CRB Classic TV Theater

Lets Have A Quick Discussion About This Waterski Magazine Article

weeee..oh thats your mom. 

In the last issue of waterski magazine there was an article where they attempted to get the root of, or, figure out ways in which to make our sport more popular, more available to the public, to..we dont know...point out problems in our current model of promoting our sport.

This concept, the idea if figuring out ways to increase our sports mainstream consumption is something that, really, is at the core of what we like here at CRB, and we commend the dead tree publication of at least taking a look at something that we have all known for years.

To that end, we are going to take a look at their "solutions" and discuss them.  Like grown ups.  We have shown love to Waterski Mag, and as always this is not to tear them down, but, to help out.

Shine light through the cracks, so to speak.

And this may take awhile, because lord almighty is there some nonsense that we need to look at.

1)  Rebuild from the top down. 

Steve Garcia is the first person they talk to, who was an organizer in 2013 under 21 world championships and soaked orlando.

His solution is, basically, to do away with IWWF because they charge to much, up to 200,000 dollars to put on a tournament, and instead rich parents need to pony up so we can have tournaments.

CRB response.

who gives a damn about the IWWF?  You want to run a tournament, do it.  Dig up sponsors, find a bad-ass location (note: not in the middle of nowhere, where no one can see it) and kick ass

Find rich parents to put in money.  just no.  This isn't u-14 soccer, this is not a country club, this isn't that shit.  Rich parents are a stain on the sport, on any sport, on anything, because they are going put in money and expect certain things.  Thats not competition, thats an exhibition, and thats bullshit.

2) Go easy on em. 

Greg Davis, founder of the Big Dawg tournament...Which as an aside, is the best thing that has come to waterskiing in the last 20 years, so his opinion is important, and its...

"we need to slow the boats down for younger people because they get discouraged"   -paraphrase

AND...your wrong. 

CRB response

Oh, billy can't run 22 off.  So what, sack up and keep trying.  If you want to make a sport something that means nothing then make the rules different so that people who can't hack it may feel good. 

This is the 'get a trophy for showing up' thing, and while its not the worst thing in the world, its not good.  The full quote is basically, we are afraid of losing people who can ski because they can't hang. 

Maybe, we actually don't have good skiers skiing, and therefor, we don't need em anyways.  Lets expand our minds and find skiers who are actually good and can hang with the rules that have been in place for years? 

I.E, maybe Bryce who can't run 22 off at 36 MPH isn't any good, and we shouldn't bend for him, but, Lamar who can do it, and doesn't need training wheels should be promoted. 

This takes the argument into a whole different aspect, debating the money vs non money and accessibility of our sport, but, we would venture a guess that there are many kids out there that would crush 90% of our current skiers but, they don't have the access that we do

Unpack what you need out of that statement. 

3) Pick and Promote. 

This is the most 100% accurate part of this article.  

Find people that are interesting, good and a fun story and promote the shit out of em.  

CRB Response.

We currently have phenomenal skiers and great personalities in our sport and if we, CRB Video?, were able to produce a tournament, or an event or a series, goodness...we would..just judging by twitter, have some fun people to utilize as springboards. 

Just a few names.  Freddy, Dodd, Erica Lang, Shaun Murray, The Bonifays, Patrice god damn Martin, Gabi, the Wilsons, McLintocks, etc. 

There are people out there worth promoting and worth exploring their story. 

It takes work!  An in depth story on April Coble would be fascinating, but, no one does it.  Where does the desire to compete come from, putting on tournaments, working this hard in your 40's?  

My god, Marcus Brown is a 30,000 word story on his own!  We have personalities out there that no one taps into, utilizes, explores...coming from a journalistic-ish background its disappointing, to see usa waterski, waterski mag, etc, ignore this aspect...its frustrating.   

4) Find waterskis twin tips

Ignore the concept of this part, because it, again, is wrong in execution, but, correct in concept.

The premise is that downhill skiing has twin-tip skis now and are easier to ski on and its taken a bite of our snowboarding, taken those people back into skiing.

Your re-arranging the same pie.

CRB Response:

The idea is sound.  You want to find something that brings outsiders into the sport that wouldn't normally consider themselves waterskiers or wakeboarders.

At least, we hope thats the idea.

What you want, again...AGAIN, is to make our sport accessible to people that would have the means or opportunities otherwise.

We have that already with wake surfing and wakeboarding.  Two relatively simple aspects of our sport to get into.  Not saying they are easy, but the learning curve is easier.

And look, mr. slalom asshole.  Your the one who makes entry into slalom hard.  Just like its hard to get into playing guitar.  You deal with so many assholes who have some weird vested interest in their own smarmy outlook on their own patch of land you feel like an idiot for even trying.

Twin tips could, theoretically mean, access to sport.  Welcome people into your world.  Yes, your boat and ski are set up just right, but, welcome someone who has no idea what they are doing and allow them to fail and flail with your support.

OH SHIT, you have a EP combo ski!  Just rock this shit son.
/crash
/crash
Oh, that was awesome, lets try this slight correction.
/crash
/makes one buoy
BOOM!  life time waterskier

The lifestyle of a waterskier should never be one of exclusion but inclusion, you should..YOU!  should always embrace people in your warm blanket of love and help.  We have a unspoken responsibility to help that we should take serious.

