Alexia Abelson at the 2026 Moomba Masters

Moomba Delivers: Record Scores, Breakout Stars, and Riverbank Chaos

March 10, 2026

MELBOURNE, Australia — If the Yarra River has taught the sport anything over the past seven decades, it’s that reputation counts for very little once the rope tightens.

World champions have fallen here. Record holders have vanished into the current. Entire weekends can unravel in the space of a mistimed turn or a half-second of hesitation.

And yet, somehow, the 2026 Moomba Masters still managed to feel both chaotic and strangely inevitable at the same time.

Because despite the notorious conditions — the current, the chop, the setups, the thousands of spectators leaning over the banks — this was a year when, more often than not, the best skier still won. In four of the six disciplines, the champion was either the current or pending world record holder. Personal bests ruled the podiums.

The cream, as they say, rose.

But Moomba still made them work for it.

And it did so in front of one of the largest crowds the event has ever seen. Announcer Jarrod Faoro, who has called more than his share of Moomba finals, described Sunday evening’s audience as the biggest he had ever seen here — a sea of people packed along the banks.

Melbourne was already swelling. Formula 1 was running across town at Albert Park. Nearly 100,000 fans were headed for the AFL opener at the nearby MCG. The city was buzzing.

And tucked in the middle of it all, water skiing quietly produced one of its most compelling weekends in years.

If there was a single storyline threading through the entire weekend, it might have been the emergence of Jake Abelson.

For years, Joel Poland has occupied a unique place in the sport — a rare athlete capable of challenging the world’s best across all three events. The kind of skier whose overall scores force people to reconsider what’s possible.

Now there may be another.

Abelson arrived in Melbourne already holding the world record in tricks. That part was never in doubt. But over the course of the weekend, the 18-year-old American produced the kind of all-around performance that forces people to start whispering bigger questions.

He qualified for the finals in all three events on Moomba Monday. He launched the first 200-foot jump of his career earlier in the week. He won the Saturday night jump under lights.

And he looked increasingly comfortable doing all of it.

At the same age, Abelson’s overall scores already sit well ahead of where Poland once was. His tricking is elite. His jump is already world-class.

The missing piece — as it always is in overall skiing — remains slalom.

But if Abelson can close that gap, the sport may be watching the arrival of another genuine triple-threat.

Tricks: The Most Anticipated Finals

Moomba Monday traditionally begins with tricks, and in 2026 the event had been hyped all week as the must-watch discipline.

Both trick fields were absurdly deep. The men’s preliminaries had already produced six scores above 11,000. The women’s field featured the sport’s fiercest rivalry of the past year.

It did not disappoint.

Kennedy Hansen opened the final like someone determined to silence any doubts.

The American was arguably the breakout skier of 2025 — winner of the WWS Overall Tour, the newest member of the 10,000-point club, and runner-up at the World Championships. On the Yarra she delivered two composed passes to set the early benchmark above 9,000 points.

But the real battle was always expected to come from the sport’s hottest rivalry: Neilly Ross vs. Erika Lang.

Ross, the reigning world champion, began with a powerful toe pass that hinted at a huge score. But a momentary loss of rhythm cost her dearly on hands — nearly a thousand points slipping away between time and judging deductions.

That left the door open.

And Erika Lang has spent most of the last decade walking through doors like that.

The American produced two blistering passes to score 10,930 points, winning her fourth consecutive and eighth overall Moomba Masters trick title. The victory moves her to second on the all-time trick titles list, now just one win behind Moomba legend Karen Bowkett Neville.

Lang didn’t just win.

She cleared second place by 1,300 points.

If the women’s final delivered tension, the men’s event produced pure spectacle.

Jake Abelson set the early pace with a score just over 12,000 points, despite an equipment issue that cost him a final toe trick and a hand pass that ran a fraction too long.

Even with those lost points, the score looked strong.

Then Matias Gonzalez happened.

The 18-year-old Chilean had arrived in Melbourne a week removed from setting a pending world record. His early rounds had been relatively quiet — even finishing third in the Under-21 event.

But in the professional final, he delivered something extraordinary.

Two impossibly fast passes. No wasted motion. No theatrics.

Just speed.

Gonzalez’s skiing isn’t built on the boundary-pushing flips of Joel Poland, the inventive toe work of Martin Labra, or the technical complexity of Abelson and Patricio Font.

Instead, he performs classic sequences at speeds that once seemed impossible.

His run looked like someone had pressed fast-forward on the tape.

The result: 12,860 points, the highest score ever recorded in a professional tournament and a new Moomba course record.

The remaining contenders — Poland, Labra, and Font — all needed personal bests to catch him.

None could.

Gonzalez skied away with his first Moomba Masters title.

Slalom: Folk Heroes and Familiar Winners

If Jake’s performance felt like a breakthrough, his younger sister Alexia quietly produced one of the most remarkable stories of the finals.

Just days removed from winning Most Outstanding Junior Performance earlier in the week, the 15-year-old American lined up for the women’s slalom final — only the third professional slalom tournament of her career.

Few expected what came next.

Abelson built momentum through the 11.25m (38′ off) pass with growing confidence, turning buoy after buoy with the kind of rhythm that suggests a skier momentarily forgetting where they are.

For a moment, it looked like she might run 11m for the first time.

Instead, she fell around five ball — half a buoy shy of her personal best — leaving her somewhere between joy, disbelief, and frustration as she floated away smiling.

Then the chaos began.

