Monaco Debut Delivers Big Scores and Big Style | TWBCWith world-class performances, a mixed-gender trick format, and a touch of Formula 1 flair, the first stop on the European leg of the Tour delivered both drama and spectacle.
Stream It and They Will Come?The 2025 Swiss Pro Slalom has been downgraded from the Waterski Pro Tour due to insufficient prize money, raising broader questions about the sport's future.
Swiss Pro Tricks to Open 2025 Waterski Pro TourFor the third straight year, the Swiss Pro Tricks will kick off the season, and if recent history is any guide, this Central Florida showdown won’t be easing into anything.
Here’s all you need to know about the 2024 water ski season, including the major event calendar for this year.
Last year’s calendar was brimming with Waterski Pro Tour slalom events, and this year is poised to follow suit. Nate Smith and Freddie Winter led the pack on the men’s side, while Jaimee Bull, Regina Jaquess, and Whitney McClintock Rini engaged in an epic season-long battle for the women’s title.
While all the details are yet to be finalized, there are currently 13 events registered with the Pro Tour for the 2024 season. Among these events, 11 will feature slalom skiing, 5 jump, and 2 tricks. The season kicks off in America in the spring, followed by a tightly packed European leg through June and July, before heading back to the states to close out the season.
Beyond the Pro Tour, the legacy majors – Moomba and U.S. Masters – will continue to be major attractions, showcasing all three events and wakeboarding. Additionally, another non-Pro Tour Nautique event, the Botaski ProAm, will feature slalom and tricking during the European leg.
Details have also been finalized for the WWS Overall Tour in 2024, with another series of four professional overall tournaments set to take place across North America and Europe.
In summary, we anticipate a very busy season spanning four continents, with hundreds of thousands in prize money up for grabs.
We could have seen it coming. Last year’s Travers Grand Prix saw absurdly high scores across the board – including a few first evers – so it was no surprise perhaps that this year’s was no different.
Here are the headlines the weekend as we see them: the highest ever scoring round of slalom waterskiing in history (men’s qualifying round 2), highest ever cut to make an 8 skier final (men’s), the highest ever scoring podium (men’s), tied most 10.75m passes run in a single round (women’s final, tied with Malibu Open 2021).
It is extremely rare to see the best ever competitive performance in a sport. It is infinitely rarer to see two go down in consecutive days and at the same venue. And yet that is what we saw at the Malibu Open as these records fell in women’s slalom and men’s overall. Indeed, the event served up some of the biggest scores of the season across the board, with another milestone in women’s jump.
Firstly, women’s slalom. There might have been a fear that the unusually small field would result in lackluster competition but the women present all skied to a very high standard through qualifying.
In how many professional sports is it possible to point at a 48 year old that is still competitive? Or even competing.
If there is such a list it would be a very short one. But at the top of it would be jump waterskiing. Why at the top? Well, because Freddy Krueger, our 48 year old, isn’t simply competing, is not only competitive but always, always at the very pointy end. This weekend, like so very many weekends before, he won. And his win at the MasterCraft Pro was not just another win. It was his crowning moment as the 2023 Waterski Pro Tour Jump Champion.
