Versatile Elite: The Skiers Who Have Won Professional Titles in All Three Events

Versatile elite: The skiers who have won professional titles in all three events

August 8, 2026

Modern water skiing has become increasingly specialized. The best slalom skiers are chasing fractions of a buoy at short line, trickers are pushing the limits of speed, precision and difficulty, and jumpers are reaching distances that demand an entirely different set of physical and technical skills.

That makes Joel Poland’s achievement in Calgary particularly significant. He did not simply add a professional slalom title to an already impressive résumé; he completed a feat that has become increasingly rare as the sport has evolved. Poland has spent years competing at the highest level in all three disciplines, against specialists who have never been better.

It is a club dominated by Australians, largely because Australia was the birthplace of professional water skiing. For its first 11 years, the Moomba Masters was the world’s only professional water ski tournament, before the California International Cup launched the first American professional event in 1972. Those early competitions gave Australian skiers a head start in building the kind of all-around résumés that have become increasingly difficult to replicate.

Poland is now the latest to do it.

Here are the 12 athletes who have conquered all three of water skiing’s disciplines at the highest level.

Poland celebrates his maiden professional slalom victory (image: @johnnyhayward_photo)

Joel Poland

Confirmed professional titles (2021-Present): 35 — 1 slalom, 2 tricks, 15 jump, 17 overall

Poland’s arrival is perhaps the most fitting addition to the group because versatility has been the defining characteristic of his career.

After a breakout 2021 season in which he broke the world overall record and became embroiled in one of the great modern overall battles with Dorien Llewellyn, Poland has gone on to win four consecutive WWS Overall Tour season titles, remaining undefeated since 2022 and setting nine world records.

The Brit has also developed a reputation as one of the sport’s most innovative and exciting trick skiers, inventing multiple new flips while consistently featuring on professional trick podiums. In jump, he has established himself among the best in the world, winning back-to-back Waterski Pro Tour season titles and the 2025 World Championship.

Until Calgary, though, there was one conspicuous omission.

Slalom.

The water skiing world had few doubts about Poland’s ceiling in the event, particularly after his redemptive and dramatic entry into the 41-off club at the 2023 World Championships. He had found his way onto multiple professional slalom podiums, but gold had eluded him.

That changed at the Rocky Mountain ProAm.

After tying Charlie Ross at 3 @ 10.25m (41′ off) in the final, Poland took the runoff when Ross fell coming out of five at 10.75m (39.5′ off). Poland then completed the six-buoy pass to claim his maiden professional slalom title.

The reaction made clear what the victory meant. Poland had won almost everything else there was to win. Now he could finally say he had won professionally in all three events.

At 27, there is still plenty of time for 35 titles to become a much larger number.

Jaquess is arguably the greatest water skier of all time, male or female (image: @regina_jaquess)

Regina Jaquess

Confirmed professional titles (2000-Present): 84 — 72 slalom, 5 tricks, 5 jump, 2 overall

If Poland’s inclusion is new, Regina Jaquess has been sitting in the club for years.

It is difficult to find a more complete résumé in the history of the sport. Jaquess won her first World Championship title in tricks at 17 and went on to win five World Championship overall titles, along with 19 World Championship medals and three Pan American Games overall titles.

Slalom, however, became the foundation of her career.

She has broken or equaled the women’s slalom world record nine times and has held the record continuously since 2009. She has run 10.75m more times than every other woman combined and has won more than 60 percent of the professional slalom tournaments she has ever entered.

Her professional record now stands at 84 titles.

That includes five professional trick titles, five in jump and two overall titles, enough to make her the only woman this century in the three-event professional club.

Her longevity is almost as remarkable as her dominance. Jaquess has continued to win professional titles into her 40s while also running a business outside the sport.

Poland joining her in this particular club feels appropriate. Both are skiers who have spent much of their careers refusing to be defined by a single event.

Karen and her husband Mick made up one of the sport’s greatest duos through the 1980s (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Karen Bowkett Neville

Confirmed professional titles (1979-1993): 26 — 3 slalom, 9 tricks, 2 jump, 12 overall

Karen Bowkett Neville was one of the central figures of Australia’s golden generation and one of the greatest overall skiers of the 1980s.

She won the World Championship overall title in 1985 and 1991 and stood on the overall podium at four consecutive World Championships. Her influence extended beyond her individual results, too, as she helped lead Australia to three consecutive runner-up finishes in the team competition from 1985 through 1989.

The Moomba Masters was where Neville was particularly dominant. She won eight overall titles and accumulated 20 titles across the four disciplines, placing her alongside Kaye Thurlow Faulkner as the most successful skier in the history of the tournament by total victories.

Her versatility was not an accident. Tricks were arguably her strongest event, but she was capable of winning wherever she competed, including overall victories at both the U.S. Masters and U.S. Open.

She remains one of only six women to have won the World Championship overall title more than once.

The Queen of Water Skiing (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Deena Brush Mapple

Confirmed professional titles (1977-1993): 99 — 25 slalom, 1 tricks, 58 jump, 15 overall

Deena Brush Mapple’s résumé is enormous even by the standards of this group.

Known as the “Queen of Water Skiing,” the American spent 25 years at the top of the sport, winning back-to-back World Championship overall titles in 1987 and 1989 and collecting 15 World Championship medals.

Her dominance at the U.S. Masters was even more striking. She won 20 titles across slalom, jump and overall, including 14 after the event became professional in 1985. In women’s overall, she lost only once at the Masters between 1985 and 1993.

Jump was her defining event. She won four World Championship jump titles and broke the world jump record five times, pushing the mark from 39.3 meters (129 feet) in 1979 to 47.5 meters (156 feet) by 1988.

But she was hardly a one-event skier.

Brush Mapple also broke or tied the world slalom record five times, won three U.S. Masters slalom titles and claimed a Moomba Masters slalom title. She even won the overall season championship on the PAWS Budget Rent-a-Car Waterski Tour in 1990.

Her presumed 100-plus professional titles remain one of the largest totals in the history of the sport.

Mick Neville

Confirmed professional titles (1981-1990): 15 — 2 slalom, 8 tricks, 1 jump, 4 overall

Mick Neville was the last man to accomplish what Poland just did.

Neville was one of the great trick skiers of the 1980s, winning the Moomba Masters trick title seven times and appearing on every World Championship tricks podium from 1981 through 1987.

He was also a formidable overall skier, winning two World Championship silver medals in two of the closest overall races in the history of the tournament.

His greatest season came toward the end of his career in 1990. Neville won overall at the U.S. Masters, took the tricks title at the U.S. Open and added two tour victories on the Michelob Dry Waterski Tour, one in slalom and one in jump.

That was enough to give him professional victories in all three events.

It took 36 years for another man to join him.

Todd’s comeback season in 1975 was an almost instant success (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Cindy Hutcherson Todd

Confirmed professional titles (1977-1988): 25 — 10 slalom, 2 tricks, 9 jump, 4 overall

Cindy Hutcherson Todd was one of the defining figures of professional water skiing before the U.S. Pro Tour fully took shape.