Neilly Ross missed. Australia’s Sade Ferguson faltered. One by one, the field fell short.

Suddenly Abelson found herself climbing the leaderboard until only one skier remained: world record holder Regina Jaquess.

Jaquess did what Jaquess usually does. She navigated into 10.75m to secure her second Moomba slalom title.

But the real surprise was just behind her.

A 15-year-old with a grin that suggested she was still trying to process what had just happened.

Slalom on the Yarra has a habit of producing unlikely protagonists.

This year’s belonged to Corey Saddington.

Ranked 82nd in the world, the 23-year-old from Bendigo barely made the final, sneaking through the repechage on Sunday afternoon.

Then he opened the finals by running 11.25m and pushing into 10.75m (39.5′ off), finishing within a buoy of his personal best.

And then he waited.

Five consecutive skiers — all with far better rankings and deeper personal bests — failed to match him as the current ripped through the course.

For a moment, the unthinkable felt possible.

Freddie Winter eventually edged past by a single buoy. Thomas Degasperi matched the mark.

Then defending champion Charlie Ross arrived.

The 20-year-old Canadian skied like he was in different water entirely — smooth, controlled, unhurried.

Ross rounded four buoys at 10.75m to claim back-to-back Moomba titles.

Saddington, meanwhile, finished fourth — and became the weekend’s most unlikely folk hero.

Jump: New Champions, Familiar Power

The women’s jump event still feels slightly strange without Jacinta Carroll towering over the field.

For more than a decade the Australian legend owned the Yarra. Now the event is learning how to exist without her.

But if there was ever concern about the future, the Australian pipeline offered reassurance. Young jumpers like Sade Ferguson, Kristy Appleton, and Zarhli Reeves carried forward a lineage stretching from Sue Lipplegoes to Emma Sheers to Carroll herself.

The podium, however, belonged to the Americans.

Regina Jaquess set the early benchmark with 51.9m (170 ft) — longer than last year’s winning jump.

Then Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya answered.

Her 54.6m (179 ft) leap proved untouchable, as Brittany Greenwood Wharton fought valiantly through swans, current, and chop but failed to defend her crown. Danisheuskaya finally delivering the Moomba title that had eluded her through four previous runner-up finishes.

After years chasing Carroll, Danisheuskaya now had a major professional victory of her own.

The men’s jump final closed the tournament — and it felt like a fitting finale.

Joel Poland entered as the sport’s most dominant jumper of 2025 but struggled in qualifying. In the final he passed his first jump, then found himself awkwardly out of rhythm approaching the ramp.

What followed felt very on-brand.

Poland executed a series of quick hops during his glide — adjusting speed and timing mid-approach — before launching 68.1 meters (223 ft).

It was the sort of audacious improvisation that only Poland would attempt.

And somehow it worked.

Josh Wallent, a 28-year-old builder from South Australia, came closest with 64.1m (210 ft) — earning his first professional podium.

But the last word belonged to Ryan Dodd.

After a frustrating 2025 season chasing Poland, the Canadian looked imperious all weekend. His 69.9m qualifying jump had already put him well clear of the field.

In the final he needed six feet less.

Dodd delivered it comfortably, reclaiming the Moomba Masters jump title.

When the River Settled

There were disappointments, too.

Joel Poland’s solitary silver was a paltry haul for the triple threat. Kennedy Hansen narrowly missed the jump final on her first visit to the Yarra. World overall champion Dorien Llewelyn failed to capitalize on his opportunities in either the trick or jump finals. Edoardo Marenzi endured one of the toughest tournaments of his career—missing the slalom final, narrowly missing the jump cut, and finishing last in the lone final he made.

Even the best sometimes leave Melbourne with bruises.

Because that’s the thing about Moomba.

It never quite unfolds the way anyone expects.

But as the crowds finally drifted away from the riverbanks — past bridges, food stalls, and festival lights — one thing felt clear.

The sport’s established stars were still standing.

But a new generation had arrived.

And they were no longer waiting their turn.

@mati.waterski of Chile tricks during the 2025 IWWF World Waterski Championships at Parco Nautico del Sesia in Novara, Italy.

Gonzalez Breaks 13,000 Barrier with Pending World Record

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Gonzalez Breaks 13,000 Barrier with Pending World Record

Image: @bearwitnesssportsphotos

By Jack Burden

March 2, 2026

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.

Trick Point Shakeup: What the New IWWF Values Mean

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Trick Point Shakeup: What the New IWWF Values Mean

Image: @shuswapsnb

By Jack Burden

March 1, 2026

The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) Water Ski Council has approved the first meaningful adjustment to trick point values this century, voting to increase scores for 13 high-difficulty tricks — including 10 flips — beginning November 1, 2026.

Most notably, the long-standing 1,000-point barrier has finally been breached. Several of the sport’s most complex maneuvers will now carry four-figure values, a symbolic shift many athletes have argued was necessary to properly reward progression.

Trick Code	Current Value	New Value
W7B	480	500
TWLF	380	400
SL7F	800	900
BFLO	800	850
BFL5B	900	950
BFL5F	850	900
FFLB	850	900
FFLBB	900	1050
FFL5F	950	1100
BFLSLBB	900	950
BFLSLO	900	950
BFLSL5F	950	1030
FFLSL5F	950	1150

Under the approved changes, a handful of more commonly performed tricks receive modest bumps. The wake seven back (W7B) rises from 480 to 500 points, while the toe wake line front (TWLF) moves from 380 to 400. The mobe front-to-front (BFLO) and super mobe (BFLSLBB) each gain 50 points — meaningful, but measured adjustments.