5) Shoot and Share

Social media and go-pro.

Jeff Hymes, basically, said we should all video our skiing and post it online so people can see it.

Thanks Jeff.  That helps

Pretend the previous three sentences didn't exist.

CRB Response:

"media is consumed differently, kids and phones"  Boom.  thats it.

No shit dude.  This is already happening and if we are to be so bold, waterskiing and winter skiing is the pioneer of that exact architect of the form.

The CEO of go-pro is an avid surfer, and thought up the idea for mobile mounted cameras whilst on an surfing vacation, some of the best videos go-pro has (not really go-pro, but, mobile cameras) are either on water, on snow, or on a motorcycle...this is an avenue that the people who are the future of our sport are already well versed in.

There, however, is no actual outlet for this creativity .

Sure, facebook and twitter and such provide an outlet, but there doesn't seem to be a real END GAME for waterski stuff.   You will never see Nate Smiff crushing a 41 off pass and someone yelling WORLDSTAR WORLDSTAR! in the video.

Unless Nate Smiff takes off his ski and baseball bats some dude eating a burger on shore talking nonsense.

Lets be serious tho, worldstar is not something to aspire to, but, someone skiing a 28 off set for the first time ever at the Wyoming Open doesn't get love on any waterski related media platform.

/stares at waterski magazine

If it isn't slaloming, waterski magazing doesn't care...if its not wakeboarding, alliance or whomever doesnt care...but..

BUT!!  Thats social media.  its a democracy.  If its cool, people see it.  If not?  people don't  There is no blame.  Just, simply, the power players need to step up their game to help.

/stares at waterski magazine

6) Build a Pyramid

Turn our top people into stars and our participants into fanatics.

note: this part was done by our beloved THE KRISTA, and we love her.  So, it hurts to say this but.

lol.  nothing we agree.

However, the deep concept, that she is refering to is simply this.

We need to make our best people something that we aspire to, and not someone we sesh with.  Its people we aspire to be, skill we aspire to ascertain, a level of, shit, money we aspire to get.

Young quarterbacks don't aspire to hang with Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady, maybe they do, but, they aspire to kick their ass on the football field.  To be like them, to dominate like them, to be the best the sport has to offer.

The best thing that has happened to our sport in the last, shoot, 20 years?, since the Coors Light thing on ESPN, was Freddy on the X-Games.

It was a one-off, it wasn't exactly what we do but...

but...

GOD DAMN it was cool!  People who had no idea about anything came up to me and asked what that was.

*note - we work in a retail establishment sometimes and made sure to turn it on*

*note - yes, its the gap.  come by for jeans you jerk*

That was, however, Freddy on a national stage, on tv, being the top of that pyramid.

We are Freddy's age, and still want to do what he does, be like him, have what he has.

Thats what, we hope, THE KRISTA meant.

There was other stuff of clinics and cross-country tours and whatever.  But, we need the bell-cow type skiers to inspire and drive us all to stay connected to our industry, to buy the shit that our companies make, to make this not just a hobby, but a lifestyle.

We have kayaks and fucking $200 paddles, cmon!  We tip over trying to even get in and will probably drown in 4 inches of water!!

We can support our own bad ass skiers and stay involved.  The point being that there is a hierarchy of people that we can aim towards.

In life, motivational speaker type people will tell you to set smaller goals that you can reach because that keeps you engaged in the process and keeps you from getting discouraged as you move along.  Something like A instead of B

A. Vacuum the living room.
B. Take control of infrastructure improvements on the nations toll-roads.

If B. is your first goal, well son, you are going to get really bummed out really quick.  But, if A. is the first of your goals, you may achieve that today.

/plugs in vacuum
/fires up bong
/orders pizza
/watches wheel of fortune
/forgets dog is outside
/lulz

Well, you got close!!

We can't be Freddy or Jacinta right now, but we can build a system that allows us to be apart of it all and they are part of it as well.

We were told once, on our first lesson learning to surf.  "Kelly Slater started here as well, don't be discouraged"

"OH SHIT!  Kelly Slater took a lesson from a stunning blond girl in San Diego in 2002???  I can do anything!"

"well, lets not get carried away"

"Nonsense!  Lets do this damn thing!!"

/stands on surfboard on the beach
/wipes out off the surfboard on the beach
/falls off surfboard again trying to get the water
/falls off surfboard paddling
/falls off surfboard again while paddling

"What the hell!!!"

/falls off surfboard while paddling
/falls off surfboard while trying to stand up
/falls off surfboard while trying to stand up
/stands up
/falls directly into mouth of shark after standing up

"GOD DAMNIT!"

/punches shark in the testicles
/paddle
/paddle
/paddle
/stands up
/surfs like two feet
/flies off board and ends up face first in sand

"WOOOOO!"

"Made it two feet!!"

But, to that end, we all start somewhere and its good to have something to, and someone to, aspire to.

Freddy wasn't a world champ right away, and neither are we.  But, we can be part of it and enjoy it while it lasts

Promotion of our sport is not something that can be tackled that easy, its a systemic issue that really needs to be headed up on a high up level.  To that end, we need our leaders to put something together that we can all follow, a bread crumb trail that leads to higher places.