After stepping away from the sport as a teenager, Todd returned to competition in the mid-1970s and immediately made up for lost time. In her comeback season in 1975, she broke the world slalom record and won the Open Women’s title at the U.S. Nationals.

Over the course of her career, she would break the slalom record four more times, moving the mark from 2 @ 12m (35 off) to 2 @ 11.25m (38 off).

Her versatility was remarkable. Todd won three World Championship slalom titles, four U.S. Masters overall titles and eight Masters titles across slalom, tricks and jump.

She was also a seven-time World Championship medalist and one of the great overall competitors of her generation.

Image: Yvon le Gall

Mike Hazelwood

Confirmed professional titles (1977-1987): 50 — 3 slalom, 2 tricks, 39 jump, 6 overall

Mike Hazelwood is perhaps the most obvious example of how many great jumpers begin as talented overall skiers.

The Brit became one of the biggest names on the professional circuit during the 1980s, winning jump in three of the first four seasons of the Coors Light Water Ski Tour. But his career began much earlier as an extraordinary three-event skier.

Hazelwood won the men’s overall title at the 1977 World Championships and remained a fixture on the World Championship podium for the next six years. He won eight consecutive European overall titles from 1976 through 1983 and four consecutive U.S. Masters overall titles from 1978 through 1981.

One of very few skiers who can sincerely say they conquered the Yarra River, Hazelwood won titles in slalom, tricks, jump and overall during his golden run in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That included setting his first world jump record at Moomba in 1980 and an incredible five consecutive Moomba overall titles from 1977 to 1981.

Image: Graine de Sport

Bruce Cockburn

Confirmed professional titles (1970-1978): 14 — 5 slalom, 3 tricks, 4 jump, 2 overall

Bruce Cockburn was a prodigy in tricks before becoming one of the best slalom skiers and jumpers of his generation.

He won the World Trick Championship in 1969 and helped pioneer tricks such as reverse toe turns that would become staples of the event. As his career progressed, he shifted toward slalom and jump, eventually becoming a dominant force on the Yarra River.

When professional skiing got a foothold in the United States, Cockburn became the first Australian to regularly compete abroad, winning multiple titles at the California International Cup in the mid-1970s.

His 14 professional titles were spread across all three events and overall, making him one of the earliest examples of the kind of versatility that would become increasingly difficult to find as the sport specialized.

Kaye Thurlow at the 1969 World Water Ski Championships

Kaye Thurlow receives her Australian team blazer for the 1969 World Championships in Denmark (image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS)

Kaye Thurlow Faulkner

Confirmed professional titles (1968-1977): 23 — 2 slalom, 5 tricks, 7 jump, 9 overall

Kaye Thurlow Faulkner was one of the dominant women of the early professional era.

She represented Australia at five consecutive World Championships from 1967 through 1975, collecting eight medals across tricks, jump and overall. She also competed in the 1972 Olympic demonstration in Munich, finishing second in tricks, jump and overall.

Her greatest stage was the Moomba Masters.

Thurlow Faulkner won 20 titles on the Yarra River, including eight overall championships. To this day, no skier has exceeded her record haul of Moomba Masters victories.

In the early years of professional skiing in the United States, she also tasted success. At the 1976 California International Cup, she narrowly missed a clean sweep after falling in tricks to Florida’s Pam Folsom, but took the slalom, jump and overall titles.

image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS

Colin Faulkner

Confirmed professional titles (1965-1970): 4 . 1 Slalom, 1 Tricks, 1 jump, 1 overall

Completing the second husband-and-wife duo on this list, Colin Faulkner was a mainstay during the first decade of the Moomba Masters, winning jump in 1965, slalom and overall in 1967, and finally tricks in 1970.

It may be tempting to dismiss his achievements as coming at a far-flung tournament that was still in its fledgling years, but Faulkner’s victories came against visiting superstars such as Chuck Stearns, Mike Suyderhoud and Ricky McCormick throughout the late 1960s. They were no small feats.

Faulkner also set an unofficial world slalom record in 1966, before the IWWF kept official records, with two buoys at roughly 13 meters (32 off) and 61 kph (38 mph). It came in the last year before the men’s top speed was reduced to 58 kph (36 mph).

During this period, he also became the first Australian to win a World Championship medal, finishing runner-up in men’s slalom in both 1967 and 1969.

Image: Waterski and Wakeboard Australia

Margaret Calvert

Confirmed professional titles (1963-1967): 10 — 2 slalom, 3 tricks, 3 jump, 2 overall

Margaret Calvert was the greatest champion of the early years of the Moomba Masters.

In 1965, she became the first, and to this day the only, woman to sweep the Moomba Masters, winning slalom, tricks and jump and, naturally, the overall title.

She came close to repeating the feat in 1967, again winning all three events, although the overall title ultimately went to South Africa’s Deidre Barnard under the scoring system used at the time.

A professional show skier who honed her craft at Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens, Calvert’s winning streak across the Moomba Masters and Australian Nationals during her short competitive career remains unmatched.

Colin Birmingham 1961 World Championships

image: VINTAGE WATER SKI PHOTOS

Colin Birmingham (1962)

Confirmed professional titles (1962): 4 . 1 Slalom, 1 Tricks, 1 jump, 1 overall

At the second edition of the Moomba Masters, Colin Birmingham became the first, and to this day the only, man to sweep a professional tournament.

Admittedly, Moomba was effectively a local derby in its first two years. It was not until 1963 that organizers managed to lure big names from abroad, including Hall of Famers Jimmy Jackson and Chuck Stearns.

But Birmingham was a mainstay of the Australian team from 1961 through 1967 and won four Australian titles. His sweep in Melbourne established the standard that every subsequent member of this club would strive to meet.

More than six decades later, Joel Poland has joined him.

Note: The records of professional wins from the last century are incomplete, and despite extensive research, some totals are almost certainly undercounts.

Joel Poland Makes History at a Rocky Mountain ProAm Full of Drama

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Joel Poland makes history at a Rocky Mountain ProAm full of drama

Image: @bearwitnesssportsphotos

By Jack Burden

August 5, 2026

For a tournament making its debut, the Rocky Mountain ProAm did not lack for material.

There were world-record performances, national records, personal bests, a runaway winning streak extended, a handful of bone-crunching crashes and, at the center of it all, a professional water skiing milestone more than a decade in the making.

Joel Poland finally won a professional slalom title.

Poland had already done almost everything there is to do in professional water skiing. He has won world titles, professional jump titles, overall titles and trick titles. He has been the dominant overall skier of his generation and, in recent seasons, the best jumper in the world. Slalom, however, had remained the conspicuous omission from his résumé.

It took a fairly chaotic final to change that.

Poland opened the men’s slalom final with 3 @ 10.25m (41 off). It was a good score, but not one that seemed likely to hold up. Poland himself looked frustrated after failing to turn the third buoy and missing the opportunity to push farther down the pass.

