Kaiafas Water Ski Resort, host of the Kaiafas Battle ProAm in 2022 and 2023, has reopened after a dispute over the site temporarily halted operations earlier this year. The resort, operated by George and Tasos Hatzis as part of Hatzis Waterski Paradise, has hosted numerous national and international events over the past three decades.
The Kaiafas Battle ProAm quickly became a fan and skier favorite on the Waterski Pro Tour in its first two editions, thanks to the event’s scenic location, large crowds, and party atmosphere. Allie Nicholson, who ran her first-ever 10.75m (39.5’ off) at Kaiafas last year, spoke glowingly of the event on the TWBC podcast, saying, “It was a party all day long.” She added, “After last year, I thought, ‘How could it get bigger?’ and it got bigger.”
Similarly, Freddie Winter, who made history in 2023 alongside Will Asher and Nate Smith when all three ran 10.25m (41’ off) in the same round, called the tournament the best event of the last two years alongside Moomba. “The standard they set is really high, and I don’t think any other event is matching it at this point.”
Many of the sport’s top athletes took to social media to support the Hatzis and expressed their disappointment when the event, planned for July 13-14, had to be canceled earlier this year. “I was planning an even bigger and more exciting 2024 Kaiafas Battle, filled with new ideas and challenges,” shared George Hatzis after announcing the cancellation. “However, since January, my efforts have been diverted due to a dispute with competitors trying to take over the Kaiafas site. As a result, the site remains closed, and there simply isn’t enough time to prepare for the event.”
The cancellation caused a reshuffling of the European leg of the Waterski Pro Tour, with the inaugural Oxfordshire ProAm moving up a weekend to accommodate athletes’ travel schedules.
However, this week Hatzis announced that the site was reopening, sharing, “We are so excited to announce to our friends that our paradise is now open to welcome you back!” The announcement was met with excitement and anticipation for a return to the Waterski Pro Tour in 2025. Current leaders Jaimee Bull and Will Asher both referred to the announcement as “the best news,” while the injured Freddie Winter expressed his excitement to return to the event next year.
Hatzis remains optimistic for the future, sharing, “We look forward to welcoming you back next year for an even more spectacular competition.” It sounds like he is not the only one looking forward to the 2025 Kaiafas Battle ProAm.
The 10th edition of the San Gervasio ProAm, the longest-running professional event in Europe, will host the best slalom skiers in the world from July 5-7. In an exciting development, the 2024 event will feature some of the best up-and-coming female athletes in a head-to-head junior challenge.
Four of the top six ranked under-17 women in the world will travel to the event to battle it out for cash prizes sponsored by Radar Skis. Matteo Luzzeri, who organizes the event, shared the inspiration behind including the Junior Challenge, now in its 5th edition, alongside the pros: “The idea has always been to mix the future of the sport with professional skiers while skiing in a format that is rarely implemented outside professional events.”
While previous editions have featured both junior girls and boys, schedule conflicts have prevented the same high-level participation on the male side as in previous years. This prompted the organizers to prioritize showcasing some of the rising stars of the sport on the women’s side.
“We are extremely excited to host some of the very best junior girls in the world for this Junior Challenge,” shared Luzzeri. “Although we’ll miss seeing the top boys, the girls’ tournament has all the premises to be the best one yet!”
Luzzeri noted that the girls-only edition of the Junior Challenge will allow the cash prize to be doubled for these competitors. Representing four different countries, Christiana De Osma (Peru), Vittoria Saracco (Italy), Ines Sole (Belgium), and Alexia Abelson (USA) will go head-to-head in what may serve as a preview of the upcoming Under-17 World Championships in Canada early next month.
This will be the strongest field assembled in under-17 girls’ slalom so far in 2024, with the Junior Masters’ Florida-centric qualification criteria effectively excluding European juniors (four of the current top 10 live and train in Europe, compared to just two from the US).
Alongside these promising juniors, the best professional slalom skiers will chase valuable Waterski Pro Tour points as we pass the halfway point of the season. Jaimee Bull, Will Asher, and Team Syndicate are off to strong, but not yet unassailable, leads on the Tour. It will be crunch time for the other contenders to try and knock them off their perch.
