2024 King of Darkness: Final Highlights – Waterski Pro Tour Stop 13
Catch all the action from the finals of the MasterCraft King of Darkness.
Catch all the action from the finals of the MasterCraft King of Darkness.
Image: Robert Hazelwood
If this season of men’s slalom has had a theme, it has been of multiple winners. After a full four years and ten months of only four male victors in pro slalom, earlier this year the floodgates opened. On the Tour this year we can count seven winners across just nine stops (with a further two victors in external events). There have been many stories to set these wins apart from the rest: the 38 year old seasoned pro finally getting over the line, the return win after 6 years of trying and a win on return from injury. Yesterday at the Travers Grand Prix however, we saw what will almost certainly prove to be the most seismic.
Lucas Cornale is a name very few slalom fans knew as recently at the start of this year. A teenager with a couple of junior championship podiums and an aggressive style was not expected to be one of the stories of the year on the pro scene. And yet here we are. After a debut podium in March at Moomba behind two world champions, he yesterday stunned the pro waterski scene with the youngest pro slalom win in living memory at 19 years old. It won’t be his last – not even close.
And this was not a plucky, toe over the line win. This was dominance. His first two rounds were good but not exceptional, just enough to qualify in the 8th and final spot. Out first in a field made up entirely of past winners – except, of course, himself – he went for it. With barely a hesitation he turned the 3 at 10.25m/ 41off that is so often the difference between good and great in the men’s slalom field, on his way to scoring a huge 4.5. Even with seven of the best left to ski, this performance looked like it might stand up.
After a groundbreaking run, a nervy wait. The webcast cameras frequently caught Lucas’s looking surprisingly calm as each skier failed to beat his score but there must have been some angst underneath the typically laidback demeanor. Jon Travers got the closest with 4, a worthy reward at the tournament he has organized and run since 2018. Corey Vaughn and Dane Mechlers, another pair of debut winners this year, tied for the last podium spot after matching scores in every round.
Ironically, despite his very unusual final placement of 12th, this result actually increases the chances of a Will Asher victory of the 2024 Waterski Pro Tour. The chasing pack on the Leaderboard all needed a win to stay in the fight for the top prize at the end of the year. Nate Smith, not present at Travers and with a handful of entries this year, is the only threat to Asher’s second title – he needs to win both remaining events with best scores in each, while hoping Will stays outside of the top 2. Asher at 42 has the most wins in men’s slalom this year with three. Perhaps the whispers of a changing of the guard are premature. Below him there are just nine points between Corey Vaughn and Smith in tied 2nd (160 points) and Travers in 6th (151 points). Two events left. The podium fight is going to be fast and furious.
Comparatively, the women’s field has been something like business as usual this year, as it was at this event. Not that it wasn’t exciting. Ahead of the rest of the field by a margin, each of Jaimee Bull, Regina Jaquess and Whitney McClintock-Rini traded the lead between them across the three rounds, with not one 10.75m missed – until a run-off for the win. Jaquess’s course record of 2.5 at 10.25 paired with Bull and McClintock Rini each scoring 2 made the second round of qualifying the highest scoring ever. Jaimee and Whitney were once again tied at 2 in the final as Regina managed 1. So a run-off for the win, a repeat of the 2021 Malibu Open. As in that instance, Whitney won but this time more spectacularly, running 10.75m straight off the dock, before another 2 at 10.25m. Jaimee followed and looked great on 10.75 until 4 but an uncharacteristically poor 5 left her stranded in 2nd. Making up for her disappointing MasterCraft Pro last week, Whitney now has two wins in three as she accelerates during this countdown til the end of the season.
Bull has held the lead of the Tour since the opening stop in May. A very strong showing at the mid-season events outside of the USA put strong daylight between her and the rest. This gap has been eaten into over the last three events, however, as her two great competitors have shared the wins. Both McClintock-Rini and Jaquess can take the Tour win with victories at the last two events as they aim to deny Bull a fourth consecutive Tour win. Paired with a huge showdown in men’s jump at King of Darkness at the end of the month, the nighttime event is set to be explosive. See you there.
For event highlights, scores, replays and more visit Waterski Pro Tour.
Catch all the action from the finals of the Travers Grand Prix.
Image: @johnnyhayward_photo
As much as dedication, sacrifice, focus, hard work, success and failure are a part of professional sport, so are injuries. Athletes don’t reach greatness, or indeed a competitive level, without putting themselves close to the edge. And when that edge is crossed, athlete’s bodies are on the line.
Dane Mechler knows this well. A freak finger injury in 2021 took him out for most of the summer and, after a crash at a tournament in May, the same was the case this year. Across the seven tournaments since his serious ankle strain, there have been more different winners in men’s slalom than in the preceding 5 years combined. This included three first time winners. For a man widely considered to be the best current skier never to win a tournament, consistently held off the top by the dominant quartet of Asher, Degasperi, Smith and Winter, this would have hurt. This weekend at the MasterCraft Pro, Mechler exorcized these demons spectacularly on his return, as he took a dominant debut win.
That Mechler was given the stage to do so was surprising enough. Hurricane Helene had spent the week leading up to the event threatening Florida and then tearing up its north. Despite the start of the event being delayed from Friday to Saturday to accommodate, a rain affected opening day contained enough delays to the point that traditional format could not be followed. Extremely unusually, every slalom skier was allowed into each final because of the uncertainty of a second qualifying round when they skied the first. 21 men and 12 women lined up on Sunday morning to take the title.