Then the specialists started skiing, and one after another they failed to beat him.

Charlie Ross, celebrating his 21st birthday, matched Poland with 3 @ 10.25m, continuing a remarkable 2026 season in which the Canadian has established himself as the dominant force in men’s slalom. With Will Asher still waiting on the dock, however, it looked as though the veteran might once again find a way through. Asher had posted the best score of the preliminary rounds, 5 @ 10.25m.

Instead, Asher popped the handle around one at 10.25m.

He came out of the water with both hands raised, seemingly unable to believe what had just happened.

That left Poland and Ross tied for the win and headed into a runoff.

Ross went first and looked to be cruising through the opening 10.75m (39.5′ off) pass before falling coming out of five. Poland then had six buoys standing between himself and the title. He made no mistake.

The celebration that followed said more than the result itself. Poland threw his arms into the air and celebrated on the water with the kind of emotion that comes when something has been sitting in the back of your mind for a long time. He had finally won a professional slalom title.

The victory also completed an unusually difficult three-event résumé. Poland became only the second skier this century, after Regina Jaquess, to win professional titles in slalom, tricks and jump. The last man to accomplish the feat was Australia’s Mick Neville over 35 years ago.

For a skier whose career has been built around being good at everything, it was a fitting box to finally check.

Tricks were just as good

The men’s trick competition produced some of the biggest numbers of the weekend, beginning with Matias Gonzalez’s 13,140-point performance in the first preliminary round. The score is pending as a new world record and continued a remarkable run of record-level tricking from Gonzalez this season.

He did not win the tournament.

Jake Abelson took the final, but only just. Thirty points separated Abelson from Gonzalez, a margin smaller than a side slide, in another men’s final contested around the 13,000-point mark. Abelson’s 12,820 was enough to beat Gonzalez’s 12,790 and give him his fourth professional victory of the season.

The depth of the field was notable, too. Dominic Kuhn broke 11,000 points in qualifying, setting a new personal best and Austrian national record, while Gonzalez and Abelson once again showed that 13,000-point performances are becoming less of an anomaly and more of a regular feature of elite skiing.

The women’s trick event was similarly deep.

Five women broke 10,000 points across the two preliminary rounds, something that had never happened at a single tournament before. Neilly Ross opened the weekend by setting a new Predator Bay course record with 10,280 points, only for Erika Lang to move the mark to 11,310 in the second round.

None of it ultimately mattered in the final.

Ross was the first skier to break 10,000, but Anna Hunter edged her by 40 points. That left Lang, who had just scored 11,310 in qualifying, with a chance to win the tournament. Instead, she fell on her second flip and finished well short of the score she had produced the day before.

Anna Hunter took the win with 10,500, just ahead of Ross at 10,460.

The most interesting number from the weekend, though, may have been 10,030. That was the score posted by 16-year-old Alexia Abelson, who broke 10,000 points for the first time and became just the eighth woman to reach the mark.

That list is getting longer.

Jaquess is still the standard

Women’s slalom offered another familiar result, although the way the weekend began suggested that it might not be so straightforward.

Jaimee Bull had one of the standout performances of the preliminary rounds, running 3 @ 10.25m and setting both a new personal best and Canadian national record. She matched Regina Jaquess’s score, and for a moment it looked as though the tournament might finally produce a different winner.

Bull could not repeat it in the final. She pulled up short at 3 @ 10.75m, leaving Jaquess in position to win yet another tournament.

Jaquess did exactly that, running 1.5 @ 10.25m to take her fifth professional slalom title of the season.

The 42-year-old remains undefeated in professional slalom in 2026. She may not appear at every event on the schedule, but when she does, the standard in women’s slalom still seems to move with her.

Jaquess also finished third in women’s jump, giving her another podium across the weekend.

Another win for Danisheuskaya, another for Poland

Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya began finals day by doing what she has done at every professional event she has entered this season: winning. Her victory in women’s jump extended her unbeaten run to all six professional events she has entered in 2026.

Poland followed with his first win of the day, taking men’s jump ahead of Luca Rauchenwald.

Poland jumped 64.4m (211′) in the final, enough to hold off Rauchenwald’s 63.3m (208′). Rauchenwald came into the event off two consecutive victories in Europe, but could not reproduce that form when the title was on the line.

It was Poland’s fourth professional jump victory of the season.

The cost of jump

For all the good skiing at Predator Bay, jump also provided the most uncomfortable moments of the weekend.

Maise Jacobsen and Damien Eade, two of the younger names beginning to establish themselves in the professional water skiing scene, suffered serious crashes that are expected to end their seasons. Will Roberts also took a nasty spill in the finals.

It was a reminder that the pursuit of bigger and bigger jump scores comes with a difficult trade-off.

The Rocky Mountain ProAm produced some spectacular skiing. It also produced several moments where there was nothing particularly spectacular about what happened afterward.

A tournament that still has some work to do

The skiing was not the problem in Calgary. The format was.

The best-of-two qualifying format is popular with athletes because it gives them two opportunities to put together a score and generally rewards consistency. It is much harder to make it compelling viewing, particularly when the field is small.

That problem was especially obvious at Predator Bay. In four of the six professional disciplines, there were not enough entries to require a cut to the finals, meaning everyone advanced automatically. The first two days therefore contained plenty of excellent skiing but very little that actually changed the outcome of the tournament.

For the athletes, that is probably not a bad thing. For spectators, it can feel like watching a series of practice rounds with a broadcast attached.

The distinction became obvious on Sunday.

When Poland and Ross took to the water, every pass mattered. When Asher unexpectedly dropped the handle, it mattered. When Ross faltered in the runoff, it mattered. When Poland went out knowing that six buoys at 10.75m would win him his first professional slalom title, there was no need to explain the stakes.

The same was true in tricks. Thirty points separated Abelson and Gonzalez, forty separated Hunter and Ross. One side slide could have changed either winner.

That is what professional water skiing needs more of. The skiing is already extraordinary. The challenge is creating a format that makes the audience feel the significance of what they are watching while it is happening.

Weather complicated things further. Strong winds affected Saturday’s skiing, and the Sunday schedule was rearranged so that the jumpers were on the water as the sun was still rising, followed by slalom and then tricks.

It was not an easy weekend to stage a tournament, but Predator Bay still delivered some remarkable numbers.

The Rocky Mountain ProAm was also the first event held as part of the new partnership between Nautique and Predator Bay, and the second stop of the inaugural Nautique Water Ski World Series. The series arrived in Calgary after a record-heavy opening event at Botaski and left with another collection of course records and a pending world record.

That is a pretty good start.

The next question is whether the series can turn those performances into a better sporting product for the people watching. Calgary showed that the athletes are capable of producing the drama. The next step is making sure the format gets out of the way and lets that drama breathe.

For one afternoon, at least, it did.

Joel Poland had five and a half buoys to win the slalom title he had been chasing for years. Erika Lang showed us that even the greatest of champions are mortal. Danisheuskaya put her winning streak on the line one more time. Nobody knew what was going to happen when each skier left the dock.