From our experiance, those people are in place in places like USA Waterski and with whoever else it is that runs Moomba and Malibu and the US Open and such, but, maybe we all get together and figure out a single strand that runs through it all that we can all grab onto and use our tentacles (arms) to grab others and bring them along.

Flips While Flipping //flip

Dan Olson did this at an event this past spring called Chain of Records.  Goal was to break the record for most wakeboard inverts off the wake in 1 minute.

NCWSA Nationals Webcast

Women's College Swerve Record ***Tied*** (updated)

27 Person World Record Barefoot Line

Your moms ex-boyfriends

This past weekend in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, a whole slew of people got together to set a world record for most people barefooting behind a boat.

27 people.

At one time.

/your mom nods her head.  been there, done that.

Anyways!

27 people is a hell of a lot of people, just look at the picture above.  Helpfully noted with our mad ass photoshop skills.

However, its hard to get an idea of the scope of this momentus acheivement, unless some one superglued a camera to their heads and taped it.

OH SHIT!  Check it out!

Pretty good huh??

Amazing work by everyone involved.  But, thats not enough, lets take a look at the action from in the boat, the scope of this is just phenomenal.

Rad!

This Guy Is a Jack Ass

Andy

Sad news about Andy Mapple.  Good day to dig around and find some vids of Andy Skiing.

Ode to Kidder Redline

I'm a Waterski

This is our favorite slalom ski of all time.

The Kidder Redline.  Have never skied on a ski that we liked more.  It seemed to do everything well, and felt fast and stable.

So, here is a haiku to celebrate

The Redline is good
Hope to find one on ebay
Shouldn't have lost ours

#MCThrowdown2015 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Earlier our ODBF spoke upon the MCThrowdown that was on TV on Saturday...and not just regular tv, but over the air, real ass tv.  ABC TV.  Waterski people were on the X-Games on real TV!  It was amazing.

There is something awesome about being at work (yes some of us do get money outside the CRB riches), and turning on the TV and seeing people we know on it doing waterski stuff!

A pretty bananas shot showing @ntmare230 flying over 300ft. The small black spec above the water is him about to land. 😳 #mcthrowdown15 3⃣1⃣2⃣💥

A photo posted by MasterCraft Boat Company (@mcboatcompany) on Aug 10, 2015 at 8:53am PDT

For many years we have wondered how to properly package our sport to showcase it to people in the real world who assume that waterskiing is a doofus behind a bayliner at mach 6 while pissing off fisherman.

Well, thats not entirely fair.

We would venture a guess that most people don't view waterskiing as a silly sport, or a thing you do with Muffy and Biff at the lake house.  We assume that people in know understand that its a hard venture (like your mom) and it takes skill.

#muffyandbiff4ever #ripmuffyandbiff #DontHangGlideStoned #420no

But, how does that translate into something people want to actually watch, to consume, to invest their time in???

In the realm of waterskiing, there are so many facets, from the most understood / mainstream of disciplines of our sport, and that is without question wakeboarding.  To the furthest end, the most obscure version of our sport and that is, what, sky ski?  Steeple chase barefoot?  FYI -  so much death

In between we have so many variations of our sport, barefoot, slalom, jump, trick ski, show ski, ski racing, and our new favorite ski boozing.  (Thats drinking in a boat that floats down a river whilst there are skis inside the boat getting in your way as you try to get cheez-its out of the cooler)

back the fuck off son, i will cut you

Don't question ski boozing, it will take off soon.  Right after we throw the damn combo ski in the water because we kicked it and hurt our toe and now that ski has to pay.

Its long been a thought in our minds of how does one make our sport palatable to the people of the world to view and enjoy and hopefully engage in.

And to be clear, this is not about people participating IN the sport, simply how it is consumed on TV or on a phone or tablet.  We enjoy the hell our of sprint boat racing but, never in a million years will we race a boat around a little slough in hopes of not death.

Your mom is port side yo!

However on the other side of the equation, we hope that people do tune in and do engage in our sport and do hopefully participate in some realm and maybe start to ski and compete and in turn, purchase products from our companies, and then use them and go to our tournaments and probably..maybe...hook up with our sons or daughters.

Use protection!  Not ready to be a grand parent yet!!

Its a hard, weird sell (like your mom), because, a standard 3-event tournament is, basically, a two day affair (like your mom) where you watch countless people ski, and ski, and ski and you dont' really know whats going on or why you should be interested.

A wakeboard event is cool, but, again, what are we looking at?

It doesn't really propagate itself properly to an arena environment because the runs are so long, right?

Its dudes, or chicks doing big flips.  And unless your Dallas Friday in the ESPN Body issue (dudes amirite /high five), its kinda hard to follow the competition aspect of it.

Jumping is, probably the most baller of the individual disciplines because there is no leeway in any way.  Its, I got farther then you and I win.  No judges, no wondering about the 1/4 ball, no "did he grab on the whirlybird, no nothing.  Just balls out flight/speed/insanity.

So, you would think this would be a natural for the conversion to a TV audience.