The picturesque venue, Jolly Ski, located in northern Italy, is a favorite among pros and amateurs alike. The ski school is a popular training ground for some of Europe’s most promising juniors and is home to the internationally sought-out Jolly Clinics.
Four countries, four tournaments, 10 days, and $150,000 in prize money—the busiest week in water skiing took the best slalom and trick skiers through a whirlwind tour of Europe.
The journey began on Wednesday and Thursday in Marrakech, Morocco, continued on Saturday and Sunday in the foothills of the Alps in eastern France, then moved to the French Riviera just outside of Monaco on Tuesday and Wednesday, and concluded near Madrid in central Spain from Friday to Sunday.
For trick skiing, the professional season has now concluded, while slalom has just crossed the halfway point, with clear leaders starting to emerge from what had begun as an uncharacteristically fragmented season.
In men’s slalom, which saw four different winners across the first four events, a clear leader for 2024 has emerged. The 41-year-old veteran Will Asher picked up three consecutive victories across Marrakech, Fungliss, and Monaco. Asher is now firmly in the lead on the Waterski Pro Tour and has finished no worse than runner-up in each of the six events he has competed in this season. Not only did the Englishman consistently finish on top, but he also did it in style, running 10.25m (41’ off) in both Marrakech and Monaco.
Another major storyline in slalom is the dominance of Team Syndicate, with skiers representing HO Skis claiming over 50% of podium finishes (12 out of 21) and all seven slalom titles across the four-tournament sprint. Jaimee Bull continued her dominance from last season, pulling ahead on the Waterski Pro Tour leaderboard. Rob Hazelwood and Allie Nicholson each won an event, with strong performances from Frenchman Sacha Descuns.
In tricks, world champion Erika Lang returned to her winning ways after a disappointing Masters. The American posted scores over 11,000 points in both Monaco and Spain, finishing her season with four wins out of five and setting a record for the highest score by a female in professional competition. In arguably the best form of her career, Lang has won seven out of nine professional events over the last two seasons, including a World Championship, Pan American Games, and an extension of her world trick record.
On the men’s side, 2024 has been anything but predictable, with intense competition in one of the fastest-evolving fields in the sport. The Chileans dominated the European leg, with 16-year-old Matias Gonzalez claiming his second win of the season in Monaco and 18-year-old Martin Labra following up his Masters title with a win in Spain.
The European leg continues through July, with the 10th edition of the San Gervasio ProAm (July 5-7), the inaugural Oxfordshire ProAm (July 12-13), and the first stop of the WWS Overall Tour for 2024, the WWS Salmsee Cup (July 27-28).
World champion Freddie Winter has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2024 season after sustaining a serious leg injury in the final of the Monaco Slalom Cup. The British skier was chasing a high score set by his compatriot Will Asher when the accident occurred.
Following the incident, Winter shared on Instagram that he had “a significant broken leg bone, but [was] in good hands.”
Winter needed a complete pass at 10.25m (41’ off) to challenge Asher’s lead. He managed to clinch a runner-up placement with a score of 4 at the pass before an uncontrolled lean into 5 led to a collision with a nearby dock. An ambulance was called to transport Winter to a nearby hospital.
This incident underscores the challenges and dangers of shortline slalom. Just last weekend, Jonathan Travers almost suffered a similar fate when the rope caught on his ski during a fall, wrenching it from him. Travers was fortunate to escape with only bruising and rope burn.
The year is 2011. Barack Obama is in his first term as US President, LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” is at the top of the charts, and the iPhone has just become the most popular smartphone in the world. In the world of tournament water skiing, the brand new Nautique 200 is in its second year of production, and a 31-year-old Belarusian is challenging one of the longest-held records in the sport.
On the same day that Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot, Aliaksei “Ace” Zharnasek tricked 12,570 points at a record tournament at Lake Hancock in Florida, breaking Nicolas Le Forestier’s decade-long hold on the men’s trick record.