The largest increases are concentrated at the extreme edge of difficulty. Several “super” flips pioneered by world record holder Joel Poland see significant gains, including his signature super move five (BFLSL5F), which climbs to 1,030 points. Poland’s super front five (“Matrix”) now tops the table at 1,150.

Similarly, several advanced front-flip combinations see notable increases, including the front half twist (FFLB), front full (FFLBB) — AKA the “Monkey,” and the front five (FFL5F).

Most of these tricks remain rare — or entirely absent — in tournament runs. Whether higher values will coax them into mainstream competition is one of the most intriguing questions heading into the next rules cycle.

There is also a clear subtext in the revisions. The boosted values for advanced ski-line flip combinations play directly into the strengths of skiers like Poland, whose high-risk “super” flips have sometimes outpaced their scoring reward under the previous system.

They may also favor a new generation of boundary-pushing trick skiers such as Jake Abelson and Axel Garcia, both of whom possess arsenals of advanced front flips rarely seen in tournaments.

The decision follows years of mounting pressure from elite athletes who argued the fixed scoring table had begun to discourage innovation. Still, the Council’s approach is unmistakably cautious. Rather than the sweeping overhaul some had called for, the IWWF has opted for incremental tuning.

From an early read, the move appears deliberate: nudge the incentives without destabilizing the discipline.

Council minutes acknowledge the work is ongoing. Additional trick values may warrant future review, and accompanying rule-wording revisions are still in development to modernize judging interpretations — a reminder that trick scoring reform remains a long, technically complex process.

Whether the changes materially reshape elite runs remains to be seen. Trick skiing is, after all, in a relatively healthy competitive moment, with rising scores and deeper fields already pushing progression forward.

For now, the IWWF has taken a conservative but meaningful step — one that finally lifts the artificial ceiling while stopping short of the full reset some in the sport envisioned.

Ready for the first pro tournament of the season

After a Lost Year, Martin Labra’s Long Road Leads Back to Moomba

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After a Lost Year, Martin Labra’s Long Road Leads Back to Moomba

Image: @tiaremirandaphotography

By Jack Burden

February 27, 2026

For the past 12 months, Martin Labra’s world shrank to rehab rooms, gym sessions, and the distant whine of boats he could hear—but not chase—on the lake outside his home. Next week in Melbourne, the Chilean phenom finally gets it back.

After a knee injury forced him out of competition in early 2025, Labra has quietly rebuilt his form across record tournaments in Chile, posting multiple scores back over 12,000 points, including an equal personal best of 12,590 — the highest trick score recorded anywhere this year. Now the 19-year-old returns to the professional stage at the Moomba Masters, entered in both tricks and slalom and slated to appear earlier in the week in the event’s inaugural Under-21 competition.

It is a compelling return for one of the sport’s most promising young athletes, with the coliseum-like atmosphere of the Yarra River providing a potentially blockbuster backdrop for Labra’s comeback arc.

Labra had been a name to watch for several years — the most decorated skier in the history of the Under-17 World Championships, his four gold medals unmatched on the men’s side. But in 2024 he truly announced himself to the water ski world with a breakout season. Labra captured his first professional title at the U.S. Masters, then added another at the Botaski ProAm later that summer.

It wasn’t just the hardware. It was the composure — the unusual calm of a teenager skiing with the tactical patience of a veteran. Trick specialists took notice when Labra unveiled a new trick live in professional competition and reset benchmarks for the highest-scoring toe pass, pushing himself into the rarefied 12,500-point club and into quiet world-record conversations.

Speaking last July on the Chilean podcast Escala del 1 al 10, Labra described the Masters victory as one of the defining moments of his life.

“The Masters was a very, very beautiful moment and something I’ll never forget, I think, for the rest of my life,” he said.

But Labra is not a one-discipline curiosity. While tricks remain his professional calling card, his rapid rise in jump and overall — where he ranked sixth in the world pre-injury — signaled broader ambitions. He closed his 2024 campaign with two finals appearances on the WWS Overall Tour, the résumé of an athlete expanding faster than most expected.

Then the trajectory snapped.

This time last year, Labra was riding the momentum of his breakout season. The calendar ahead was crowded: multiple professional stops, an Under-21 World Championships where he entered as favorite in both jump and overall, and his first Open World Championships with a credible shot at the title.

What followed was a familiar but still brutal reminder of elite sport’s fragility.

In training the week before the 2025 Moomba Masters, Labra’s season unraveled in an instant.

“It happened on February 27th… I fell jumping… my knee went inwards and I tore my cruciate ligament,” he said. “Definitely one of the hardest moments, I think, in my sporting career.”

The timing made it sting more.

“I think it hit me very hard, coming from such a good year as 2024,” Labra admitted.

Surgery followed. Then the long, quiet work of return.

Physically, the roadmap was straightforward. Mentally, it was not.

“I live by the lake, I hear the boats all day long,” Labra said. “Not being able to go to the lake… was getting me down, because I love being at the lake. I love this world and the lake life.”

In the early weeks after surgery, he relocated north to, in his words, “clear my head a little from all the bad things I was going through.” The reset helped. So did the infrastructure around him.

Few athletes are better resourced for rehabilitation. His father is a physical therapist who guided the early recovery phases. His mother, a Chilean representative and Pan American Games field hockey medalist, understands elite-sport pressure. And his stepfather — trailblazing Chilean professional jumper Rodrigo Miranda — knows exactly what it takes to rebuild a body and a season.