Well, yes and no.  There is no "head to head" aspect to it, in the shorter attention span-ish nature, of a tv audience right?  We kinda need something instant.  not, say, 15 minutes of this person skiing, then 15 minutes of this person and then maybe they go farther.

NO!  I need this.

Freddy - 220
"OH SHIT!"

Dodd - 221
"DAAAMMMNNNN"

Freddy - 215
"BOOOOOO"

Dodd - 225
"BOOOOOOM"

Freddy - 230
/dies of blood loss to my body

*sorry Dodd, we love you, but, this scenario fits our narrative better*

And, lets be real.

We all love what we do, in whatever form we do it, right?  And we want what we do to be big.  You could be the best show skiier in the world and would love to have that on tv.   You could be the best, whatever, open water salmon fishing two-ski with a harpoon person (ed. note - make this happen) and would want that to be big.

But, there comes a time when we should meld our minds together and package our shit to appeal to the peeps.

In steps Mastercraft.

And wakeboarders

And Freddy Fucking Krueger

And a "dead" version of jumping.

And the X-games.

And ABC TV

are you sure?

Side note: back to what we talked about at the start.  Some of us at CRB have outside jobs that preclude us from fun life stuff.  We were well aware when the #MCThrowdown2015 was happening.
We were ready to fight the remote away from customers to turn it on.

We didn't have to.  Someone wanted to watch it and turned it on without our guidance.

THATS A REALLY GOOD THING YOU GUYS!

**DEEP BREATH**

So, lets start somewhere.

ESPN, which is owned by ABC which is really Disney, which...shut up idiot.  just say what you were going to say.

Anyways, ESPN did a Sports Science thing on jumping.  Which, as a feature is awesome.  Not even just the jumping.  The sports science thing in general is dope.  Whatever, shut up!  Here is the video



yo

Yo

YO!

That was awesome as hell.

Thats the kinda shit that gets people amped.

"yeah, whatever, science is for nerds" /punches nerd in the face and/or glasses

Nonsense, that is tight as hell.  Having skied our whole lives, this is absolutely awesome.  Learned a ton, get to see our people in a great light and not a ton of slow-mo stuff.  /glares at 32 accounts DVD

Ok, neat.  So now what.  I need to be fed entertainment on a constant basis because I have never learned how to appreciate the world for the amazing kaleidoscope of amazing that it is.

That sounds like a problem that should be brought up elsewhere and not in the middle of a CRB post other voice in our head / idiots at a bar / lots of people.

So, this give people a general insight into the technical side of jumping, maybe a layer of understanding of the sport that they didnt know.

And this is really really important, gaining an understanding of how hard, how much goes into and how difficult it is to really compete / perform at a high level in whatever it is you are doing.  Right?  If you just see a video of Freddy or Dodd or Bojan (/winks at the krista) you would think, "sure, thats cool but just go farther or whatever.

Its the same thing in, say, basketball.  You see it on TV and you think to your self, "Jesus Dude, I could have made that shot!!"

No you can't.  Its really really.

Really.

Hard.

/mom joke.

To be the best in ANY sport, basically means you are the best of the best.  The (top gun quote) of your peers.  When you see a college football game and thing, "damn, that dude is good" and gets not a sniff at the pro level.

Thats the people whose name we know.

Freddy, Ryan, PATRICE GOD DAMN MARTIN, Parks Bonifay...the people who are better then the best that there is.

These people have worked harder, have sacrificed more, have more natural ability then anyone, have beaten themselves up on a daily basis to become something more then just a jackass behind a keyboard and have actual skill!

This doesn't apply simply to Freddy btw. But, you have to admit, he is without question the greatest waterski jumper guy ever.  Right?  Sammy Duvall is a god, but, Freddy has to be Thanatos...the Greek god of Death.  Our dude just stomps people out and has been doing it for like..what...eternity now?

Freddy NO!  BAD FREDDY

Lets get back to business.

The #MCThrowdown2015, thats laborious to type out.

That event though, showcased the best that our sport has in wakeboarding as well, from known names like Harley Cliffor to Rusty Malinoski and Bob Soven to names we didn't know like Shota Tezuka and Mike Dowdy.

It also had a bunch of fun gibberish to keep action going whilst the real action was getting ready to go.

And.  This is what brings us to our main point about why this was awesome, why this was a success and why this could be a...neigh...while this SHOULD be a model to follow for our future.

Lets delve in:

One of the more odd success stories in recent time is the Big Dawg style slalom tournament.  The head to head aspect of skiing.  Which, at its core is so simple, but, from the inside looking out we can see how it was a hard aspect to accept.

Waterskiing tournaments are, typically, You get your time on the water and you do your best then you go chill and see how the other competitors do.

In the Big Dawg, the bracket style, you go head to head with some other person and whomever wins continues on.  NCAA Bracket style.  So simple, yet, hard to implement into a sport that is inherently NOT a head to head thing.

To that end, one of the most fun tournaments (skiing part, not party part...thats always LA night jam 2011, was the Malibu Open in 2013 (we are pretty sure) where they ran a head to head slalom-off before the jump part.

YO! Slalom is baller as shit when people fight head-to-head.

ANYWAYS!

In the X-Games #MCThrowdown, it was wakeboarding head to head, and it was.