Until 18 months ago, Zharnasek’s mark seemed unassailable. The only skier to come close was Ace himself, who, during one remarkable period, set five pending records from 2015 to 2017. However, each application was rejected by the IWWF after review, where every trick record is subject to immense scrutiny.
Fast forward to 2022. At 42, Zharnasek, now an all time great, has faded into retirement, and the new kid on the block is young Patricio Font from Mexico. On the eve of Halloween, Font eked out an extra 20 points to break the longest-standing open record in the sport, which had stood for 11.5 years.
Since then, it has been as if the floodgates have opened. Font has started to consistently score in the high 12,000s, and a new generation of trick skiers is starting to push up toward 13,000 points. How has the most stagnant event in water skiing, with only a single record broken from 2005 to 2022, suddenly become one of the most competitive and fastest-evolving fields in the sport? To find out, we spoke to skiers at the forefront of this evolution.
With a water ski pedigree that includes two elite-level skiers as parents and none other than Patricio Font as his cousin, this American-Canadian-Mexican teenager has had a stratospheric rise through the first half of 2024. He broke 12,000 points for the first time to clinch a runner-up finish at the Swiss Pro Tricks and followed that up with two world record-setting performances over the next month.
Abelson draws inspiration from a variety of sources: the speed and efficiency of Font’s hand pass, the boundary-pushing tricks of Joel Poland, and the blistering pace of Matias Gonzalez and Martin Labra’s toe tricking, to name a few. Far from occurring overnight, the sudden rise in trick scores is the product of “the collective knowledge” of generations of skiers and coaches who have laid the blueprint.
With other skiers demonstrating what is possible, the process becomes relatively straightforward. “At a high level, more speed is required to add another trick or upgrade an existing one,” shared Abelson. For him, this has meant “learning to perform my runs at a higher pace without losing composure, as well as building the endurance necessary to trick at a high level for the entire 20 seconds.” On his signature wake-seven-front, “I spent the winter practicing and repeating” to fit that trick in time.
Perhaps no skier moves faster on a trick ski than the young Chilean, the current Under-17 World Champion and winner of the 2024 Swiss Pro Tricks. Gonzalez’s toe run plays out like a sped up tape, and now with a whole host of ski line tricks added to his repertoire over the winter he is ready to challenge the best of the best.
“To consistently trick over 12k, the most important thing for me was to focus on speed,” shared Gonzalez. He too is following in the footsteps of those who paved the way before him, learning from past legends such as Cory Pickos and more recent stars like Patricio Font. “Pato showed that 11 tricks on hands were possible, that set the new standard for everyone coming up.”
The two-time world champion and former world record holder’s résumé would be impressive for any skier, doubly so for one so young. Patricio Font has been the standard bearer for this new generation of trick skiers, breaking a slew of records on his way up through the junior ranks.
Speaking on how trick skiing has evolved even during his tenure at the top of the sport, Font attributed recent gains to everyone pushing the field higher and higher. He shared on the TWBC podcast, “I think now trick skiing has changed so that to win, you kind of have to do the world record or come close to it because you’ve got everyone chasing behind you.”
The Chilean three-event phenom has forged a different path to the top of the tricking world, earning comparatively more points through toe tricks than many of his contemporaries. With innovations like the ‘reverse’ toe-wake-five-back and his metronomic efficiency and speed, Labra is now the highest scoring toe tricker in living memory. Fresh off his victory at the 2024 US Masters, the most decorated skier in the history of the Under-17 Worlds is ready to make his presence felt on the professional circuit.
“In my case, what helped me a lot was being with Mati [Gonzalez] since we were like 4 and 2,” shared Labra, who credits close competition with other rising stars in the sport for the dramatic rise in trick scores. “I think we helped each other to be better… we started pushing ourselves to a better level.” Labra emphasized that this is not solely about competition, but also about camaraderie and friendship. “Starting to know each other and be close to each other helped in a good way to improve the scores in tricking”
While the proliferation of Latin American trick skiers among the elite ranks is undoubtedly one of the key storylines of the past few years, one skier is working hard to maintain France’s historical dominance in the event. The current world overall champion, Duplan-Fribourg, is perhaps the most well-rounded of the new generation of trick skiers. Capable of both a hand run over 7,000 points and a toe run at 5,500, there doesn’t appear to be any weaknesses in the Frenchman’s routine.