“Paso a paso,” Miranda posted — step by step. A mantra that has quietly defined Labra’s year.

For all the physical rebuilding, the more revealing work has been internal. Labra repeatedly circles back to the influence of his family in keeping his rapid rise in perspective.

“My family… that support I have from them is unconditional,” he said. “That’s what helps me stay grounded… because in the end, I’m just an ordinary person.”

The injury also created something elite athletes rarely get: time to recalibrate. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Labra had already chosen to remain in Chile rather than enter the U.S. collegiate system — a decision that, in hindsight, gave him unusual flexibility during rehabilitation.

“I think… being able to do your sport at high performance and study at a very good university, it was the best decision I could have made,” he said.

With competition temporarily removed, Labra leaned into structure. Gym sessions multiplied. University life became a second arena of focus. The routine, he admits, was not accidental.

“Now I try… to focus on recovery, on the gym, on studying,” he said. “I feel like I’ve also improved outside of it.”

There is a quiet maturity in how he frames the lost season — not as empty time, but as reclaimed margin.

“I’m taking advantage of this injury to do well with university,” Labra said. “If I had been competing, I could have traveled more and had less time… but now I can stay more up to date and get to know my friends and classmates better.”

That perspective was not formed in isolation. Labra points back to 2022 — a season that fell short of his own expectations — as an earlier inflection point.

“I think those were the most difficult moments of my career,” he said of that year’s struggles.

What followed was a deeper investment in the mental side of performance, including ongoing work with a sports psychologist, who remains part of Labra’s inner circle.

“He’s helped me a lot… especially in these difficult times,” Labra said.

If there is a defining thread in Labra’s young career, it may be an unusual comfort with the uncomfortable — the moments where momentum stalls and most athletes tighten.

“I love being under pressure,” he said. “The more pressure, the better for me.”

Melbourne will test that claim immediately.

His comeback event features one of the deepest men’s trick fields assembled: reigning world champion Matias Gonzalez, world record holder and defending Moomba champion Jake Abelson, former world champions Patricio Font and Dorien Llewellyn, plus the ever-dangerous Joel Poland.

There will be no gentle runway back.

Early signs out of Chile have been quietly encouraging — not just flashes of the old Labra, but a slightly more measured version. Training alongside the sport’s elite at the now-informal “trick camp,” he has worked methodically toward peak form.

As recently as November, his public tone was cautious: “Slowly getting back to it…”

Now the scores — and the body language — point toward readiness.

Even so, Labra frames the comeback with characteristic restraint. Asked what advice he would offer athletes facing setbacks, his answer was simple: “That first step is always the hardest. If you can’t do it alone, you look for help… lean on the people who love you.”

Moomba will not fully define Martin Labra’s return. Not yet.

A year on from the injury that stalled his momentum, Labra arrives in Melbourne with something simpler in mind: competing again.

And if his own words are any guide, he is exactly where he wants to be.

“I enjoy the nerves,” he said. “I know how to use them.”

Watch: Font Sticks Rare Trick Skiing 900

Video

Patricio Font Sticks Rare Trick Skiing 900

By RTB

February 5, 2026

Patricio Font landed a wake-nine-back in training in Chile this week—an exceptionally rare trick worth 850 points—captured during an informal session he summed up simply: “NINE at camp with the boys”.

Font is part of a stacked winter training group in Chile alongside Joel Poland, Edoardo Marenzi, Tim Wild, Tristan Duplan-Fribourg, and reigning world champion Matías Gonzalez, with former Masters champion Martin Labra also on hand during his injury comeback. Quietly dubbed “trick camp,” the sessions are already hinting at meaningful progression—and a sharper competitive edge—heading into the season ahead.

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A post shared by Patricio Font (@pato.font)

IWWF Trick Committee Moves Toward Major Scoring Overhaul

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IWWF Trick Committee Moves Toward Major Scoring Overhaul

Image: @pato.font

By Jack Burden

October 8, 2025

The long-awaited reform of trick skiing’s scoring system is finally gaining momentum.

Meeting in Italy on September 1, the IWWF World Waterski Council received a proposal from the Trick Committee outlining sweeping changes to the sport’s point values—the first comprehensive overhaul in more than two decades.

Led by Sergio Font, the committee’s recommendations would increase the value of 10 high-difficulty flips, including most “super” flips and backflip variations of 360 degrees or more. Several would surpass the long-standing 1,000-point ceiling that has capped trick progression for years. Three non-flip tricks—wake-seven-back, ski-line-seven-front, and toe-wake-line-front—would also see modest increases. No tricks are proposed to decrease in value.

Font said the proposed changes reflect months of collaboration and are designed to make trick skiing “more entertaining” while better rewarding flips that are currently “undervalued.”

Under the plan, the anachronistic double backflip and backflip-stepover would be removed from the rulebook. The committee expects to deliver accompanying rule-change proposals this month, with implementation targeted for December 2026—giving athletes a full year to adapt before the changes take effect.

Council Chair Candido Moz endorsed the measured rollout, saying it will “allow skiers and coaches to consider the implications” ahead of the next World Championships cycle.

The proposals follow mounting criticism from elite athletes, including world record holder Joel Poland, who has argued that the current system “cripples trick skiing” by undervaluing the sport’s most difficult flips.