DOPE AF

Personal antidote time: We work in a retail environment, and were basically killing time all saturday to get to 1:30 our time so we could watch the event.  As it happens a customer came in at like 1:20 because of-fucking-course they did.  So we kept a eye on the TV anyways to try and make sure we caught what was going on.

And god bless someones heart, at 1:30 a different customer switched the channel to ABC to watch the X-Games.

We weren't aware that the wakeboarding was going to be a thing, we thought that it was just Freddy going off and we were wrong and so happy to be wrong.

The style of the competition was great.  One run, four tricks, beat the other person was riveting.

No bullshit, we had people who had no idea what was on TV asking what it was, why it was, and asking for clarification as to what was going on.

BECAUSE IT WAS INTERESTING!!

THEY WANTED TO KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON!!

THEY WERE WATCHING PRO-WAKEBOARDING ON A SATURDAY!

We were happy to oblige, btw, and it felt good to show people, both customers and fellow employees that "This is what I do, this is why I spend my money, and this is what I think is cool" and they bought in!

We saw alot of this.

/Flip

other person "whoa, that was cool"

us: "damn, that was cool!"

Other person: "what are they going to do next..WHOA!! THAT WAS COOL!"

us: /high-fucking-five

Thats it!  Thats what it take y'all!

Then we get Freddy, and the image that Mastercraft Instagrammed at the top of the page. The main event, so to speak.

Side note again: A number of years ago, first or second LA Night Jam (we think)  (note: LA Night Jam 2009 - we were there and had the most fun ever at a thing we didn't compete in) Freddy won and got the mic and was the most gracious person, thanking the sponsors, thanking the people that came out and imploring us all to support our sport.

It stuck with us, it was beautiful.  He seemed, at least to us, to appreciate his place in our sport and appreciate everything around him and what that it has allowed him to have.

To that end, we mentioned in 2009 (click above link) about how we can package our sport and by-god-damn if we haven't maybe, just maybe, figured it out.

So, when it was Freddy that was on ABC TV, we couldn't have been happier.  We don't know him to the point where we could say hi and he would know who we are (or would he??? lol)  Just kidding, he has no idea who we are, but, man, if there isn't a better person to be the face of that aspect of our sport then Freddy we don't know who.

But, thats all besides the point.

It was an hour and a half of skiing on TV and how do you keep the people of the world interested in your sport, how do you keep a TV show going.

And lets be clear.  This was a TV show.  Not a show case for waterskiing.  This was a TV show, those in charge had to make it bad-ass so people would watch.  Its not a charity case, its not, lets see what happens.

Its time to make something, package something that is something that people want to see.

So what do they do???

They tease a Freddy long-ass jump, to keep us intrigued.  They had a bracket style wakeboard event and in-between they had CRAZY NONSENSE!!

Ok, wakeboarding and jumping, thats nice but what else.  Lets make this extra nuts:

-Crazy people on motorcycles riding into the water!
-Big bag things that launch people into the water
-ESPN production
-Fantastic profiles of the skiiers

SHIT THAT MAKES US WATCH!!!

So, it was packaged as such.

*coming out of commercial*
/some crazyness
-Some dude wakeboarding his ass off
-His competitior wakeboarding his ass off
-One dude loses!!
-Announcer tells us that "Dude A" goes against "Dude C" when we get back.
/some other crazy shit
*cut to commercial

Yo!  I'm ready for some more!

This goes on for a bit and then....

Freddy is a shark?

Its time for  "dead" version of jumping.

Ski Flying is really cool but, probably not something that is scalable for the masses as we all don't have a million horse power boats and manic tendencies, but, man is it the SHIT when you see it live....on TV.

Those of you who have seen real pro-jumping live, you know there is nothing like seeing the best jump in the "normal" capacity.

Especially, and we use this alot, but, sit shore side and watch Freddy and Dodd.  The difference is striking.  Science vs. Strength, making love to the ramp vs. killing that motherfucker.  Freddy is a ballerina whereas Dodd is a Boxer punching that shit to death with his feet?

Whatever, we use those two guys as examples.

Lets be honest now, there is a real big dissonance between a regular tournament and something that is to be packaged and shown on tv.  Its a real tough thing to do.

As we said, a 3-event tournament, or a wakeboard tournament or whatever style of skiing isnt desigened to be easily packaged and shown on tv.  It takes time to make it right (like your mom), and that is no fault of anyone.

Its just the nature of our beast.

So, maybe, lets not try and figure a way to make our biggest tournaments into something they are not.  Its not appointment television to watch the US Open or the Masters or anything like that, because its all damn day.  Its not a real thought to expect people to tune in all day for that.

But, lets extrapolate out.

What are our best events.  Wakeboard head to head.  Night Jump.  Night Slalom?

It comes down to, we think, distilling our sport and our tournaments into a "finale"

Jump Off, Slalom Off, Wakeboard Off, Beat Off, Skurfer Off, etc.

And this is maybe not, again, mega real TV, but, something that can be packaged and sold/promoted/broadcast on something like regular espn or any number of streaming only channels.

And for that matter, whats to say there isn't a USA Waterski TV channel that is, say, youtube only or Apple TV or something like that???

