’s misstep reopens an old tension in water skiing: is the World Championships truly the measure of the world’s best?

Many argue no. After winning Worlds in 2023, Freddie Winter himself admitted he had spent the year chasing Nate Smith, usually finishing second to him on Tour. By every measure of consistency, Smith was the best slalomer that year — yet Winter walked away with the title that mattered most.

There’s logic in rewarding consistency. Series and season-long circuits, like the Waterski Pro Tour, offer larger sample sizes that cut through the noise of off-days or lucky breaks. By that standard, Poland — undefeated for 11 months in jump and two years in overall, breaking multiple world records, and banking more prize money than anyone else — is indisputably the best skier on Earth. No one, male or female, has been more dominant in 2024 and 2025.

But the counterargument carries weight too. Not every elite skier can travel the Tour. Financial realities mean many of the sport’s best — Nate Smith, Regina Jaquess — skip most pro stops. The Worlds remains the one event where the entire field gathers, each athlete peaking for that week. Its self-fulfilling prestige lies in that convergence.

For Poland, the paradox endures. By almost every metric, he’s the standard-bearer of modern skiing — a generational talent redefining what’s possible. Yet on the one stage that crowns legends, he has twice fallen short.

Maybe it’s fate. Maybe it’s the cruel symmetry of sport. Or maybe it’s just a reminder that no matter how inevitable greatness feels, nothing in the World Championships is ever guaranteed.

The World Championships run from August 26-31 and will be broadcast live on TWBC.

Freddie Winter, Joel Poland, and Brooks Wilson on the Grab Matters Podcast

Watch: Does MasterCraft Own the Masters? | Grab Matters

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Does MasterCraft Own the Masters? | Freddie Winter, Joel Poland, Brooks Wilson – Ep. 84

Grab Matters

June 3, 2025

Freddie and Joel both just won masters, so you know we’re talking about that, but we’re also getting into a bunch of other topics. Like how to make money waterskiing, trick skiing scoring/trick values, who we think has the most “on water” time, waterski media and how it compares to wakeboard media, social media/influencers values to brands, onlyfans, and a whole lot more. Plus, the guys rip smelling salts to start the pod, and eat a Malort candy midway through. Hear all this and much more in Episode 84 of the Grab Matters Podcast!

Poland Renews Push for Trick Scoring Overhaul

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Poland renews push for trick scoring overhaul

Image: @mcboatcompany

By Jack Burden

April 6, 2025

Speaking at an IWWF World Waterski Council meeting earlier this year, world record holder Joel Poland called for a long-overdue overhaul of trick skiing’s point system. Citing current scoring as a barrier to innovation, Poland argued that high-difficulty tricks—like his own recently approved “Matrix” and “UFO”—aren’t making it into tournament runs because the reward doesn’t match the risk.

“The point values for high-difficulty flips are crippling trick skiing,” said Poland. One of the sport’s most creative and technically gifted athletes, he has been increasingly vocal about the need for reform. He points to discrepancies such as the “Matrix”—a frontflip with a ski-line 540—earning just 150 points more than a basic frontflip.

The Tricks Working Group, formed nearly two years ago to address point disparities, has yet to deliver a proposal. That responsibility now falls to Sergio Font, who will lead the review and deliver recommendations at the September Water Ski Council meeting.

While there is broad agreement that the current system needs revision, progress has been slow—largely due to competing interests among athletes. Council Chair Candido Moz has voiced support for reform, but the IWWF has so far deferred to the skier community, whose inability to reach consensus has stalled change.

With elite runs becoming increasingly repetitive, Poland’s push adds renewed urgency to a debate many in the sport feel is long overdue.

2024 Nautique Masters Water Ski and Wakeboard Tournament

Joel Poland Makes His Return to the Moomba Masters

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Joel Poland returns to Moomba Masters: A comeback on the Yarra

Image: Johnny Hayward

By Jack Burden

March 2, 2025

The best water skier in the world is back where it all began.

Reigning world record holder in Men’s Overall, 2024 WWS Overall Tour champion, and 2024 Waterski Pro Tour jump champion, Joel Poland will return to the iconic Moomba Masters in downtown Melbourne from March 8-10. It’s been five years since Poland last carved up the Yarra River, and his return makes an already electric event even more explosive.

Poland last competed at Moomba in 2020, where he finished third in men’s tricks. It was a fitting result for an athlete whose professional career first gained traction at this very event. From 2018 to 2020, the Brit made three consecutive Moomba appearances, cutting his teeth on the notoriously unpredictable Yarra—a river that can make or break the best in the world.

But then, an unwanted break. Visa complications kept Poland out of Australia, forcing him to miss the last three editions of the world’s longest-running professional water ski tournament. Frustrating? Absolutely. But Poland never lost sight of the Moomba Masters. A self-proclaimed superfan of the event, he has bided his time, waiting for his chance to return.

This time, he comes back a different skier. More titles, more records, more experience. His preparation? A northern hemisphere winter spent training in Chile at Lago Valle Maipo with the Gonzalez family. While it’s still early in the season, Poland is expected to be a serious contender in all three events—slalom, trick, and jump.

The Moomba Masters is already the most exciting event on the water ski calendar. With Poland back in the mix, it just got even better.

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