Ski League?

rodltg2

We had our ski lake meeting Friday night and one if the things discussed was how to improve tournament attendance and slalom ski awareness. Few ideas brought up were adding a grass roots division , holding a F tournament Friday before and a hosting some sort of ski league.
Some members brought up that they know lots of skiers that have no interest in tournaments for one reason or another. A no pressure setting would be more ideal to get then introduced to the scene.
Apparently I was nominated to get this going. I was thinking some sort of fun competition deal once a week like a Wednesday. Any ideas on how to set this up and a format?

RichardDoane

in WA and OR this season, we're trying to have grassroots events with a standardized scoring system for people still working on the mini course, that way scores are kept all season, and there's consistency in the overall results, LOC's are adding the "F" events either the Friday before, or between the "C" rounds, it's a little bit more work for the site to add the extra group, but gives the kids/spouses/newbies the chance to ski at a heavily discounted rate, encouraging participation by people who would otherwise choose to not ski in a "tournament"

WBLskier

How about a handicap scoring system so everyone competes against everyone else, regardless of buoy count? I put together a scoring system last year for our group of skiers. Basically I had handicaps based on each person's personal best full pass from the year before. Not everyone was into it, but the times we used it everyone ended up very close in terms of scoring.

Not_The_Pug

@rodltg2 get a hold of @mateovargas he runs a ski league at the Berkley Aquatics park during the summer and can get format info to help you get it going. Also Sean at Liberty lake has done a few.

Kevin

bdougherty

In Indiana we offer a Monday Night Ski League which is designed to introduce skiers to the course. This year we have a goal of not only introducing skiers to the course but introduce them to tournament skiing. Our hope is to bridge the gap between beginners and tournament skiers. Our plan is to offer one coached set and one tournament set each Monday evening. The tournament set will have friendly rules such as mulligans, alternative scoring using green buoys etc. we will score based on ability and season averages. The scores will be handicapped to create a level playing field. We plan to have nightly and season winners. We also plan to host a class c tournament called the Hoosier Buoy Tour modeled after the Ohio Buoy Tour that offers handicapped fun formats within a traditional class C tournament.

crashman

@bdougherty the Monday Night Ski League at Silent Shores is responsible for me getting hooked on little buoys instead of open water. I showed up 3 summers ago and didn't even know what side of the course to start on. There were plenty of other novice skiers there and some pretty good skiers too and i got some good tips. It was a really unassuming atmosphere and my first taste of a private ski lake (you mean i dont have to dodge jet skis?) Then it was buy a slalom tug, join a ski club. It sounds like the "new" format has the potential to get me involved in a tournament in a non-intimidating way. Keep up the great work with the Hoosier skiers.

ToddL

We are going to give this a go at our metroplex...

http://www.waterskiaustin.com/Competition/Learning/index.htm

It will basically be a sanctioned club practice... We realized that before people will want to compete, they will want to build some skill on the course. Even novice skiers want some level of competency before actually competing.

rodltg2

This is kind of what I have in mind.Any feedback is appreciated.

Wednesday Night 530-Dusk,

Take up to 10 skiers.

$20 entry, $10 goes to gas , bbq and lake maintence, $10 goes in the pot.

Top three skiers take the winiings in a 50%, 30%, 20% break down.

First time out skier will take two sets, that will set their average.

Each night a skier will ski two rounds tournament style, with 1 mulligan.

Top 3 skiers who round the most bouys over average takes the pot.

BBQ at the end

I will keep a spread sheet on a website with all the scores.

Not_The_Pug

@rodltg2 - a couple of things to think about.
First, what are you going to do about different people showing up each week? You need a way to get their avg without setting it at the start. Also as people improve, you will need to adjust the baseline.
Second, these things never run on time (someone is always running late), two rounds with 10 people being ready for both rounds before dark may be difficult with Ron's sunset rule. Might want to allow yourself some extra time.
Hope it works out for you guys and everyone has fun,
Kevin

rodltg2

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe either go by someone's word on their word average , or set a few times when someone could come out prior. A skiers averaga would have to go up or down thru out the season so that would have to be calculated. I came up with a formula , but if anyone else has one please send it to me.