That is professional sport.

Water skiing can produce plenty of moments like that. It just needs more of them to feel like they matter.

Six Takeaways From the European Leg of the 2026 Professional Water Ski Season

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Six takeaways from the European leg of the 2026 professional water ski season

Image: @andrea_gilardi_fotografo

By Jack Burden

July 7, 2026

Five consecutive weekends. Five countries. Countless storylines.

From the tidal waters of Rabat, Morocco, to last weekend’s inaugural Recetto ProAm in Italy, the European leg of the 2026 professional water ski season has reshaped the outlook for the remainder of the year. With only the introductory Poti ProAm remaining in Europe later in the month, here are the biggest storylines to emerge from one of the busiest stretches of the professional calendar.

Charlie Ross is still the man to beat—but Freddie Winter has made it interesting

No athlete left Europe with a stronger grip on their discipline than Charlie Ross.

Ross won three consecutive events at Monaco, Fungliss and Botaski after opening the European swing with a runner-up finish to Freddie Winter in Morocco. His consistency throughout the season has been remarkable, and he remains comfortably atop the prize money standings.

Yet the final weekend in Italy suggested the battle may not be over.

Winter closed the European block with his third victory of the season—and arguably his most important, while Ross endured his least convincing tournament of the year, finishing sixth. Combined with Winter’s dramatic runoff victory over Ross in Rabat, the psychological momentum may have shifted slightly heading into the North American events.

Ross remains the favourite, but for the first time in months, the men’s slalom title race feels genuinely alive.

Jake Abelson and Patricio Font are taking men’s tricks to another level

Professional trick skiing has entered territory that seemed unimaginable only a year ago.

Jake Abelson won consecutive titles in Morocco and Spain while posting three pending world record performances in the span of two weekends. Even when he wasn’t breaking records, winning required scores that would have comfortably stood as world records at the beginning of 2025.

Perhaps just as significant has been the resurgence of Patricio Font.

After narrowly missing out to Abelson at the Royal Nautique Pro and producing 12,840 points without winning at Botaski, Font finally broke through at Recetto. Rather than a one-man show, the event has become a four-way arms race between Abelson, Font, Matias Gonzalez and Martin Labra, with world-record-level performances now expected almost every weekend.

A new generation has arrived in jump

The depth of emerging talent may be the biggest reason for optimism in the discipline.

Eighteen-year-old Tim Wild finished on the podium at both Botaski and Recetto while also establishing himself as one of the sport’s most versatile young athletes by competing across all three events.

In the women’s field, 18-year-old Maise Jacobsen claimed consecutive runner-up finishes behind Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya, confirming that her breakthrough is no longer a glimpse of future potential but present reality.

Neither teenager looks overawed by the professional stage.

Luca Rauchenwald has announced himself

While the teenage stars grabbed much of the attention, Luca Rauchenwald quietly produced one of the defining stories of the European swing.

After finishing third at Botaski, the Austrian broke through for his maiden professional victory at Recetto, defeating a world-class field that included five-time world champion Ryan Dodd.

The victory was made even more memorable by the circumstances. Rauchenwald set a huge target, then watched as Dodd pushed to the limit trying to answer. The dramatic final-round battle captured exactly what makes professional jump skiing so compelling: established champions refusing to yield and emerging stars proving they belong.

“I’ve been chasing this win for a long time,” Rauchenwald said after the victory. “You never want to see somebody crash, especially not Ryan… but it’s awesome to have a guy like Ryan to compete with.”

European jump has long searched for fresh contenders. Rauchenwald’s breakthrough suggests another has arrived—and he may not be content stopping at one victory.

Dodd is not ready to step aside

Dodd opened the season by winning the Moomba Masters, reinforcing that even at 41 years old he remains one of the sport’s most dangerous competitors.

The European leg did not produce the victories he was chasing, but it did produce a reminder that the competitive fire remains intact. Third at Masters, fourth at Botaski, and runner-up at Recetto are respectable results by almost any standard, but by Dodd’s own lofty expectations they represent near misses rather than triumphs.

The defining moment came in the Recetto ProAm final.

With Luca Rauchenwald setting the pace and chasing his maiden professional victory, Dodd responded by opening with a huge 70.2-metre jump. Searching for the distance needed to challenge Rauchenwald’s lead, Dodd went after an even bigger score on his final attempt. The result was a spectacular out-the-front—but also a reminder that Dodd remains willing to take the risks required to win.

“I don’t jump to win tournaments anymore. I jump to jump far,” While Dodd’s words suggested his motivation has evolved, his final jump attempt showed that the desire to win remains unchanged. When Rauchenwald put pressure on him, Dodd went hunting for the biggest jump of the day.

With a new generation beginning to emerge, the second half of the season may reveal whether Dodd can reassert himself or whether men’s jump is entering a changing of the guard.

Kennedy Hansen is becoming the sport’s ultimate all-rounder

Still in the early stages of her professional career, Hansen produced perhaps the most complete European campaign of any athlete, setting personal-best scores in all three disciplines while reaching the podium at least once in every event she attended.

In an era where professional skiing has become increasingly specialized, Hansen continues to stand apart. Her European campaign included four consecutive top-three placements in tricks, personal bests and top-five finishes in jump, and consecutive podiums in slalom at Botaski and Recetto.

The significance of her progress is not just the results—it is the rate of improvement. Hansen continues to raise her ceiling across every event, proving that her three-event ability is not simply a product of versatility, but of genuine world-class potential.

Now attention turns to the Overall discipline, where the WorldWaterSkiers Overall Tour begins this coming weekend. With overall combining the very skills Hansen has been refining throughout her young career, she enters the next phase of the season as the skier to beat.

Looking ahead

The European tour has left the professional season with more questions than answers.

Can Ross hold off a resurgent Winter? Will Abelson’s extraordinary record-breaking pace continue, or has Font rediscovered the form to stop him? Are Wild and Jacobsen already contenders rather than prospects? And can veterans such as Dodd halt the momentum of the next generation?

If the first half of 2026 has demonstrated anything, it’s that professional water skiing is entering a new era—one where established champions remain capable of brilliance, but the next generation is no longer waiting for its opportunity.

Charlie Ross is Rewriting the Standards of Professional Slalom

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Charlie Ross is rewriting the standards of professional slalom

Image: @charlieross_ski

By Jack Burden

June 30, 2026

Halfway through the 2026 professional season, the question is no longer whether Charlie Ross has become the world’s best men’s slalom skier.

The question is whether anyone can consistently stop him.

Through the first seven professional tournaments of the year, Ross has claimed five victories, finishing no worse than third while producing a level of consistency rarely seen in the history of the sport. He has already completed 10.25m (41 off) an astonishing 11 times in tournament competition this season, highlighted by a career-best 2 buoys at 9.75m (43 off) and some genuine attempts at the world record.

The numbers become even more remarkable in historical context.

