The Editor's Notepad, July 2010

• Posted by: usaws
• On: 07/05/2010 17:53:30
• In: Scott Atkinson

The Montverde Academy (MVA) is a premier co-educational college preparatory boarding and day school. Its unique educational program aims to balance a college preparatory curriculum with an equally rigorous athletic program. Gifted athletes that have shown special dedication to their sport are allowed to fulfill their academic requirements during the morning hours and train for competitive athletics during the afternoon hours. MVA, known for its nationally-ranked boys’ basketball team, has also recently added golf, swimming and tennis academies to its athletic programs.

Leachman-LaPoint says MVA is very excited to announce that it has recently reached an agreement with the Jack Travers Ski School in nearby Groveland to serve as the water ski and wakeboard team's training site. "This will be a tremendous opportunity for water ski and wakeboard athletes to train with one of the premier coaches in the sport over the last 40 years," Leachman-LaPoint says. "The special gifted athletes aspiring to high levels in their respective sport will be allowed to attend classes during the morning hours until lunch, and then have five-to-six hours to train in the afternoon."

In addition to promoting MVA as a world-class academic institution with a world-class water ski program, Leachman-LaPoint is hoping to launch an area-wide interscholastic program in which neighboring schools can compete against each other. "The format would be co-ed teams participating in slalom, tricks and wakeboarding," she says. "It would be a competitive format, but all abilities would be welcome. We would like to have tournaments two days a week beginning in the spring of 2011. The hope is to promote growth in the sport by exposing more kids to competition."

So far, Leachman-LaPoint says she has received interest from a few Orlando-area schools. Students or parents interested in becoming part of the interscholastic program can contact Leachman-LaPoint at jll@att.net.

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Prime Seating Available For Malibu Open

The 2010 Malibu Open will take place Aug. 6-7 at Veterans Park in downtown Milwaukee, Wis. Night finals will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 7. Tournament organizer Dana Reed is offering spectators the unique chance to watch the event from the towboat that will be used to pull the skiers. Prices range from $250 for the qualifying rounds, $350 for the Elite 8, and $500 for the night finals. All money raised will be put toward the cash-prize purse for the athletes. If interested, contact Dana at (828) 612-9981 or slalom@charter.net. 

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Regina Gets An Assist From Jaret

On her way to setting a pending world overall record last month at the Cory Pickos Superstars in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., U.S. athlete Regina Jaquess jumped a personal best 176 feet (53.7 meters), which is a pending tie of the U.S. Open Women national jumping record. Regina was quick to chalk up an assist and thank you to Canada's Jaret Llewellyn (out for the season following knee surgery), who promptly loaned Regina his speed suit at the last minute after Regina mentioned she was interested in trying a new suit. Llewellyn was in attendance watching his son, Dorien, who just happened to tie the Boys 2 national slalom record of 2 buoys at 39-1/2 feet off for the second time this year.

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Superstar

Sally Montavon, 42, set a pending Women 3 national tricks record of 6,410 points at the Cory Pickos Superstars last month in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. If approved by the American Water Ski Association’s Technical Committee, the mark will surpass the current record of 6,330 points set by Montavon at the 2009 GOODE Water Ski National Championships. 6,410 points would have been good enough for fourth place at this year’s Masters!

For a listing of all pending U.S. national water ski records set in 2010, click here (PDF).

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Hoggins Competes In 2010 Diamond Race

Congratulations to Brady Hoggins, the lone U.S. athlete to compete in the 2010 Belgian Diamond Race. Hoggins competed against a star-studded field that saw British icon Darren Kirkland claim his seventh overall win in the event. Australia's Chris Stout and Belgium's Nico Bertels followed Kirkland. Hoggins finished a solid fourth, the only skier outside the top three to remain on the lead lap. Complete results can be found at www.waterskiracing.be.

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Wakeboarders Set New Guinness Record

A team of 10 wakeboard riders completed 1,448 laps for 506.8 miles in a 24-hour period to set a new Guinness World Record on June 26 at Wake Nation Cincinnati. The team that included three professional wakeboarding champions now holds the world record for most distance traveled on a wakeboard in 24 hours. Tom Bushey, Adam Errington and Amber Wing are the professional athletes that took part in the event. The distance that the team traveled is the equivalent to the distance between Cincinnati and Atlanta. "There were certain pros that we knew we wanted to have on the team," team member and co-owner of Wake Nation Pete Kennedy told Cincy SportsZone. "Tom Bushey is the king of the cable; he’s the best cable rider in the world. Adam Errington is by far one of the youngest and best in the sport, and Amber Wing is one of the greatest women’s wakeboarders out there."