If adopted, the new points table would mark a historic reset—breaking the ceiling on trick difficulty and potentially reshaping elite runs for years to come.

Charlie Ross slaloms at the 2025 World Championships

The Highest-Scoring Worlds in History? Recetto Delivers Water Skiing’s Next Level

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The highest-scoring worlds in history? Recetto delivers water skiing’s next level

Image: @bearwitnesssportsphotos

By Jack Burden

September 2, 2025

RECETTO, Italy — For six days in northern Italy, water skiing seemed determined to burst out of its own history. The 2025 World Championships were not just a contest for medals but a collision of eras: champions fighting to defend their crowns, teenagers breaking through the gates, and performances that stretched the sport into new territory.

It didn’t start that way. The opening days were reshuffled by storms, rain smearing across the placid waters of Recetto. But by Friday the skies cleared, the wind fell flat, and the lake turned to stillness. What followed was a rush of personal bests — especially in jump, where skiers pushed themselves farther than anyone thought possible.

The Prelims: Cracks in the Armor

Joel Poland walked down the dock on Friday with the casual confidence of a man who had won everything there was to win. Tricks has always been his insurance policy in overall, the foundation of his dominance. And yet, in a mirror of his stumble at the last Worlds, he went down early.

“That was just heartbreaking,” Poland admitted later, frustration in his voice. “Like a dream… gone, again.”

The mistake rattled the field. Pato Font and Mati Gonzalez wobbled through their passes. The cut line fell to its lowest in nearly a decade — not from weakness, but nerves. Suddenly, the men’s trick final looked wide open.

On the women’s side, it was the opposite. Regina Jaquess and Jaimee Bull tore through 10.75m (39.5′ off) with machine precision, while 22-year-old Kennedy Hansen quietly put together personal bests in both slalom and jump. By the end of Friday, she was in the mix for overall medals — and a genuine threat to Hanna Straltsova’s iron hold on the crown.

Saturday Fireworks

By Saturday the tournament had caught fire.

Men’s slalom provided the starkest reminder of how far the sport has evolved. For the first time in history, a piece of three at 10.25m wasn’t enough to guarantee a finals spot. Twelve skiers, all within a buoy of one another, crammed the leaderboard. Even Poland, hoping to rebound, was squeezed out with 2.25 at the pass.

Tricks went ballistic: seven women cracked 9,000, with Erika Lang and Neilly Ross punching past 11,000 for the first time ever at Worlds. “It’s hard in prelims — you just want to secure your spot,” Ross said afterward. “Hopefully tomorrow I can just go and go fully.”

And then came men’s jump. Dorien Llewellyn, after three years battling injury and inconsistency, soared 69.6m (228 feet) — his longest since 2021. The leap pushed him into the overall lead, just 13 points clear of Louis Duplan-Fribourg, setting up the tightest overall showdown in recent memory.

Ryan Dodd and Poland tied for the lead at 70.5m (231′), a strange echo of their summer duel at the California ProAm. Everywhere you looked, it felt as if the old guard and the new blood were destined to collide.

Finals Sunday: A Collision of Eras

By Sunday the tournament had shed its nerves. The storms were gone, the prelim jitters gone. The water in Recetto lay flat, as if it knew history was waiting.

Tricks: Margins Measured in Frames

Tricks is the cruelest event because immortality and anonymity can hinge on a single freeze-frame. For decades, only the judges saw those margins. This time, thanks to EyeTrick, everyone did. Fans could watch a world title swing on whether a toe slide was rotated 90 degrees or 85.

The women’s final was billed as a heavyweight clash: Lang’s innovation, Ross’s precision, Anna Gay Hunter’s pedigree. But the first half of the field faltered, pressing too hard on risky runs. Hunter steadied things with 10,730, matching her prelims to lock in a medal. Lang went next, laying down a world record run, but missed the rope on her ski-line back-to-back. Three hundred points vanished in an instant.

That left Ross. At 24, she has often played second fiddle to the older Lang or Hunter. But in the past year has found another gear. Two immaculate passes later, the scoreboard confirmed what her posture already said: World Champion.

“I haven’t won a Worlds since 2017,” Ross said, shaking her head. “Every single one since then I’ve just kinda blown it. We made this the goal — do my run. Today I just went for it. I really wanted this one.”

The men’s event spiraled into chaos. Defending champion Font posted 12,010. Then Gonzalez — all velocity and audacity — strung together a blistering 5,500-point toe run, backing it with a clean hand pass for 12,410. It forced the rest into desperation.

Llewellyn, trying to put the overall race out of reach, sank in disbelief after a miscued landing. Abelson, the wunderkind and world record holder, seemed composed — until the scoring system caught him. A rushed toe slide, four judges ruling it under-rotated, pushed his buzzer beating toe-line-front out of time. His final total: 12,400. Ten points short.

Ten points. The smallest possible increment in trick skiing. The kind of number that sticks forever.

When Duplan-Fribourg couldn’t repeat his prelim magic, Gonzalez was champion — speechless on the dock. “It feels amazing,” he stammered. “It was my dream… now I can say I did it. Congrats to Jake too — he’s one of the best in the world. We have the best here.”

Slalom: The Old Guard Meets the Future

Women’s slalom opened with an unlikely spark. Sade Ferguson, once a junior jump prodigy until injuries derailed her career, returned as if she’d never missed a season. Her 5 @ 10.75m was a huge personal best and an early lead.