Only five men have run 10.25m as many times in their entire careers as Ross has in the last three months alone. His 11 completions of 10.25m between April and June exceed the combined career totals of Andy Mapple, Jeff Rodgers and Jamie Beauchesne.

His five professional victories this season already surpass the career totals of former world champions Joel Howley and Rodgers, as well as pro tour staples including Jonathan Travers, Marcus Brown and even his father, Drew Ross.

Perhaps most impressively, Ross has won in almost every environment.

On purpose-built lakes, he has looked virtually unbeatable, claiming victories at Botas, Swiss, Monaco and Fungliss while routinely forcing the rest of the field to chase scores into 9.75m. Even in more demanding conditions, Ross has continued to perform. His Moomba Masters victory came on one of the sport’s most notoriously difficult sites, while at Morocco’s Royal Nautique Pro he produced what many considered an untouchable course record of 5 buoys at 10.25m on the tidal river.

Only one skier has consistently challenged Ross through the first half of the season: Freddie Winter.

Winter has handed Ross his only two defeats of 2026, prevailing at the U.S. Masters and again in Morocco. Yet even those losses underline Ross’s consistency. At Callaway Gardens he finished third, qualifying just one buoy shy of the tournament’s highest score. In Rabat, it took Winter matching Ross’s course-record 5 at 10.25m as the final skier off the dock before edging him in a runoff.

The minutes between Winter’s tying score and the runoff provided one of the season’s most revealing glimpses into the personalities of the sport’s two leading men.

Ross immediately lodged a video review, calmly watching officials examine frame-by-frame footage before the score was confirmed. As the protest was reviewed, he embraced Winter and reassured him, “You know I respect you.”

Winter, by contrast, embraced the theatre of the moment.

“Don’t be scared about going out again, mate,” he joked before pacing the dock, trying to burn off nervous energy while cameras followed every movement. “This is just a Charlie Ross delaying tactic so I run out of adrenaline,” he laughed as Ross quietly smiled beside him.

As they waited for the judges’ decision, Ross congratulated his rival: “That was great skiing, by the way.”

Before the score of 5 was confirmed, Winter flashed five fingers toward the broadcast cameras before playfully shaking Ross’s shoulders. “He’s shaking, he doesn’t want to ski against me again,” Winter grinned.

The contrast could hardly have been greater. Ross, composed, methodical and intensely focused. Winter, animated, charismatic and feeding off the crowd. It felt less like a single runoff than the beginning of a rivalry entering a new chapter.

Winter ultimately prevailed, running 2.25 at 10.25m in the runoff before Ross fell at 10.75m in the exceptionally difficult conditions.

Yet despite those two defeats, the first half of 2026 belongs overwhelmingly to Ross.

At just 21 years old, he has already established a new Under-21 world record of 2 buoys at 9.75m (43 off), won five professional titles and produced one of the most statistically dominant stretches the sport has seen in years. If this pace continues, the conversation by season’s end may no longer be about whether Ross is the world’s best skier today, but whether 2026 ranks among the greatest individual seasons men’s slalom has ever witnessed.

World Records Headline Inaugural Nautique World Series Stop at Botaski

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Record-breaking performances headline inaugural Nautique World Series stop at Botaski

Image: @eric.steiner.realtor.foto

By Jack Burden

June 29, 2026

The inaugural Nautique World Series could hardly have asked for a more emphatic opening statement.

Across four days of competition at Botaski in Seseña, Spain, the world’s best three-event skiers produced two pending world records, multiple course records and a string of performances that continued what is shaping up to be one of the highest-quality seasons in the history of professional water skiing.

The standout performances came in tricks, where Erika Lang and Jake Abelson continued their extraordinary 2026 campaigns with new pending world records.

Fresh from having her previous 11,560-point mark officially ratified, Lang raised the bar once again, posting an astonishing 11,710 points in qualifying before backing it up with 11,430 points to win the final. In a display of remarkable consistency, she surpassed 11,000 points in all three rounds.

The margin of victory only underlined her dominance. Reigning world champion Neilly Ross exceeded 10,000 points in every round—an achievement that would have almost guaranteed victory only a season or two ago—but still finished comfortably behind Lang.

If the women’s event showcased dominance, the men’s competition highlighted an arms race unlike anything the sport has witnessed before.

Abelson arrived in Spain fresh off a pending world record of 13,040 points at the Royal Nautique Pro and somehow found another level. He posted a pending world record of 13,050 points in qualifying before eclipsing it again with an incredible 13,100 points in the final to claim his third consecutive professional victory.

Even that wasn’t the whole story.

Former world record holder Patricio Font produced a superb 12,840-point final—now the highest trick score ever to lose a professional tournament. Joel Poland rounded out the podium with 12,160 points, a score that would have comfortably won many professional events just two years ago.

The progression in men’s tricks has become almost impossible to comprehend. Through the first five major professional events of 2026, every winning score would have been a world record at the beginning of the 2025 season. Abelson, Matias Gonzalez, Font and Martin Labra continue to force one another into world-record territory almost every weekend.

Slalom provided another reminder that two familiar names remain the benchmarks of their respective divisions.

Regina Jaquess extended her unbeaten professional season with a fourth consecutive victory, setting a new Botaski course record of 2.5 buoys at 10.25 metres (41 off). The 42-year-old once again proved untouchable, winning with a score beyond the personal best of runner-up Jaimee Bull.

In the men’s event, Charlie Ross continued his own remarkable campaign. His score of 0.5 at 9.75 metres (43 off) secured a third straight professional victory, further strengthening his grip on the top of the men’s slalom rankings after one of the most dominant first halves of a season the sport has ever seen.

Jump offered a glimpse of the sport’s future as teenagers challenged the established stars. Nineteen-year-old Tim Wild finished runner-up in the men’s event, while 18-year-old Maise Jacobsen claimed second in the women’s competition, signalling the emergence of another exciting generation of elite jumpers.

Beyond the performances, Botaski marked the official debut of the Nautique World Series, a new five-stop circuit that combines professional competition with Under-21 and Over-35 divisions.

One of the more intriguing innovations is the decision to allow eligible Under-21 athletes to compete in both the amateur and professional events. The format saw skiers including Abelson, Gonzalez, Cristhiana De Osma, Trinidad Espinal, Jacobsen and Wild ski multiple divisions across the weekend, with several collecting junior titles before returning to challenge for professional podiums.

Whether that extra time on the water provides a competitive advantage through additional familiarity with the site—or becomes a disadvantage because of the sheer workload—remains an open question. Abelson and Wild, for example, each skied 12 competitive rounds over the course of the weekend.

Whatever the answer, the inaugural stop achieved exactly what Nautique hoped to accomplish. It launched a new championship while showcasing a sport performing at a level few would have believed possible only a year ago.

Injury Sidelines Nate Smith at Royal Nautique Pro

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Injury sidelines Nate Smith at Royal Nautique Pro

Image: @swissprowaterski

By Jack Burden

June 9, 2026

Four-time world champion Nate Smith was a notable absentee from last weekend’s Royal Nautique Pro after withdrawing with a lower back injury.

