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How Much Is a Trick Worth?As the World Championships near, a battle is brewing over trick skiing’s broken scoring table — and whether the sport can evolve before it gets left behind.
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.
In an exciting development for waterskiing enthusiasts worldwide, a comprehensive platform named “Skier Stats” has made its debut courtesy of the Waterski Pro Tour. This valuable resource offers a deep dive into the world of professional skiers, providing a treasure trove of statistics that shed light on their careers. Skier Stats can now be accessed at stats.waterskiprotour.com.
The official announcement was made by Gregoire Desfond, of Waterski Nation, in a video released on September 7th. Desfond invited waterskiing enthusiasts to explore the Skier Stats, stating, “Some really interesting news for this weekend… We are releasing the skier statistics, so make sure you go and check this out if you want to find any numbers, the best score, the first win, how many podiums of your favorite pro. It’s all going to be out there. Everything was made by Manon Costard, because she’s not only a world champion, a pro water skier, but she’s also a super talented web developer, so keep that in mind if you have any inquiries.”
In an Instagram post the following day, Waterski Pro Tour shared intriguing statistics that serve as a teaser for what Skier Stats has in store:
In the last 8 and a half years, since March 2015, only four women have won a professional trick event. These are Anna Gay, Erika Lang, Neilly Ross and Giannina Bonnemann.
Anna, Erika and Neilly all won their first pro event before they turned 18. Neilly is the youngest victor of this golden generation at 15 years, 7 months, 12 days.
Freddy Krueger has won a jump (or Ski Fly) event every year since 1995 with the exeception of 1997 – a total of 28 different seasons. His first win was at age 20 years, 1 month, 8 days. His most recent victory was 48 years, 3 days old.
With two events left on the ’23 tour, Krueger is top of the John K Philips jump leaderboard. Six of the remaining nine in the top 10 were born after Krueger’s first victory.
Only four skiers have ever won a slalom event after the age of 40, three men and one woman. They are Andy Mapple, Karen Truelove, Thomas Degasperi and, most recently, Will Asher.
The men’s slalom podium for age at the time of latest pro win:
Mapple – 41 years, 9 months, 28 days
Degasperi – 41 years, 5 months, 9 days
Asher – 40 years, 2 months, 3 days
In the nearly three seasons of the Waterski Pro Tour, four skiers have won every men’s slalom stop, a run of 33 events. These are Nate Smith, Freddie Winter, Will Asher and Thomas Degasperi. The last skier to win an event besides them was Stephen Neveu on June 30th 2019.
The longest unbeaten streak in professional waterskiing belongs to Jacinta Carroll with her 37 pro wins in a row (not including non-Waterski Pro Tour events). She has not lost an event she entered since March 2013. Though she has not been at as many events of recent her streak still stands to this day.
For those eager to dive into the statistics of professional water skiing, the journey begins at stats.waterskiprotour.com.
Independent perspectives on tournament water skiing