Allie Nicholson scraped half a buoy past it. Jaimee Bull, calm as a metronome, became the first to run 10.75, but faltered at 10.25 with a botched S-turn for just one and a half. Regina Jaquess, chasing history, fought through 10.75 off but couldn’t get her ski outside of two at 10.25. The shoreline knew instantly what it meant: Bull, 25 years old, three straight World titles.

“I can’t really believe three in a row,” Bull said. “Two felt crazy. Today I didn’t think that was enough — but it was.”

The men’s final felt like two different sports at once: veterans clinging to relevance and a new generation kicking the door down. Freddie Winter bowed out early. Will Asher, seemingly reborn, posted five at 10.25 and celebrated like a man half his age. Then Nate Smith made 10.25 look like a warm-up, forcing the others to gamble.

One by one they failed — until Charlie Ross, 20 and fresh off his first pro wins, matched Smith. He ran 10.25 smoother than anyone, tying at 9.75 to force the runoff. Smith, the most reliable closer the sport has ever known, prevailed. But Ross walked away with proof he belonged in the deepest end of the pool.

“I’ve never even tried 41 off the dock in practice,” Smith admitted afterward. “At two, a lot goes through your head — should I stand up, should I turn it? But today, yeah… I’m pretty happy. That’s cool.”

Jump: Shaved Heads and Broken Dynasties

Jump was the crescendo, the shoreline swelling with every flight. The women’s final opened with personal bests — Maise Jacobsen, Aaliyah Yoong Hannifah both cracking 50 meters — before Brittany Greenwood Wharton, back from injury, hit 54.4m (178 feet), her longest in years. Straltsova needed only two jumps to secure the crown and her golden double. “I’m so happy,” she said simply. “It’s hard to defend.”

The men’s jump final had more plotlines than an HBO drama. Tim Wild, just 18, came off the lower ramp and went 68.1m — ten days earlier he’d never cracked 60. Bronze overall, his name now etched into the sport’s future. Duplan-Fribourg faltered in his overall defense, leaving Llewellyn to claim the title he’d chased for years.

But the jump crown itself belonged to Poland. His opening leap — 72.1m, the biggest of his life and a new European record — stopped the shoreline in its tracks. He passed his next two, gambling it would hold. It did.

Ryan Dodd, five-time champion, threw everything he had, cracked 70, but fell short. With that, three decades of North American dominance — Krueger, Jaret, Dodd — ended. Poland’s elation as he hit the water carried something more than victory. It carried release.

“Yeah, that was unreal,” he said, still buzzing. “This shaved head… I might have to keep it. It seems to be working. Over the moon.”

A New Benchmark for the World Championships

In the end, the numbers told the story. Recetto didn’t just host a World Championships — it redefined what one looks like. The cut to make the finals in men’s slalom, men’s jump, and women’s tricks was the highest in history, a staggering testament to the depth of talent on display. Tournament records fell or were matched in women’s tricks, men’s slalom, and women’s slalom, while the podiums in both men’s and women’s slalom and tricks went down as the four highest-scoring in the sport’s history.

The pattern extended across every discipline. The men’s jump final produced the second-highest podium ever, as did the men’s overall — each pushed to the brink by athletes refusing to give an inch. And beyond the headlines and record books came the quieter triumphs: the countless personal bests, the season-best performances, the moments where skiers left the dock knowing they had just redefined their own ceiling.

That’s what made Recetto different. This wasn’t simply another Worlds where one or two stars lifted the level. It was a collective surge, a field-wide elevation that left even veterans shaking their heads. When the dust settles, 2025 may well be remembered as the World Championships where water skiing itself moved to the next level.

Axel Garcia tricks during the IWWF U21 waterski championships at Predator Bay waterski club in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Axel Garcia: The King of the Half Jack

Articles

Axel Garcia: The King of the Half Jack

Axel Garcia tricks during the IWWF U21 waterski championships (image: @bearwitnesssportsphotos)

By Jack Burden

August 17, 2025

When the conversation turns to innovation in modern trick skiing, it almost always starts with Joel Poland. The multitalented Brit has made “super flips” part of the sport’s everyday vocabulary, turning his signature super-mobe-five into a tournament staple.

But there’s another name worth saying—one rising fast.

Seventeen-year-old Axel Garcia of France has been quietly building a résumé that demands attention. Third at last year’s Under-17 Worlds behind Mati Gonzalez and Jake Abelson. Multiple-time European champion. Top seed into the finals at the recently concluded Under-21 World Championships.

And above all, he’s developed a reputation for one thing: launching himself into frontflips with the kind of style and ease that makes fellow skiers double-take.

Among elite trick skiers, Garcia has been dubbed by some as the “King of the Half Jack.” The half jack—named after American skier Kevin Jack—is a frontflip variation where the skier edges into the wake from an inverted back position before throwing the flip. It’s a close cousin to the wakeboard “tantrum” and has quietly become one of the most common moves in top-level runs. These days, a mobe–reverse–half jack combo is almost as standard as a side slide.

Some, like world record holder Jake Abelson, still favor the more orthodox BFF (frontflip from a regular back position), but that’s becoming rare. The half jack’s speed, consistency, and smooth transition make it the go-to choice.

Garcia hasn’t just mastered it—he’s reinvented it. In 2023, he submitted a clip of himself landing a reverse FFLF, which the IWWF approved as a brand-new trick.

Recently, he posted an Instagram video that made waves: both regular and reverse FFLFs, plus both regular and reverse FFLBBs (frontflip 360s), all starting from the inverted back like a half jack. The reverse FFLBB isn’t even in the rulebook yet—but if Garcia submits it, he could add another flip to the official trick list.