Point being, Mastercraft and the X-Games have given us a treasure map, so to speak, a trail route that we can take or not at our own volition.  Something we can...and by we I mean, the royal we.  Someone, or something, or some entity can take this idea and RUN with it.

Every element in the world that we need to make something to take to the masses is allready here, in your bindings, in your computers, in your brains, in our talent pool out there allready!

Our boy Marcus Brown is doing something out of the box with Flow Point, and its a start, but to get people around their TV's and/or their computers, its going to take an extrapolation of what we saw on Saturday and we are so excited to see that come to fruition.

Because on a small spectral scale, we had people who knew nothing about nothing watching it and enjoying it.  Imagine if it became a thing and people kinda knew about it more, they would tell their friends and they would tell their friends and next thing you know, we could be as big as mens tennis!!!

I'M Looking For #HellaKnowledge Of #MCThrowdown2015 PT. FORE

My only daughter wants #mcthrowdown coverage. wifi here is bitchin!

USE YOUR LEGS FOR STRENGTH

I'M Looking For #HellaKnowledge Of #MCThrowdown2015 PT. TREE

Searching for #mcthrowdown2015 coverage.  Its out there

I WANT TO BELIEVE

I'M Looking For #HellaKnowledge Of #MCThrowdown2015 PT. TWO

have you seen coverage of the #mcthrowdown2015?

GOOD WORK BILL, YOU OUT PUNTED YOUR COVERAGE

I'M Looking For #HellaKnowledge Of #MCThrowdown2015 PT. ONE

I'll Find It Here Somewhere

SWEATPANTS IN THE SUMMER...SHAKE OFF THE HATERS

Freddy is a Beast!

Not only did Freddy jump 312 feet, not only does he have all aspects of the water skiing world talking about his feat, but he got skiing back on tv!  That is the biggest accomplishment of the day.  We need to figure out how to build off the model that Mastercraft used to get skiing back on ESPN and continue to push our sport forwards.

While this program was mostly just wake boarding, the main attraction was indeed Freddy booting a record.  Jumping is by far the most exciting event in 3 event today.  Slalom is great if you are a skier, but it means nothing to the casual viewer.  It is impossible to convey how hard it is to run a pass at 39 off.  Tricks is my favorite event, but how do you sell a trick skier throwing a incredibly difficult ski line 5 when wake boarders are throwing 900s and 1080s?  But jumping!  Nothing out there on the water matches the insanity of hitting a ramp at over 60mph and flying over 200 (or 300!!) feet.

Freestyle'n

Tommy Bartlett Jump Act 2015 from Joe Sawaska on Vimeo.
Tommy Bartlett Show 2015
Wisconsin Dells WI

Vid Day Thursday?

Vid Day Monday

WSWC Landing from Jaret Llewellyn on Vimeo.

Vid Day...Thursday? Sure Why Not

I grew up in the era of neon wetsuits and tricky slalom.  Spent many an hour beating the shit out of myself on the water trying to do flips, tick tocks and side slides on a slalom ski.  I never did get very good at it...But these guys did.

Summer Time Radness... check out what we were up to on the water over Summer- Enjoy
Posted by Ikon. on Sunday, March 8, 2015

Vid Day Monday

Who wants to buy a winnebago?

LOOK AT THIS GOAT!

HAHAHA.

Goats are awesome.

Buttermilk!  Quit jumping on your friends.

I need a goat

Waterski Haikus!!

*we made up a bunch of haikus about waterskiing, its fun, you should try!*

WAKEBOARDING

"I can see your mom from here" - Dallas Friday

Shimmering in flight

Launches off wake, twisting, spinning

Its a whirleybird!

TRICK SKIING

Dominant waterskiier or psycho killer?

The pink ski slices

Skiers are felled with vengeance

Blood pools in binding

TECHNOLOGY

Splooosh

In a split second

Calibrations are entered

Perfect pull each run

SKI GEAR

That is this persons actual skin

The severed hand lies

Abandoned in the ski bag

PHEW! its just a glove

TRAILERING BOATS

NO, TURN THE WHEEL TO THE RIGHT!

Left, Right, Curse, Right, Left

Jack knife, forward, backward, yell

Fun at boat landing

SCOT ELLIS

Scot Ellis 360 on CNN

Gray fox approaches

Duct taped ankle askew

Prepares for liftoff

TRICK SKIING

Accurate feeling learning trick skiing

Faceplant, god damnit

Catch edge, faceplant, god damnit

I hate trick skiing

BUOY BALLS!

I CONTROL YOU R LIFE

Floating, orange and proud

Guiding skiers to great heights

And to hellish depths

NEW HOTNESS: Waterskiing on Fish

This is it.  This is going to revolutionize the water ski industry.

Renewable energy fish water skiing.

You heard it here first, Fish Skiing, the wave of the future.

Vid Day Monday

Cool way to start wake surfing.  Not cool hair.

Chain of Records

So a bunch of show skiers got together in Florida about a week ago and tried to break a bunch of show ski records.  While at first I thought this was kinda lame I have come around on it.  Mostly because this looked like a fun time, don't really care about the records as much as having a good time on the water.  I did notice they did not try to challange Rowboat Abides record of most beers drank while clearly too drunk to get out of his rocking chair while waving a shotgun at young whipper snappers or ODBF's record of most time spent doing nothing of any value while getting paid.