Smith had travelled to Morocco intending to compete but ultimately decided against skiing after ongoing back problems failed to improve. Instead, he joined Tony Lightfoot and TWBC in the commentary booth, providing expert analysis throughout the event.

Speaking during the broadcast, Smith revealed the injury first surfaced following the Swiss Pro Slalom in early May.

“My back started to bother me… I didn’t really ski much through the month of May,” Smith explained. “I tried to give it a go at Masters. Obviously that didn’t go very well and things kind of got worse from there.”

An MRI conducted before travelling to Morocco confirmed disc and nerve issues in his lower back, with pain radiating down both legs. Given the unsettled river conditions at the Royal Nautique Pro, Smith opted against competing, saying he would instead focus on recovery before assessing whether a return for Monaco would be possible.

“Most likely, I probably won’t be skiing for a few weeks,” he said, although he remained hopeful of getting back on the water as soon as his condition allows.

The injury has interrupted a limited 2026 campaign. Smith has competed in just two professional events this season, first pushing the in-form Charlie Ross deep into 9.75m (43 off) at the Swiss Pro Slalom before struggling at the notoriously demanding Masters at Callaway Gardens, where he failed to reach the final.

During the broadcast, Smith also spoke about the challenge of balancing elite-level skiing with his work as a commercial pilot, noting that long days in the cockpit can make training particularly demanding.

“They can be if you have long days and then you get out and you try to ski a couple days in a row and then go right back to the seat,” he said when asked about the impact of time spent flying on his back.

Smith, who turns 36 later this year, won his fourth world title in 2025 but has become increasingly selective with his tournament schedule in recent seasons as he balances competitive skiing with his aviation career. While veterans such as Will Asher and Thomas Degasperi have remained competitive well into their 40s, Smith has competed less frequently in recent years. Even so, his performances late last season and at the Swiss Pro earlier this year demonstrated that, when healthy, he remains capable of contending with the world’s best slalom skiers.

For now, however, Smith’s focus is on recovery, with his return to competition dependent on how his back responds over the coming weeks.

Jake Abelson Sets Pending World Record to Capture Royal Nautique Pro

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Jake Abelson sets pending world record to capture Royal Nautique Pro

Image: @shotbythomasgustafson

By Jack Burden

June 8, 2026

A world trick record has not been set during a professional tournament since 2001.

Twenty-five years later, Jake Abelson may have ended that drought.

Abelson delivered a staggering 13,040-point performance to win last weekend’s Royal Nautique Pro in Morocco, eclipsing the current world record of 13,020 points that he established in 2025. While the score remains pending ratification by the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation, it stands as one of the greatest trick runs ever performed in tournament competition.

The achievement was made all the more remarkable by the venue.

Unlike the glass-calm conditions of a purpose-built ski lake, the Royal Nautique Pro is contested on the tidal Bou Regreg River, where current, wind and rebound from the riverbanks create constantly changing conditions. Those factors make trick skiing—and especially world-record-level trick skiing—exceptionally difficult.

Abelson had little choice but to attack.

After former world record holder Patricio Font posted an enormous 12,690 points, Abelson needed a near-perfect run to secure victory. Rather than skiing conservatively, he upgraded the sequence from the routine that earned him last year’s world record, replacing a 130-point toe sideslide with a more time consuming 150-point toe wake front. The additional 20 points proved decisive, lifting him to a pending world record and the tournament title.

The performance continues what has become an extraordinary progression in men’s tricks.

Ratification of world records has become increasingly challenging as margins shrink and video analysis becomes ever more detailed. Earlier this season, both Abelson and Matias Gonzalez posted pending world records that were ultimately denied following IWWF review, illustrating just how difficult it is for a record to survive the ratification process.

Regardless of whether the 13,040 points are ultimately approved, Abelson’s score reflects the unprecedented standard now required to win professional events.

The first four major professional tournaments of 2026 have produced winning scores of:

Moomba Masters — Matias Gonzalez: 12,860
Swiss Pro Tricks — Matias Gonzalez: 12,860
U.S. Masters — Jake Abelson: 12,820
Royal Nautique Pro — Jake Abelson: 13,040 (pending world record)

Every one of those winning scores would have been a world record at the beginning of the 2025 season.

After opening the year with runner-up finishes to Gonzalez at both the Moomba Masters and Swiss Pro, Abelson has found his rhythm, claiming back-to-back victories at the U.S. Masters and Royal Nautique Pro.

More broadly, the men’s trick event is operating at a level never before seen. Abelson, Gonzalez, Font and Martin Labra continue to push one another to new heights, forcing world-record-calibre performances to become the expectation rather than the exception.

Whether Abelson’s latest mark is ultimately ratified or not, one thing is already clear: in 2026, winning the biggest professional tournaments increasingly requires skiing at what, only a year ago, would have been considered world-record pace.

The End of an Era at Robin Lake

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The End of an Era at Robin Lake

Image: Masters

By Jack Burden

May 21, 2026

2026 will mark the 33rd and final edition of the Junior Masters.

Starting next year, Nautique will replace the under-18 division with an under-21 competition as part of the new World Series structure. Quietly, one of the most storied proving grounds in water skiing is being folded into something broader, more modern, and perhaps slightly less necessary than its architects imagined.

Because mixed among the professional invitation list for 2026 are teenagers and under-21 skiers who already belong.

Charlie Ross leads the pack in slalom. Cristhiana De Osma and Trinidad Espinal both debut in slalom. Jake Abelson, Martin Labra, and Matias Gonzalez are among the frontrunners in tricks. Hannah Stopnicki earned a place in women’s tricks. Kate Pinsonneault and Labra qualified in jump.

This is the landscape the Junior Masters will disappear into.

Because the strange truth is this: many of the world’s best under-21 skiers are already hardened professionals in everything but age classification.

Looking at the current IWWF rankings, every top-five under-21 slalom skier — men and women combined — has already competed in multiple professional events. In jump, it’s the same story: ten out of ten. In tricks, eight of ten have at least dabbled in the pro ranks, with one of the exceptions still under-17 anyway.

In total, 28 of the top 30 ranked under-21 skiers in the world have already competed in professional events. Several are no longer merely participating; they are winning.

The Junior Masters was originally built for athletes arriving. The new under-21 division increasingly looks designed for athletes who already have.

That is what makes the decision feel slightly disorienting. Slightly detached from the reality unfolding on the water.

For decades, Robin Lake represented a proving ground for young athletes. It was where future stars first appeared before the sport fully understood what they would become.

Regina Jaquess debuted here at just 12 years old. She would go on to win nine Junior Masters titles, including a clean sweep in her final appearance. Jimmy Siemers, Whitney McClintock, Jacinta Carroll, and Ryan Dodd all passed through the same stretch of water on their way toward era-defining careers.