I realize 20 rounds before sunset is a stretch. Maybe set a limit on how far longer or slower than your average you can start. Maybe only one speed or line length under . For example if your average is [email protected] then you would have to go of the dock @ 32.

Ideas ?

ToddL

FYI - consider your sanctioning and active participant liability coverage... Options include clinic or practice or GR tourny sanctions... Each have diff requirements for on-site officials. All require trained drivers and safety officials....

Not_The_Pug

Rod,
People would probably like more skiing than that. Usually a 4 pass limit is ok. That way is stops the kids that can keep going and going.

Joeprunc

@rodltg2
I just sent you a PM regarding league skiing, I didn't see this thread until now.....This does actually seem like something I would enjoy doing, or trying. One thing for me is getting to the course on time, what city is the ski lake you are thinking of at?

Mateo_Vargas

Rod I can help you out with anything you need to run your Ski League. My guy who does our scoring/handicapping has it pretty dialed in for making it competitve for skiers at all levels. In 6 seasons we have had 6 different champions. We average 15 skiers a night and usually have about 40 different skiers per season. We just do 1 six pass ride. If you don't like your off the dock score you can take a mulligan for a 2 buoy penalty off your final buoy count. Once your score is set you can finish out your set. If you can pull it together we can plan a Berkeley vs. Sac head to head in the fall which we have done a couple of times.

I recommend to anyone doing a Ski League to use the USA Waterski Grassroots program. It's only $25 per event and there are some nice benefits for trophies and shirts. I have a local ski shop cover the sanctioning fees. In return we buy gift certificates totaling the same amount for the top 3 season finishers which makes it a win/win.

gsm_peter

As a beginer I prefere to practice and not compete.
However, I accidently did one race.

The rules was:
Six pass practice before lunch.
Best score was the baseline (mine was [email protected],7mph)
Start with your baseline an improve from here.
Max six passes on the base line.
Entry gate was optional.
Largest improvment wins. (I got 1/[email protected] My first 28 and first ever try at 30. It took me 25 sets to repete next 28).

Maybe avrage of your best score per event could be used as base line?
Hence your base line can go sligetly up and down during seson.

What is a mulligan?

Joeprunc

@rodltg2 Are you putting on any of these competitions? As I've been improving, I may be interested.

ToddL

FWIW, Competitions... most new slalom competitors cannot run more than 1 complete pass with gates. For this reason Class C doesn't make sense. Further, the cost per pass of competition doesn't make sense to this audience either. If you can work it out to about $3-4 per pass max cost, then you can likely entice this beginner level of skier to participate.

For example: Sanction as a clinic, but do some competition where the skier gets 2 rounds, each round consists of a minimum of 4 passes regardless, first off the dock consecutive buoys score is recorded, the skier repeats an attempt at the last incomplete pass, the best of those two performances is recorded as the score for that round, if at this point the skier has not completed 4 or more passes then the skier is pulled through the course without scoring until 4 pass minimum is reached, repeat the process for round 2, trophies for placement by ability levels (either speed groupings, or improvement from rd 1 to rd 2, or against some established baseline method). With a min of 4 passes and 2 rounds, the entry fee is about $25-30 for the event. Clinic sanction is like $25. All skiers & officials must be USAWS ($7 day pass or $35 GR or normal USAWS Active members). Clinic sanction requires safety official, Level 1 instructor, and trained drivers.

behindpropellers

I ran a weekly slalom league for a couple years with our club. It was good when people showed up. I was there 100% of the time, everybody else was about 60%. Frustrating.

buski

For a weekly league, on the recreational side, what about something like

Entry gate optional
2-3 rounds depending on time/# of people, 4 passes per round
Everybody picks an "honest" opener
Sum total # buoys rounded (even incomplete passes, so 24 max per round)
Winner is the highest total

If you hit win, -6 next week then move opener up a pass. Might also add a -3 or something if you hit max on any round but don't win.

This way even somebody who doesn't ski a full pass consistently could put up a score each week and potentially even compete if they have a good day once the openers start moving up. I'm thinking mostly of my site where it's mostly people everyone knows (so no heavy sandbagging), and most of the people are at 15 off at 0-2 full passes (26/28 mph or something). They could potentially compete with the handful of 22-32ish off skiers once their opener has to be 28off+.

What doesn't work or could be better?