-The Club
The Saint Mary’s Water Ski & Wakeboard Team is an official club sport in the department of Recreational Sports.
Our team has members with a variety of skill levels ranging from those who are learning to ski to those who are seasoned competitors.
The Saint Mary’s Water Ski & Wakeboard Team competes in Fall and Spring semesters, travelling throughout California, Arizona, Washington and Oregon. Tournaments are two day long events and include slalom, trick, and jump events. We are active members of the Western Collegiate Water Ski Region and its Northwest Conference.
-How do Competitions Work? (About Water skiing)
The Saint Mary’s Water Ski & Wakeboard Team competes in three events, slalom, trick, and jump, against the 18 other schools in the Northwest Conference: Sac State, ASU, Cal Poly, Santa Barbara, UCLA, UC San Diego, San Diego State, Western Washington, UC Davis, Chico, Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, USC, Univ. of Arizona, Univ. of Oregon, Univ. of San Diego and the Univ. of Washington
Each event is divided into separate men and women's categories. There are actually two teams: The "A" team is composed of the 5 best skiers in each event who are chosen by the team captain in the meeting before each tournament. Anyone who doesn't make the "A" Team can ski on "B" Team. Skiers on the "B" Team can neither help nor hurt the team, it is for their own practice and to allow them to participate in the tournaments.
<><>Slalom
The general idea in slalom is to ski around a set of balls in the slalom course. The course consists of six turn-balls, a set of gates at each end, and six sets of boat guides, which run down the middle.
The skier must pass in between (not over) the gates at each end and pass on the outside of each turn ball to receive credit for a "pass". Each time the course is completed, the boat speed is increased, and the skier is brought back through the course.
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The skier may choose to start at any speed above his/her minimum allowable speed in two mph increments (e.g. 30, 32, 34 etc). However the skier must complete the opening pass to receive credit for the speeds below his starting speed. If he/she falls on his opening pass, he/she only receives credit for the number of buoys he/she got around on that pass. Once the maximum speed is reached, the rope length is decreased: 15' off, 22' off, 28' off, 32' off, 35' off, 38' off, 39 1/2' off, 41' off. "Off" refers to the amount of rope removed from a 75' rope (e.g. 15' off is a 60' rope from boat to skier). The skier also has the option to start at any of the available rope lengths. However, the skier does not receive credit for the buoys at that length until he/she runs a full pass at the highest allowable speed.
Trick
Trick, like gymnast on the water, combines cat-like agility with Herculean strength to perform as many different tricks as possible in 20 seconds. Trick skiing is done on a ski that is 40" to 45" long and about 10" wide or done on a wakeboard. The ski has no fins, making spinning and rotation easy, but balance hard. In competition, trick skiing is scored on the tricks that the skier can do within a 20 second period. The tricks are given a pre-assigned point value, and these skier scores are used for skier placement.
Jump
Jumping is defiantly one of the most exciting events. The thrill of jumping can only be truly understood one way, to do it! Jumping is performed on two wider and longer skis with special sloped, plastic fins. The boat will drive next to the ramp. The skier cuts out and skis over the 5’ ramp. The speed at which the jumper hits the ramp and the distance of his or her jump depends on many factors. Speed into the ramp is one of them. Maximum collegiate boat speed for women is 30 mph and 32 mph for men. But the key to distance is the speed the skier travels, not the boat. The harder the skier cuts to the ramp, the more speed is generated, thus making you go farther and higher which gives you more distance.