“New trick combinations [are the key] for me,” shared Duplan-Fribourg. This includes both following successful trends, such as the now-ubiquitous mobe-mobe-half jack sequence, and thinking outside the box, like adopting the unconventional “French” run, which seamlessly intersperses big-ticket ski line tricks with a front flip in the middle. Ultimately, it is all about finding sequences that work for you. His other key: speed in toes. For Louis, that is what makes or breaks a 12k trick run.
Things have come a long way since April 2021, when the Waterski Pro Tour unveiled a new website and social media campaign to promote professional water skiing. At that time, water skiing, along with many other professional sports, was still reeling from the impact of a global pandemic, which restricted international travel, event attendance, and sponsorship opportunities.
Today, 1,145 days later, the Waterski Pro Tour is in its fourth season and has heralded a blossoming of slalom events across North America and Europe. In 2024, the Tour is expanding even further with its first-ever event in Africa – the K1000 Marrakech Pro.
The picturesque city in Northern Africa will host the world’s best slalom skiers from June 19-20, kicking off a run of four professional tournaments in less than two weeks that will see the world’s best travel to Morocco, France, Monaco, and Spain in rapid succession.
Vincent Stadlbaur, who is organizing the event alongside Hicham and Kamil Belmrah, shared that the goal of the tournament is for the athletes to have a great time both on and off the water, aiming to make the event as festive as possible and giving the skiers an opportunity to experience the local culture.
Expanding into a new continent is a significant step for the Waterski Pro Tour, which has proliferated in North America and Europe but has yet to take hold anywhere else until now. Speaking on the incredible growth of the Waterski Pro Tour since its inception, Stadlbaur attributes much of this to a “snowball effect.” With a few core tournament organizers showing others what is possible, they inspire others to follow suit.
“Events are more and more filled with high-level competition, which inspires other event organizers,” shared Stadlbaur. The TWBC President also emphasizes the value webcasts can add by broadcasting events to a wider audience, providing a greater value proposition for sponsors.
The K1000 Marrakech Pro, a midweek event, will be live on Wednesday and Thursday morning for the American audience, potentially offering better fan engagement for those busy skiing themselves at the lake each weekend.
In the women’s event, Jaimee Bull will have the opportunity to pull away to an early lead in the season standings in the absence of veterans Regina Jaquess and Whitney McClintock Rini. However, expect stiff competition from the likes of Allie Nicholson, Manon Costard, and Venessa Vieke.
On the men’s side, all four individual event winners so far in 2024 will be vying for dominance in what is shaping up to be one of the most competitive fields in over a decade.
Regardless of the results, Stadlbaur sees the event as a success story, marking important progress in the Waterski Pro Tour’s mission to promote water skiing across the globe.
The 2024 Masters Water Ski and Wakeboard Tournament was marked by a series of alarming crashes during the Junior Men’s jump event, prompting former world record holder and world champion Clementine Lucine to voice serious concerns about the competition’s safety.
“Every year, incidents occur that seem to disturb no one, leaving me perplexed and, frankly, terrified at the thought of getting my own children on jumpers and maybe sending them to jump there one day,” shared the 18-time Masters competitor.
The event started on a troubling note when Japan’s Jo Nakamura, the first competitor, flirted with the right corner before imploding on the ramp. A few skiers later, German Tim Wild also clipped the corner and ended up sailing upside down through the air. Despite these dramatic crashes, both Nakamura and Wild managed to recover and post competitive scores.
The tumultuous round continued with French favorite Tristan Duplan-Fribourg, who was in a tight battle with Jake Abelson for the overall crown. Duplan-Fribourg found himself under pressure after a pass on jump number one. On his second attempt, the young Frenchman failed to get his right ski onto the ramp, flying straight out the back, with his dislodged ski landing not far behind him.
Back against the wall, Duplan-Fribourg had little choice but to take his third and final attempt to salvage his tournament with a spot in the jump final. Significantly backing off from his first two approaches, the young Frenchman looked out of position as he hit the ramp, collapsing into yet another backward somersault off the ramp.