Top names took notice. Pato Font, Mati Gonzalez, and Neilly Ross all jumped into the comments with praise.

Garcia’s skillset is a case study in a long-running debate: whether the IWWF’s trick scoring table needs an overhaul.

Take backflips. Progressing from a basic backflip (BFL) to a backflip 540 (BFL5F) is worth 350 more points—about a 70% increase. But frontflips? A basic FFL is worth 800 points. The 540-degree version (FFL5F) gets just 150 more—less than a 20% bump.

Why? Because of an arbitrary 1,000-point ceiling. Years ago, the double backflip was set at that max value, despite no skier ever landing it. Since then, every trick has had to fit between 500 and that cap, squeezing the spread for higher-difficulty frontflips into a narrow range.

The result: Garcia gains little by throwing his most jaw-dropping tricks. At the Under-21 Worlds, he topped the prelim leaderboard with a run of safe, fast mobes, half-twists, and just two frontflips. Why risk a reverse half jack or a front-full for an extra 100–150 points when a 750-point half-twist is cleaner and safer?

He’s not alone. Abelson regularly posts outrageous frontflips online—no-wake FFLBs, front-fulls from a regular wrap—that never see a start dock in competition. Pato Font has ski-line and spin variations that would make even Cory Pickos jealous. Every top trick skier has an ace or two they leave at home on tournament day.

Part of the reason is difficulty: in trick skiing, you can’t afford an early fall. Speed and consistency win. That’s not a flaw—it’s part of what makes the sport thrilling. But with a different point spread, more of those “party tricks” could become prime-time tricks.

Axel Garcia is exactly the kind of skier trick skiing’s future needs—innovative, fearless, and stylish. His flips are already redefining what’s possible off a ski wake, even if the scorebook hasn’t caught up.

For now, his wildest moves might remain for Instagram. But if the sport wants its brightest stars to keep pushing the limits, it needs to make sure the risk is worth the reward.

Because Garcia may not just be the King of the Half Jack—he might be next in line for the whole trick skiing crown.

How Much Is a Trick Worth?

Articles

How much is a trick worth?

As the World Championships near, trick skiing faces a quiet reckoning

Trick skiers, like world record holder Erika Lang, have redefined what was though possible in the sport (image: @erikalang36)

By Jack Burden

August 3, 2025

As the World Championships approach, a quiet but consequential debate is coming to a head: how much is a trick really worth?

At stake is the very structure of trick skiing’s scoring system—a rigid points table that hasn’t fundamentally changed in more than two decades. For athletes like world record holder Joel Poland, that’s no longer acceptable.

“The point values for high-difficulty flips are crippling trick skiing,” Poland told the IWWF Water Ski Council. “It’s limiting what athletes can do.”

Poland should know. Two of his most innovative tricks—the 900-point “UFO” and the 950-point “Matrix”—were recently approved for competition but, in his own words, are “tricks you’ll never see in a tournament” unless something changes. He’s not alone in that sentiment.

A Broken Balance

Trick skiing is unique among board sports: every maneuver has a fixed value, from 40-point surface turns to 950-point flips. The goal is objective scoring. The result? Homogeny.

“Right now the trick point values reward doing more tricks versus doing harder tricks,” said Brooks Wilson on the GrabMatters podcast. “You can get more tricks in because you’re going fast. It’s a speed game.”

That tradeoff—efficiency over difficulty—has shaped elite competition. Instead of variety, most skiers now converge on the same sequence of reliable, high-value tricks.

“We want to see variation,” added Freddie Winter. “Instead, everyone’s forced to do the same kind of runs.”

The Repetition Problem

An analysis of over 100 score sheets at the 2023 World Championships shows just how narrow the tricking landscape has become.

Among hand tricks, backflips dominate. The half twist (BFLB), worth 750 points, appeared in every finalist’s run—typically paired with its reverse. In contrast, the only other trick worth 750, the ski-line seven back, was attempted just once.

The mobe (BFLBB), worth 800 points, was nearly as common, performed by three-quarters of the finalists—far outpacing other tricks in its point range. The basic backflip remains a staple, especially among intermediate-level skiers, tricks worth comparable points, such as W7B, SLBB, and SL5s, were attempted much less often and with much lower success.

Toe tricks show a similar pattern. Toe back-to-backs (TBB) are ubiquitous, appearing in 112 of 117 toe runs (the exceptions were early falls). Toe wake back-to-backs were also incredibly common; the regular and its reverse featured in every single finalist’s toe run. Toe wake tricks worth comparable points, such as TWO or TWLB, were less common, although some of this stems from them not having an easy reverse.

Misaligned Incentives

Not all frequently performed tricks are necessarily overvalued—some, like backflips, may be common because they serve as foundational building blocks for higher-scoring flips. And in toe runs, the inherent physical limitations naturally result in a narrower pool of viable tricks and sequences.

But some mismatches are hard to ignore. Why does the toe wake back-to-back (TWBB) score more than the toe wake 360 (TWO), despite similar difficulty? Why is the mobe front-to-front, attempted only three times at the tournament, valued the same as the standard mobe, which was performed over 100 times?

Take the half cab (BFLF) as another example. Worth 550 points, it was performed just once for every three half twists (BFLB), valued at 750. While it may be true that landing in the back is more difficult than taking off in the back, does that justify a 200-point gap? If so, why are half twists so common—and half cabs so rare?

