Face To Face Tour

Friday:
Kick off day for a weekend of slayin bouys and big jumps. Women's slalom started the day at 8am with 13 women competitors for the first round. Followed by men's slalom with 29 athletes and finally 19 men's jumpers. The athletes said the water felt good and scores reflected that.

Saturday:
For round 2 the athletes came out to just do work! Like Friday, the day was women's slalom, men's slalom, and then men's jump. Wrapping up the day, we watched the women battle it out in the first round of head to head competition - leaving only 8 women for Sunday. It was a scorcher this day, so we felt very fortunate to have Pete and his AC!!

Sunday:
The final day of water ski tournaments are always the most entertaining, but head to head makes it that much more intense. First thing that morning, the men met on the dock for seeds 5-8 to pick their challengers from the bottom four. A little friendly rivalry inside the competition always makes things more interesting for the athletes, but also the spectators. WIth a few upsets and a few surprises, the final 4 on the men's side ended up being Marcus Brown vs Cale Burdick and Jamie Beauchesne vs Thomas Degaspri. The Face to Face Tour has been amazing for the sport and more than we could have ever imagined, but it has also really affected Marcus' training program. He skied his best all season this weekend, looked strong, felt strong, and is back in the game! Cale led off the first match skiing 2 @ 41, which just beat Marcus who got stood up with 1 @ 41. Thomas skied .5 @ 39, falling at one ball, which left no problem for Jamie to make it to the finals. Jamie, having the option, made Cale go first. Both ran through 39. Cale, running his 3rd set of the day, fell at 1 ball @ 41 off. Jamie came back strong with 1.5 @ 41 and pulled through his 3rd victory out of 4 this tour!
There were surprises in the women's head to head, but Karina Nowland and Nicole Arthur were the last two standing. Looks like the younger girls are showing the older girls they're ready to play hard ball! Karina, just turning 21, and Nicole, only 20, both skied phenomenal this weekend. Karina ran 38 every attempt, including the final. Nicole, falling at 5 ball, wasn't able to make it happen. The women have really stepped it up this year, making it almost a necessity to run 38 to make the finals.
In men's jump Ryan Fitz had a yard sale crash, losing both skis and bindings. Jarret Llewellyn saved what could have been a REALLY bad blowout. Both skiers where okay though, but along with Freddie Krueger, did not make the final cut. A HUGE SHOCK TO EVERYONE! I guess Freddie's human after all. The top 3 men all jumped 214, but Ryan Dodd came out on top with just a few more inches out!

For more scores go to www.proskiers.com

As soon as jump was over, we started packing up, again trying to beat an incoming thunderstorm. We weren't as lucky as last week though, and just got slammed with violent wind and rain. Drenched, tired, and hungry, we made it on the road to Lay Lake.