Lucine argues that such incidents have become all too common at the US Masters. “Particularly at the junior level, it’s rare to find young athletes who haven’t experienced a crash.”
Searching for reasons, Lucine speculates, “Could it be the speed, load, and pressure at the bottom of the ramp at the Masters that is overwhelming, more than at other places? The ramp? The driver? Are the boats used at the Masters more powerful than those at other events? Is it the prestige of the event that weighs heavily on the minds of young jumpers? Or is there no specific reason?”
Lucine questions whether “adequate measures are being taken to ensure the safety of our youth,” suggesting that athletes could be “examined much more thoroughly after a first crash to prevent a potentially fatal second one.”
Like many sports, water skiing faces the challenge of safeguarding athletes who are often eager to return to action after a collision or suspected concussion. The IWWF introduced concussion protocols several years ago, but these are not always consistently followed or adhered to.
Ultimately, Lucine argues that “Yes, the Masters is THE most prestigious event we have.” But “prestige and safety must go hand in hand for success.”
“This year, we narrowly avoided a tragedy, and it seems to be a recurring issue for the past 25 years,” she concluded.
Jake Abelson’s world trick record of 12,970 has now been officially approved by the IWWF, bringing the sport to the precipice of 13,000 points. This incredible achievement caps off one of the most rapid ascents in water skiing history, with 16-year-old Abelson transforming from a promising junior to the highest-scoring tricker of all time in just a matter of weeks.
In mid-April, Abelson’s personal best was just shy of 12,000 points, ranking him 6th in the world for Open Men Tricks. At the Swiss Pro Tricks, he set solid scores to qualify for the finals mid-pack before achieving a new personal best of 12,230 points—a US National record. This score secured him a runner-up finish, his second of the year following a photo finish at the Moomba Masters.
The following weekend, Abelson improved his personal best by another 500 points, setting a new world record of 12,720 at the Ski Fluid Classic. This marked the first time an American man held the world trick record since Cory Pickos’ last mark 24 years earlier.
Fast forward another two weeks, and Abelson continued his ascent, setting yet another world record with 12,970 points. Over the span of just three weeks, the 16-year-old lifted his personal best by a full 1,000 points, increasing the world trick record by 280 points—equivalent to the combined progress in the 17.5 years between Nicolas Le Forestier’s last record and Patricio Font’s most recent one.
Abelson further intensified his run in the 2nd round of the Masters Qualifying event, swapping in a ski line seven back (SL7B) for his ski line back-to-back (SLBB). He fell on his last two tricks in that round, but had he landed them, the score would have been another 300 points higher than his current record, comfortably surpassing 13,000 points.
This proof of concept, with both falls occurring in time, shows that it is likely only a matter of time before Abelson or another skier cracks 13k. While Abelson’s record hand run of 7,670 is the highest of all time, there are other skiers with better marks on toe. The Chilean duo of Martin Labra and Matias Gonzalez hold the two highest toe runs in living memory at 5,680 and 5,600 points, respectively.
The men’s trick field, much like slalom, is the most competitive it has been in a long time, with three separate winners across the first three professional events of 2024. With such a large group of skiers capable of tricking in excess of 12,000 points, it is no longer possible for the top seeds to play it safe. Each skier must push as close to the world record as possible to win at any given event.
The Lake 38 Pro-Am finished in spectacular fashion. Regina Jaquess delivered a dominant performance, running 10.75m (39.5’ off) in all three rounds to secure her third professional victory of 2024. The men’s final elevated the excitement levels even further. Cole McCormick, fresh off his historic Masters victory, Freddie Winter, eager to reclaim the top spot after missing the finals at his last two events, and Robert Hazelwood, motivated to prove himself after being snubbed from the Masters, found themselves locked in a three-way runoff for the title. Ultimately, it was Hazelwood who emerged victorious, clinching his first professional victory and surpassing McCormick as the youngest to win a men’s slalom event since 2019.