Thats a lot of footers!



And some swivel yard sales



/flip
//flip flip
///flips while flipping



40 people on the pylon of a triple rig...looks like a smooth ride.

Vid Day Monday

This is my short line style as well.  Kill it 50% of the time every time.

Wilson Bros Pro Model

Vid Day...Tuesday? Sure Why Not

Why the 2013 Moomba slalom finals?  Because I just watched it and its...well its slalom...

Vid Day Monday

Why ski a 6 ball course when you can swerve it up on a 8 ball course?

Moomba Webcast Looks Good

You said it andrewhill393, bring on the jump!

How good does the scenery look at Moomba!  If you aren't watching the webcast, you need to get on it.  Its awesome.

Its the later part of winter for most of the U.S and its miserable, and any break is awesome.  Its also, nighttime and we are watching it on a big ass TV and it makes us feel like its summer time.

Waterskiing > snow

watch it now here L i N k

Vid Day Monday

New ski vid coming out?  sweeeeeet

Ski Racing is for Crazies

143 mph ski racing crash.  I cant think of anything I would like to do less on the water than ski race.  This sport is for the crazies.

Vid Day Monday

The Wilson Brothers have been putting out bad ass vid after bad ass vid.  This one is one of the best so far.

Easy to Love

This is a scene from Easy To Love starring Esther Williams.  Apparently she was known for doing all of her own stunts, So yes, that is her hitting the ramp and hanging from the helicopter.   This vid is a great example of how good the Cypress Gardens show ski team was.  And, they also seem to have had about 75 jump ramps.

Vid Day Monday

Marcus Brown has been working on a new project, Flow Point TV, and putting out some pretty sweet vids.  This vid got me thinking of Jamie Beauchesne and how he compared downhill skiing to slalom.

Vid Day Monday

Jump, more jump, hella more jumping!  This is how a ski video should be done, drop all the stupid slow mo bs and show us some sweet ass sweet skiing!!  DO IT.

Super Hydrophobic Metal COULD Make Our Boats Insanly More Efficent

from sploid.com

Sploid.com, this is a fantastic blog out there on the internets that, if you aren't, you should be visiting on a daily basis.  That being said, today they had a post about a super hydrophobic metal that makes water "bounce" off its surface in a really cool way.

How, and...what???

Sploid people actually read a long ass research paper about this entitled, "Multifunctional surfaces produced by femtosecond laser pulses" link...nerds

I know...some of those words.  But, long story short, some smart ass scientists shot lasers onto some metal and made it defy physics.

Break it down sploid!

Scientists at the University of Rochester have created a metal that is so extremely hydrophobic that the water bounces on it as if it were repelled by a magic force field. Instead of using chemical coatings they used lasers to etch a nanostructure on the metal itself. It will not wear off, like current less effective methods.

CRB: "word?"
Scientists: "word"

The lead scientist says that 'the structures created by their laser on the metals are intrinsically part of the material surface' so they will not disappear over time, like current chemical coatings do.

DAMNNNN!

DAMMMMNNN!!  THAT IS CRAZY

Right??

So naturally, our first thought was, "yo, can you get me a diet yoohoo?  and also, what if...one of these scientists like...you know...lasered up the bottom of a ski boat??"

And we thought we were pretty smart, but, turns out, there are some other smart people out there that comment on blogs they read, and it was brought up in the comment section of the post that WE ARE REFERENCING!

Ignore the odd double posting, but, doesn't this sort of thing make one think of a perpetual motion type device?  If water is instantly repelled away from the "hull" or the surface, one would sort of logically conclude that the boat or item would either, constantly move forward, or at least...in a sense..hover over the water.

Therefor, it would...almost, have zero friction, and be amazingly efficent.

Now, we all know that perpetual motion machines violate the first or second law of thermodynamics, thereby making them, theoretically impossible.  However, that doesn't change the initial constuct of our thought here, in that...imagine this.

and...while we do this brain exercise, we have a variety of factors to think about.

Imagine

• A boat that, in a sense, hovers of the water and is propulsed forward by whatever motor it has.
• You would think that, in this sense, the motor is only pushing the "weight" of the boat and not, in theory pushing the resistance of the hull against the water

Now, with that in mind, lets think of a couple things.

• would this be, even, a stable boat?  Take a typical ski boat and the bottom of it, barely touches the water.  does it...
• Tip from side to side at the slightest breeze or a Natty ice rolling from side to side?
• Does it make a wake?  
• If so, is it normal?  What sort of issues does this bring up?
• Does it, say, push the water away at a normal amount and produce the same sort of wake you would expect but, without actually touching the water?
• so many bullet points

Lets not delve to deep into the what-ifs here. 

Lets look at this from a strickly pragmatic standpoint. 

And also, without any science to back ANYTHING up that we are going to hypothesize. 

A normal 21 foot ski boat, be it your boat or our the CRB's skimasterbu, has a drag coefficent of...lets say, 50 percent of total engine power output.  Ok?  for the sake of this silly argument. 

Meaning, 50% of the power from the motor goes to forward momentum and 50% goes to breaking the bonds of what the water and the environmental factors and your fat ass friend who is a total creep whenever Gina wants to wake surf. 