Kennedy had a special reason for participating in the feat. His father-in-law, Dr. Henry Hamilton, is the head of MedLend, a non-profit organization that supplies medical equipment to impoverished countries around the globe. All of the proceeds that came from the record-breaking event will be donated to MedLend.

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Online Slalom Tournament

John Horton of ballofspray.com and Terry Bandel of ezfintool.com have put together an Internet slalom tournament for USA Water Ski members. There are four monthly – June, July, August and September/October – tournaments. "This is basically a fun, bragging rights tournament with each monthly winner winning a Ball of Spray T-Shirt and an EZfintool," says Bandel. "We hope to get a lot of entries and use the data from this year's scores to do any necessary tweaking to make it fair and competitive for all, and maybe make it bigger with more or larger prizes next year."

The entry fee is $1 each month. A skier's scores each month are the scores he or she posts in Class C or higher tournaments. The scores are "+" or "-" from their 2009 average.

For more information and to enter, visit www.ballofspray.com/vanillaforum and click on the tournament discussion link.

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A 'Ski For Kiwi' Thank you

Several of the world's top water ski athletes came together last month to conduct a benefit fund-raising event – Ski For Kiwi – for New Zealand water ski athlete Kyle "Kiwi" Eade at Champions Lake in Clermont, Fla. More than $4,000 was raised. To read a thank you letter from organizers Phil Hughes and Karina Nowlan, click here (PDF).

Kiwi, who was seriously injured earlier this year while training for the upcoming season, has made tremendous improvements on his road to recovery. He informed friends and family a few weeks ago that he would be walking out of the Burwood Spinal Unit in New Zealand on July 1 and returning to Florida with his wife, Karyn, and sons Damien and Jaeden, on July 13.

Congratulations, Kiwi! You are an inspiration to all.

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Disabled Skiers Make A Splash

Hawthorn Lake Ski Club in Danville, Ind., will host the Disabled Water Ski National Championships in August. Click here to read a wonderful article published last month in the Indianapolis Star on the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana Sports Program's annual water ski clinic.

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Video of the Month

Chris Parrish sets a new world slalom record of 2 buoys at 43 feet off on June 13 in Covington, La.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG33320qxcY.

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On Tap

* The nation's top hydrofoil athletes will be competing July 15-18 in the fourth annual USHA Hydrofoil Nationals in Windsor, Colo. More than 50 athletes are expected to compete at the four-day event at Water Valley Lakes, site of the 2008 and 2009 USHA Hydrofoil Nationals. The United States Hydrofoil Association and Rocky Mountain Hydrofoil Club will serve as the local organizing committee. Classes include Novice Under 14, Men's Novice, Women's Novice, Intermediate Men, Advanced Tech, Advanced Air, Open, Outlaw and Pro Men. For more information, visit www.ushanationals.com.

* The 44th Wisconsin State Show Ski Championships, the world’s largest water ski tournament with more than 20 teams performing, will take place July 15-18 at Lake Wazeecha in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. The Mad-City Ski Team of Madison is seeking to win its fifth consecutive Wisconsin State title. For more information, visit www.wiswaterski.com.

* The 2010 Cable Wakeboard World Championships will be held July 15-18 in Neubrandenburg, Germany.

* The nation's top barefoot water ski athletes will be competing July 22-24 in the 33rd annual Barefoot Water Ski National Championships at Mystic Lakes in Maize, Kan. More than 100 athletes are expected to compete in the three-day tournament. Barefoot athletes in 24 age divisions  ranging from 9 and under to 80 and older will compete for national titles in wake slalom, tricks and jumping. Athletes competing in all three events will be eligible for the prestigious overall titles. The wake slalom event consists of athletes crossing the boat wake as many times as possible in two 15-second passes. Tricks competitors perform as many tricks as possible in two 15-second passes. Jumpers, who are each allowed three attempts, go for distance while leaping off an 18-inch ramp. Competitors reach speeds of up to 43 mph on their bare feet. For more information, visit www.barefoot.org.

* The American Water Ski Association's respective regions will hold their 2010 championships between July 21 and Aug. 1. The Western Regionals will be held July 21-24 in Caldwell, Idaho; the Southern Regionals will take place July 28-31 in Groveland, Fla.; the Eastern Regionals will be held July 31-Aug. 1 in Penfield, N.Y.; the South Central Regionals will take place July 30-Aug. 1 in Cypress, Texas; and the Midwest Regionals will be held July 30-Aug. 1 in Wilmington, Ill. 

For additional events, check out USA Water Ski's master calendar at http://www.usawaterski.org/pages/calendar.html.

The Editor's Notepad is published on the first Monday of each month. If you have news or information you would like included, contact Scott N. Atkinson at satkinson@usawaterski.org.