Innovation Without Reward

In early 2024, the IWWF approved four new flips, including Clarens Lavau’s “Super Half Twist” and Poland’s “UFO.” But even with official approval, no one expects them to appear in major tournaments.

Poland’s “Matrix”—a frontflip with a ski-line 540 from the back position—was awarded 950 points. That’s just 150 more than a basic frontflip, and identical in value to the established super-mobe-five.

“There’s a point where you go, well, the slam it takes to learn this trick is just not going to be worth the extra 50 points,” said Poland. “I was trying to do a super-mobe-seven—a backflip 720 over the rope—but there’s not much point because they’ve made it very clear no trick can be worth more than 1,000 points.”

The scoring ceiling isn’t just discouraging; it’s actively stifling innovation.

“I tried three of them,” Poland added, “and they were the worst crashes of my life. I was like, ‘I’m never gonna try that again.’”

Without a meaningful scoring incentive, tricks like the Matrix may never make it into competition. Even Poland, one of the sport’s most creative skiers, is reconsidering the cost.

“You’re limiting creativity and progression,” said Winter. “Do we want to see the same runs forever—just a bit faster?”

A System Stuck in Neutral

The IWWF knows the problem exists. In a memo last year, Council Chair Candido Moz urged the Tricks Working Group to bring forward point values that better reflect “true difficulty levels.”

But attempts at reform have stalled for years.

“The skiers could never agree on point values,” Moz has explained. “So IWWF never received a proposal.”

That may change this September. A restructured Tricks Working Group, which includes Poland as a member, is expected to present formal recommendations during the World Championships in Recetto.

Time for a Reset?

Poland is done waiting. “In my opinion, [the current system] is crippling trick and limiting the athletes,” he said. He plans to stay vocal in the lead-up to Recetto.

Winter sees trick skiing as the discipline with the most untapped potential. “Right now, it’s just not reaching it,” he said. “But it could.”

The current system rewards repetition and safety. A modernized score table—one that truly values difficulty and risk—could transform the sport overnight.

“You’ve got to blow it up to build it up,” said Wilson.

The World Championships run August 27–31 in Recetto, Italy. A formal review of trick point proposals is expected to take place at the IWWF Water Ski Council meeting during the event.

It’s Official: Jake Abelson Sets Historic 13k Trick Ski World Record

News

It’s official: Jake Abelson sets historic 13k trick ski world record

Image: @shotbythomasgustafson

By Jack Burden

July 23, 2025

POLK CITY, Fla. — It’s official: trick skiing has a new benchmark, and Jake Abelson’s name is etched beside it.

The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) confirmed today that Abelson’s 13,020-point performance at the Bill Wenner Memorial Record tournament on June 14 has been ratified as a new men’s world trick record.

The 17-year-old American becomes the first skier in history to break the 13,000-point barrier, surpassing his own previous record of 12,970 set last year.

“It’s always been my goal to trick 13,000, if it was even possible,” Abelson said on USA Water Ski’s Hit It! podcast. “After my 12,970, I realized that it could be done if I had the best round—and I was able to put the hand run and the toe run together.”

He did. And then some.

Abelson actually went higher in the following round of the same event, tricking a jaw-dropping 13,270 points. But that score was ultimately disallowed by the IWWF record review panel after his wake-seven-front (W7F) was ruled not credit. The panel reduced the score to 13,010 for ranking purposes, leaving the 13,020 from Round 1 as the new official world record.

Still, it’s a monumental achievement—24 years in the making.

The men’s trick world record has long moved at a glacial pace. In the 18 years following Nicolas Le Forestier’s 2004 mark, it was broken just once. The stagnation gave trick skiing a reputation as the most frozen of the three disciplines.

That changed in 2022, when Patricio Font jump-started a new era with a flurry of record-setting performances. Now, Abelson has taken that torch and launched it into uncharted territory.

His 13,020 wasn’t a fluke. It was the culmination of years of work—gymnastics-level strength, surgical timing, and tournament composure.

The hand pass opens with a blistering sequence of high-difficulty flips. At the bitter end of the 20-second window—when most skiers are clinging to their last breath—Abelson unleashes his most difficult combo: ski-line-seven-back-to-back into wake-seven-front. Together, those two tricks are worth 1,550 points and demand perfect placement and timing.

“Really the only place for it is at the end of the run,” Abelson said. “But at that time, I’m pretty tired, pretty gassed. So learning to do that while tired was a real challenge.”

That final sequence was the key. Without it, 13,000 wasn’t possible.

With the record now ratified, the obvious question follows: Is 14,000 next?

“People keep asking me that,” Abelson said, laughing. “I’m not brainstorming that point yet.” For now, the teenager says he’s focused on taking things “one trick at a time.”

He’s right to be cautious. Trick skiing is a race against the clock—20 seconds, no more. As tricks become more difficult, the challenge isn’t just execution. It’s speed, efficiency, and composure. And that means the margin for further progress is slim.

But Abelson isn’t done yet.

He’ll represent Team USA later this month at the IWWF World Under-21 Championships in Calgary, followed by the IWWF World Open Championships in Recetto, Italy, this August.

And it’s not just in trick. Abelson was recently named to the U.S. team in overall, a nod to his emergence as one of the sport’s most complete athletes.

His story is still in its early chapters. But already, the impact is clear.

Jake Abelson didn’t just break a world record—he shattered a mental barrier. And maybe a generational one too.