So, if laser etching the hull of a boat can produce less drag, one would assume ALL OTHER VARIABLES REMAIN CONSTANT OK, that one would see a drastic improvement in the efficiency of ones per gallon / per day / per unit of whatever, of your time in a boat either skiing, drinking, dicking around or whatever people do in their boats. 

boink boink boink boink boink 

So, lets look at some numbers. 

From AAA.com the average price of a gallon of premium gas is $2.466

And say, for example, you go through 10 gallons on a typical day of #LakeFrolic 

That means, you spent $2.466 x 10 = $24.66 in gas.  

Ok, thats not to bad, because you did get to peep Maria wearing her bikini, so, that doesn't seem to bad.  HOWEVER, say in an average season you ski, three times a week?  and if a "summer" is 4 months, thats....

4.2 weeks a month x 4 months = 16.80 weeks x 3 days a week = 50.4 ski days.  

50.4 ski days x 24.66 in gas = $1242.84.  

Extrapolate that over a year (assuming you are rad and ski all the time) you are looking at...

$1232.84 x 3 = $3728.59

Now we are talking about actual money!!!  

Assuming again, that a laser etched boat saves you the entirety of that drag coefficent that we talked about before, what it does is gives you a 50% increase in efficiency, you would then be looking at a savings of.....

**calculator noises**

$3728.59 / 2 = $1864.30

Thats alot of dimp!!

$1864.30.  For some thats not a ton of money, for alot of us, thats a few months rent, or for a few co-workers we may or may not know...thats a couple weeks of blow. 

Your shoe and nestle quik game is tight, son

Ok, well, lets say you aren't concerened with your money situation and your suger daddy pays for everything, looking at you University of Central Florida Girls

Anyways, say your concern lies more with the environment.

Which is a wonderful thing to be concerend about, we all live here, lets take care of our shit.  However, it may be a fruitless enterprise, as maybe we don't affect things as much as we think...guess, what, we are all going to die and we strive to be awesome and in a Silvia Plath sense, its stupid that we do.

WHATEVER!  you have a desire to leave the place better then when you found it.

Lets look at that.

Via BoatCarbonFootPrint.com, one gallon of a gas is roughly equal to about 20 pounds of C02.

So, lets use our formula from above ok?  Again, using 10 gallons of gas per #LakeFrolic!

That means, 10 gallons of gas x 20 Pounds of C02 = 200 pounds per #LakeFrolic  

Ok, that seems pretty high...

4.2 weeks a month x 4 months = 16.80 weeks x 3 days a week = 50.4 ski days.  

50.4 ski days x 200 pounds of C02 = 10,080 pounds of C02.  

Extrapolate that over a year (assuming you are rad and ski all the time) you are looking at...

10080 pounds of C02 x 3 = 30,240 Pounds of C02!

Wow, that seems like an awful lot of C02.  And this doesn't even include the gas bag you work with on a daily basis that either farts that out or spews that from his/her mouth!

So, again, assuming that 50% reduction with the laser boat, your looking at..

30240 / 2 = 15120 pounds.

Thats, probably, to many pounds of C02!

For arguments sake, there are...we don't know....50,000 boats that average that many gallons / time on the water?  thats a savings of 756 million pounds of C02!

Thats SO MANY pounds!!!  That has to be a good thing!

my boat needs to be "laser'd"

This entire exercise is totally hypothetical, but, what it can show is a couple things.

1) While we focus so much on the efficiency of engines, there are really smart poeple out there doing things that, if we think slightly outside the box, can utilize their findings in much more fun ways!

2) Waterskiing in totality, will always have an uphill climb because at its core we are not an efficient sport.  We use alot of gas, have high powered boats, make alot of noise and generally don't really conform to the ethos of our time.  Our show ski boats have upwards nowdays of 900 horsepower, our wake surf/ski boats have 1000 some pounds of weight in them to make huge wakes and are powered by enormous motors.  We are not an efficient / environmentally sport.

However, that is not an attack or in any way a Taylor Swift sideways eye at the way in which we do our business.

This is more a thought process on what can be done in the future.

Technology and the advancements in both materials and the way in which they are utilized will both make for a fascinating look from the outside in, as well as a boon for those of us who, occasionally, get out and get wet and get after it.

Confucius noted that, "Study the past if you would define the future"

The history of boating, of all technology is giant leaps forward on the backs of smart people who find new and better ways of doing things.  The history of boating is equivalent to this, boats became lighter, more powerful, more efficient, more accommodating, and more fun...

There are things out there to reshape / redefine the future of our boats that we treasure, and its fun to look at the various things that may lead to a brand new way of thinking about them.

This Guy is Better Than You at Life

Hard to think about water skiing when its this damn cold out, so how about some bad ass snow skiing?

Vid Day Monday

Its cold out, I can't think about water skiing without getting sad this time of year, so how about some snow skiers getting destroyed?

Darts Are More Exciting Than Water Skiing?

Check out the crowd going ape shit in this video of a perfect 9 dart 501.  They are way more amped up then I have seen any crowd at any tournament including the LA Night Jams.  What are we doing wrong?  How can darts get these kind of crowds?