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The Junior Masters mattered because it existed slightly ahead of certainty. It introduced skiers before they became lake-household names.

In practice, the timing feels curious. Men’s tricks already looks like a youth movement disguised as a professional field. Slalom’s next generation is no longer knocking at the door; they are already inside the house. The hardest invitation-only event in the sport already includes under-21 athletes across every discipline.

Which raises an uncomfortable question beneath all the restructuring:

Who exactly is the new division for?

Perhaps only a handful of skiers truly benefit — athletes too old for juniors, not yet strong enough for the pro circuit, and still needing a competitive space that feels attainable. That group absolutely exists. The problem is that the very best young skiers have already outgrown it.

And so the Junior Masters disappears at an oddly inconvenient moment for the argument against it.

Robin Lake will remain. The Masters will remain. Under-21 competition will arrive next year with a more experienced field, higher scores, and a continuation of the fierce amateur competition that formed the foundation of the Masters through its first 25 years as a strictly amateur event.

But the Junior Masters — the riveting little curtain-raiser where high schoolers first became stars — will quietly become history.

“It’s going to be an absolute slog,” Winter said.

“It’s Going to Go on Forever”: The 14-Month Grind Facing Skiers

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“It’s Going to Go on Forever”: The 14-Month Grind Facing Skiers

Image: @tiaremirandaphotography

By Jack Burden

May 10, 2026

For decades, professional water skiing followed a singular, repeatable rhythm.

There was the season. And there was the offseason.

The season was airports and jet lag and sunburn and adrenaline. The offseason was recovery. Time to let the body heal. Time to step away from the course. Time to remember, briefly, that life existed outside start docks, line lengths, and Zero Off settings.

That rhythm is gone now.

The 2027 World Championships in Mulwala, scheduled for February, have effectively turned the calendar into a never ending loop. Instead of a reset after the 2026 season, elite skiers are now staring down what Freddie Winter bluntly described as “two world years back to back.”

A competitive cycle stretched across continents and hemispheres has quietly produced something the sport has never really dealt with before at the elite level: a 14-month season.

The old model — peak in summer, recover in winter, rebuild in spring — no longer fits. Instead, skiers are being asked to maintain near-peak performance across an extended, continuous arc that runs through North America, Europe, and deep into the Southern Hemisphere summer, without ever fully shutting down.

Winter put it plainly on the TWBC podcast.

“The IWWF in their infinite wisdom has put the tournament in February less than 18 months after the previous one,” he said. “So we do have basically two world years back to back.”

Then, more tactically: “The season’s going to go on forever. We’re going to have to pull this year’s season into the following year because the last tour stop will be sometime in October or November and then two months later we’re going to be back at the World Championships on the other side of the world.”

On its own, a World Championships in an off-cycle year would be manageable. But the 2027 edition coincides with one of the busiest professional calendars in over two decades, with more titles up for grabs than in any season since 2000. The sheer density of events removes the clean psychological break that has always defined elite training cycles in the sport.

Winter’s framing keeps returning to the same place: not physical overload, but mental erosion.

“It’s going to be an absolute slog,” he said. “Mentally challenging.”

Across the elite field the physical demands are familiar. What changes here is duration. The ability to stay sharp, motivated, and emotionally engaged for more than a year without the usual offseason reset.

Which is why athletes are no longer talking about training and competing in the traditional sense. They are talking about serializing it.

“My goal is to be overall world champion in 2027,” said Louis Duplan-Fribourg. “So I’m like, okay, let’s go all in. Let’s make it happen.”

But even that “all in” is not a declaration of volume. It is a measured approach.

“We were just saying that yeah, I’m getting ready to ski for 14 months and not for 10 months as I’m usually doing,” he explained.

Then the practical reality: “You have to make choices. What tournament you’re doing, when you’re taking your days off, when you’re resting.”

That idea — making choices — has become the theme of this new era. Not every event can be treated as essential. Not every entry is worth the cost. The calendar no longer allows full participation without consequence.

Kennedy Hansen, one of 2025’s breakout stars, learnt this lesson the hard way after a marathon season.

“I didn’t really stop skiing,” she said, reflecting on her buildup to the 2026 season.

After choosing to compete at the 2026 Moomba Masters, she was forced into the same recalibration many athletes now face. It speaks to a sport where “offseason” has already begun to blur into continuity.

So her response has been to break the year apart deliberately, not as a single training block but as a series of managed pauses.

“I’m going to ski through the overall tournaments and all the Water Ski Pro Tour tournaments,” Hansen explained. “Then I think after that I’ll take a few weeks off, ski a little bit and then maybe take a few weeks off again.”

“But just try to spread it out so I’m not skiing the full year.”

Serialized training has become the new modus operandi. The offseason is no longer a season — it is something distributed across the calendar, inserted between events that are now too closely packed to allow for traditional recovery windows.

Winter himself plans to spend significant time training in Australia during the northern winter, hoping to avoid the traditional January reset where he admits he often returns needing to “lose a lot of weight,” rebuild strength, and rediscover timing on the water.

“What I don’t want to do,” he explained, “is start from zero.”

All of this is being shaped by a Southern Hemisphere stretch that, for younger athletes in particular, leaves almost no room for pause. January brings Under-21 Worlds in Peru. February brings the Open World Championships in Australia. March brings Moomba Masters. Three major events. Two countries. Two continents. One continuous competitive block.

For northern hemisphere athletes, this creates a challenge that has never really existed before: preparing for peak summer performance while physically located in winter, and then carrying that form across multiple continents without the usual reset.

It is also expensive. Winter has been open about the fact that Australian trips often become “money-losing” exercises once travel and accommodation are accounted for. Which, in a sport without deep prize purses, feeds back into decision-making about which events are even viable to attend.

“I’m probably not going to go to Moomba next year,” he admitted. “I’ll be so exhausted and mentally drained having gone through Christmas and not had any sort of an offseason.”

“I’m probably going to get Worlds done and then fly home and forget about water skiing for a few weeks.”

And there is an uncomfortable asymmetry running through all of this.

The 2027 Worlds will be only the third Open World Championships ever held in the Southern Hemisphere. The previous two — 1965 in Surfers Paradise and 2013 in Santiago — both still sat within late-autumn schedules, October and November respectively, that largely favored northern hemisphere preparation cycles. Even when hosted in the south, timing and structure meant northern calendars still defined the peak.

The hemisphere imbalance is not just theoretical. Only 2 World Championships (out of 39) have been held south of the Equator. Yet Southern Hemisphere athletes have won 22 world titles and over 10% of all medals — consistently competing at events timed more comfortably for their northern counterparts. Australia, despite hosting only once, sits fourth on the all-time Worlds medal table, ahead of countries like Italy and Great Britain, who have hosted far more frequently.

It is a quiet pattern in the sport: when the calendar bends, it usually bends toward the north.

There is a broader irony here. The sport is arguably healthier than it has been in years. More events, more depth, more visibility, more professional opportunity than at almost any point in its modern history.

