2013 Nationals To Be Held In West Palm Beach, Fla.

USA Water Ski and the American Water Ski Association are pleased to announce that the 2013 GOODE Water Ski National Championships will be held Aug. 13-17 at Okeeheelee Park in West Palm Beach, Fla. The 71st Nationals will be hosted by the Ski Club of The Palm Beaches.

For the schedule of events, click here (PDF). Note: The finals of the 2013 Nautique Big Dawg World Tour, presented by O'Brien, and the Nautique Senior Tour will take place on Thursday and Friday during the Nationals under a separate sanction.

The Ski Club of The Palm Beaches has hosted 12 Water Ski National Championships, five Southern Regional Water Ski Championships, two Florida State Water Ski Championships and the 1989 Water Ski World Championships – in addition to a handful of professional cash-prize tournaments and hundreds of other amateur water ski tournaments – over the past 25 years. It most recently hosted the 2008, 2009 and 2012 GOODE Water Ski National Championships. For more information on the Ski Club of The Palm Beaches, visit www.okeeski.com.

More than 600 of the nation's top water ski athletes from across the United States will compete for national titles in slalom, tricks, jumping and overall in respective age divisions and two Open divisions. Advancement to the Water Ski National Championships – the world's largest three-event water ski tournament – is primarily earned through placement on the national rankings list. Athletes also can qualify for the Nationals by placing in the top-five at Regionals or by placing in the top-five at the previous year's Nationals.

The first national championships was held in 1939 at Jones Beach in Long Island, N.Y. Except for three years during World War II (1942-1944), the Nationals has been held every year since 1939.