Water Ski Title Events

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29747, 14 February 1962, Page 11

Water Ski Title Events

YVATER ski-ing has shown ' almost a meteoric rise in popularity in the last two or three years and clubs have been formed all over the country. Small bands of enthusiasts have banded together in country areas, taking advantage of lakes or the nearest suitable water.

Improvements in boats, motors—both inboard and outboard—and equipment have kept pace and with this there has been a corresponding rise in the standard of competitive ski-ing. For the first time the Canterbury regional association will be staging full-scale championships, judged by international standards on Lake Ellesmere at the Lakeside Domain this Saturday on the home waters of the Ellesmere Aquatic Club, which will act as the host club.

Starting at 9.30 a.m. there will be a full programme of events with the leading Canterbury competitors in action, as well as several top skiers from other areas who will be taking part in a special invitation event.

On Sunday afternoon as a grand finale to the championships there will be a massed display by the clubs and competitors taking part and the clubs will also stage special displays they have been preparing for the day.

One of the major features in the championships will be the tricks competition in which individual skiers perform acrobatics and special effects of their own choosing which are judged on the basis of novelty and difficulty. Judging is to international rules.

Each competitor is allowed two runs of 20 seconds each in duration with an interval of not more than three minutes in between to change skis or other gear. In world championship class top scoring competitors can be credited with more than 3000 points. In some world events the sequence of tricks is so fast it is not possible for the judges to evaluate the runs at once and films are taken and run through later in slow motion before the judges, who then make their decisions.

Local skiers generally score between 800 and 900 points, but this is considered quite good. Trick events include side slides, turn-arounds and jump turn-arounds in which the skier makes a crossing behind the boat and uses the lift from the wake to increase the jump using either single or double skis. With a single ski, which is more difficult for tricks, the points scoring can be nearly doubled.

The championships are divided into different classes. Juvenile competitors are under 12, junior up to 17, there are men’s and women’s classes and there is also a senior men’s championship for those over 35. There is, however, no juvenile class in the water jump. Jumping is a spectacular feature of the sport and the New Zealand record distance is steadily increasing. Last week-end at Lake Karapiro it was raised to 82ft. The world record, which is held jointly by two Americans, is 150 ft.

The jump championship will be measured on Saturday with Johnson jump -meters which are standard equipment overseas for this event. They were tried recently, with success, in the Christchurch Water Sports Club championships.