“That’s also the beauty of it,” Duplan-Fribourg said. “Battles are going to be fierce every weekend.”

He is right.

But beauty in sport often comes with cost. And in this case, the cost is time — stretched, compressed, and redistributed until the idea of an offseason begins to dissolve entirely.

What remains is not a season in the traditional sense.

It is something longer, flatter, and more demanding. A calendar that does not reset so much as continue.

And for the first time at the elite level of water skiing, that continuity is not an advantage or an ambition.

It is the problem everyone is trying to solve.

Edit: corrected a typo in the number of countries

Joel Poland has set a pending Overall World Record (number 9 for Joel) at the Ski Fluid Classic in Florida, USA.

World Records in April? Water Skiing’s 2026 Season Is Already Out of Control

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World Records in April? Water Skiing’s 2026 Season Is Already Out of Control

oel Poland has set a pending Overall World Record (number 9 for Joel) at the Ski Fluid Classic in Florida, USA.

Image: Johnny Hayward

By Jack Burden

April 28, 2026

Every water ski season begins with optimism.

Someone spent the winter visualizing a new gate. Someone found ten extra feet in the gym. Someone swears the new ski is different this time. Spring in central Florida is built on these small acts of faith.

Most years, April offers hints.

This year, it has offered a warning.

In the space of barely ten days, central Florida has produced pending world records in men’s tricks, women’s tricks, men’s overall, U21 men’s slalom, and U17 girls’ slalom. It has produced a trick skier who seems to have decided that 12,000 points is now simply his normal operating temperature. It has produced a women’s trick field where 10,000 points no longer feels like a headline, just the price of admission.

The sport has not eased into 2026. It has kicked the door off its hinges.

Trick skiing has entered its arms race phase

The loudest noise came first at Swiss Pro Tricks.

At times over the last decade, women’s trick skiing has felt like Erika Lang’s private territory, the kind of dominance that makes everyone else look like they’re playing a slightly different sport. In Clermont, she reminded everyone of that again, posting 11,610 points—a pending world record and her fourth consecutive Swiss Pro Tricks title.

“As if four consecutive titles weren’t enough,” the Waterski Pro Tour posted, “she also set a pending world record with 11,610 points.”

Normally, that would have been the week’s definitive women’s story. But Neilly Ross refused to leave it there.

At Swiss Pro Tricks, Ross ran three identical scores of 10,550—three rounds that were, by her own reckoning, a split-second timing decision away from 11,300. Days later at the Sunset Lakes EyeTrick Invitational, she removed the ambiguity entirely: 11,480 points, another pending world record if Lang’s is not approved.

“Beyond excited to put up this score especially this early in the season,” Ross wrote afterward, “and I can’t wait to try to keep pushing.”

That last part should concern everyone else.

Because behind Lang and Ross, the floor is rising too. Kennedy Hansen broke through with a personal best of 10,170. Alexia Abelson pushed to 9,490 at Swiss Pro Tricks and 9,740 at Ski Fluid, while also tying the U17 world slalom record with 3 at 10.75m (39.5 off).

Jake Abelson is making 12,000 look boring

The most dangerous sentence in trick skiing right now might be this: Jake Abelson scored another 12,000.

Because that sentence no longer surprises anyone.

At Swiss Pro Tricks, there were ten men’s scores over 12,000 points, with Abelson and Martin Labra both tricking over 12k in three consecutive rounds. Matias Gonzalez won with 12,860—a pro tournament record and his third straight Swiss Pro Tricks title—but even there, the larger story was the density of excellence.

The ceiling wasn’t just rising. The whole room was.

Then Abelson kept going.

At Sunset Lakes, he tricked over 12,000 again—four consecutive rounds. Then at the Ski Fluid Classic, he went 13,270, a pending men’s world record that eclipsed the current 13,020 mark and leapfrogged Gonzalez’s own pending 13,240 from earlier this season.

Ten consecutive rounds over 12,000 points in eight days.

That number deserves to be read twice.

For years, 12,000 was the frontier, the score that separated contenders from theorists. Abelson has turned it into background noise. He is not chasing the edge anymore; he is moving it.

And the terrifying part for everyone else is that this doesn’t look like a hot streak. It looks like a new baseline.

Joel Poland may have ended the overall conversation

World overall records are usually acts of patience.

A buoy here. Forty trick points there. Half a meter in jump after six months of trying. The record tends to move by inches because it has to—three events leave very little room for dramatic leaps.

Joel Poland ignored all of that.

At Ski Fluid Classic, he put together the kind of round overall skiers spend entire careers imagining: 3 at 10.25m (41 off), 12,160 trick points, and 71.4 meters (234 feet) in jump.

A pending world overall record. If approved, his ninth.

But more than that, it felt like a declaration.

After years of incremental improvement, Poland didn’t inch the mark forward—he leaped over it. This was not survival overalling, scraping enough in one event to support brilliance in another. This was near-best-level skiing in all three disciplines at once.

“I’ve been chasing a record like this for years,” Poland wrote. “3 huge scores in the same round. Feels absolutely insane.”

It should.

Because this is the kind of record that changes the psychology of a discipline. It doesn’t just set the standard; it makes everyone else recalculate what is even realistic.

For the rest of the current men’s overall field, the target may now feel less like a record and more like a distant weather system.

The Ross family is apparently not interested in moderation

While Joel was rewriting overall math and Jake was redrawing trick boundaries, Charlie Ross quietly produced one of the scariest slalom tournaments of the year.

At April Turns on Lake Ledbetter, he ran 2 at 9.75m (43 off), a pending U21 world record and Open Canadian record. More ominously, he ran 10.25m (41 off) in three consecutive rounds and looked, by his own admission, like he left more out there.

“Felt close to WR… 👀”

That emoji may be the most threatening punctuation of the spring.

Because 43 off is never an accident. Repeating 41 off is even less so. This wasn’t one miracle pass. It was the profile of a skier who has moved into a different category.

And in a family already producing world records through Neilly, it feels almost unfair.

Florida has always been full of talented ski families. Some seasons, though, one family starts to feel like its own federation.

A season that already feels too big for April

Sports are at their best when records stop feeling exceptional.

Not because records matter less, but because expectations change. The audience recalibrates. Athletes recalibrate. What looked impossible six months ago becomes the thing you’re annoyed not to see.

That is where water skiing seems to be heading.

Women’s trick is becoming a record race. Men’s trick is turning into a weekly escalation. Overall may have just been blown open by one absurd round. Slalom’s next generation is running 41 off and hinting that it should have been more.

Usually, April is for possibility. This year, April has looked like prophecy.

There will be bad weekends. There will be missed gates, edges caught, tailwinds, and all the usual reminders that water skiing remains gloriously unreasonable. Not every pending record will survive paperwork and video review.

But that almost misses the point.

The point is that the sport already feels faster, higher, and less polite. The point is that ten days in central Florida made the rest of the 2026 season feel like required viewing.

And if this is what spring looks like, summer might get ridiculous.