“A win on the Pro Tour is something I’ve dreamed about since day zero and for that to become a reality is truly crazy to me,” shared an elated Hazelwood who now sits atop the Waterski Pro Tour leaderboard. “Anyone who spends 10 [minutes] around me knows that waterskiing is more than a sport to me… it’s pretty much all I think about from morning till night.”
Over the first four professional slalom events, we have seen four different winners on the men’s side, including two young up-and-comers clinching their first professional titles. This level of competitiveness in slalom hasn’t been seen in over a decade; the last time a season started with four different winners was in 2011, when Aaron Larkin, Jonathan Travers, Thomas Degasperi, and Will Asher shared the first four events. In the final event of that year, a relatively unknown 20-year-old from Indiana clinched his first professional title, kicking off over a decade of dominance.
Since that season, Nate Smith has maintained a winning percentage just shy of 75%. Smith, along with Winter, Asher, and Degasperi, have won an incredible 116 out of 130 events since 2012, leaving a whole generation of supremely talented slalom skiers relegated to the periphery. In fact, up until the Lake 38 Pro-Am this weekend, no skier outside the ‘big four’ had ever won a Waterski Pro Tour men’s slalom title.
Part of the transition we are seeing in 2024 could be attributed to the old guard slowing down. Both Asher and Degasperi are in their early 40s, while Smith and Winter are now in their mid-30s, an age where many professional athletes begin to contemplate retirement.
However, the level of skiing and the depth of the field is as high as ever. The cut for finals at both Swiss and Lake 38 required a score of 3@10.25m (41’ off) with a solid backup. There are more skiers than ever capable of running 10.75m.
Rather than capitalizing on a waning field, the more plausible explanation is that young skiers like Hazelwood and McCormick have reached a point in their careers where they have both the skills and experience to go toe-to-toe with seasoned campaigners such as Winter and Smith. Hazelwood, just 24 years old, has competed in 29 out of 38 slalom events since the Waterski Pro Tour began in 2021, finishing in the top eight 21 times. That’s a lot of experience competing in professional finals.
Also promising are the 18-year-old pair of Lucas Cornale and Charlie Ross, who have both recorded scores deep into 10.25m and are starting to seriously challenge for podium positions (Cornale picked up his first professional podium at Moomba earlier this year).
Of course, the smart money is on the old guard to strike back. With 11 professional slalom events left throughout 2024’s jam-packed calendar, we should rightly expect to see the ‘big four’ back on top of the podium. But this level of competitiveness, where no skier, no matter their pedigree, is guaranteed a spot in the final, and anyone in the field is capable of winning, adds a layer of intrigue and excitement to the sport that is sure to keep fans hooked over the upcoming months.
With his victory this weekend at the Masters Water Ski and Wakeboard Tournament, Cole McCormick clinched his first-ever professional title and etched his name onto one of the most prestigious trophies in the sport. Here’s a look at McCormick’s achievement by the numbers.
1
Number of Canadians to win the Masters men’s slalom title. McCormick is the first male skier representing Canada to win the title and only the fifth Canadian man behind George Athans, Kreg Llewellyn, Jaret Llewellyn, and Ryan Dodd to win the tournament in any event.
19
Total Masters titles in the McCormick household. Cole’s 2024 slalom victory adds to his mother Susi Graham McCormick’s 5 slalom titles and his father Ricky McCormick’s 13 titles across trick, jump, and overall. Cole is the first-ever second-generation Masters champion.
45
Months since any man other than Nate Smith, Freddie Winter, Will Asher, or Thomas Degasperi has won a professional slalom title. The last before McCormick was Daniel Odvarko at the 2020 Ski Stillwaters Pro Team Challenge.
3
Different winners in men’s slalom across the first three professional events of 2024. McCormick joins Asher (Swiss Pro Slalom) and Winter (Moomba Masters) in the winner’s circle this year.
15
Top five finishes for McCormick across 25 professional events over the past four years before finishing on top of the podium. McCormick has finished inside the top 10 on the year end standings in every season of the Waterski Pro Tour.
28
The youngest male winner of a professional slalom tournament since Stephen Neveu at the Botaski ProAm in 2019 (25 years, 9 months).
Independent perspectives on tournament water skiing