On a day of substantially better weather, Mechler was out with a handful of skiers still to go, having skied to a level he was not satisfied with in the previous day’s seeding round. As he approached the course at 10.25m/ 41ft off the lead was 2.5 buoys. He attacked from the start, getting all the way to 5 where he fell, equalling his best ever score in a pro tournament. As skier after skier failed to beat him, the broadcast caught his nervous demeanor, as he no doubt internally prayed he had done enough. The last two skiers were two he had so frequently been denied victory by in recent years. Nate Smith got close but not close enough with 3.5 buoys at 10.25m. Will Asher, with the most victories in 2024, made an unusual mistake as he fell at 1. In doing so he handed Mechler a first, and very well deserved, win. The emotion was evident as Dane talked about what it had taken to get there. When his career is over, this will likely be amongst the very sweetest of a number of wins.
With wins spread so evenly across the field in 2024, Asher’s top 2 placements at all but two events this year have him in a commanding lead with 291. However the chasing pack are extremely tight, with positions juggled after this event. 2nd to 8th are separated by 50 points. All to play for with three events left.
In women’s slalom Regina Jaquess took her fourth win at the MasterCraft Pro in its five years. After a first round in which the top three seeds ran 10.75m/ 39.5ft off, she was the only one to clear it in the final. Jaimee Bull, frustrated after a terrible buoy 4 killed a great start, finished 2nd. 3rd was the resurgent Manon Costard, taking her third podium in her last four events. Jaquess, currently 4th on the Waterski Pro Tour Leaderboard after missing every event outside of the USA, has a lot of work to do to make up the deficit to Jaimee Bull in 1st. However with three events left, and a win % higher than any in the field, you wouldn’t bet against her.
As is typical of this neck-and-neck year of the Tour in men’s jump, victory came down to the last flight of the day. Joel Poland, with two wins on the Tour this year, lead with 69.8m/ 229 feet but with Freddy Krueger, undeniably the greatest jumper of all time, on the water, Poland wasn’t counting his prize money. On his final attempt Krueger, at 49 years old, beat the man close to half his age with a 70.7m/ 232ft final jump to take his own second victory of the year. With one event left, 6 points separate Poland and Krueger at the top of the John K Philips Tour Leaderboard. Can Poland maintain the lead that would end Krueger’s four year reign as champion? It all comes down to the King of Darkness.
Women’s jump saw Hanna Straltsova take a fairly typical win from Sasha Danisheuskaya and Brittany Wharton. The latter is also returning from injury this year and has made every podium. Straltsova managed her 2nd best ever jump with 57.6m/ 189 feet. She is looking for more at the next event.
The MasterCraft Pro marked the beginning of a crescendo towards the end of the season. Three events remain between now and early November. The first of these starts this Friday with the Travers Grand Prix, so often the event with the year’s best scores. Jump fans can look forward to the King of Darkness in under four weeks time. Stay tuned.
For event highlights, scores, replays and more visit Waterski Pro Tour.
Relive all the excitement from the finals of the Mastercraft Pro.
Catch all the action from the finals of the California Pro Am.
Relive all the action from the finals of the Oxfordshire ProAm.
Image: @waterski_photography
As the saying goes, all good things come to an end. During the last weeks we have enjoyed a hugely exciting, frenetic and unpredictable stint of Tour dates which included an expansion into a novel continent, milestone anniversaries and deepening foundations. Appropriately, this wonderful leg of non-stop Tour action finished with a first on the Waterski Pro Tour – a slalom night final – in a country with serious slalom heritage. The UK’s Oxfordshire Pro-Am sent the Tour back to the USA with a bang.
When asked of hotbeds for high-end waterskiing, a casual observer would be forgiven for putting the UK fairly far down the list. The island nation’s infamously mediocre weather is not as conducive to watersports as the more tropical temperatures – and far less rain – found to the south in continental Europe. However, for whatever reason, the country has produced huge amounts of waterski talent, especially in the men’s slalom division. Indeed, since hosting the World Championships for the first time in 1975 no country has more men’s slalom championships (10, USA also 10). It also boasts 3 of the 6 multiple time men’s slalom world champions (UK 3, USA 2, Italy 1). Oxford Wake and Ski Club has been nurturing this talent since 2012, holding a pro event this year seemed the natural next step.
After an excessively dismal year of weather so far – yes, even by UK standards – the water at Oxford was 3 feet higher than usual, resulting in some challengingly rolly conditions. However over the course of the preliminary rounds both the men’s and the women’s field put up some good scores in order to qualify for the night final. Notably Sasha Descuns of France ran a very respectable 3@10.25m to take top seed with hometown hero Arron Davies putting in his best Tour performance of back to back 10.75s to take 3rd seed. On the women’s side Jaimee Bull excelled once more with 5@10.75m.
But then, the final. It’s fair to say all finalists would be, at best, unused to skiing under the lights after over a decade without a night final, while many would never have skied one. It wasn’t until 9.45pm and near total darkness that the floodlights were switched on for the action to commence. Apprehension was apparent, with a number of skiers vocalizing their expectation that the decreased visibility would lead to a feeling of excess speed on the water during their pre-set interviews.
Generally the first crop of women skied the best part of a pass less than their daytime scores with some cagey or safe skiing, depending on your perspective. That is until third seed Manon Costard attacked the dark and scored a quite amazing 2.5@10.75m, a full buoy superior than her previous best of the weekend under sunlight. This put serious pressure on the remaining two – Allie Nicholson, champion of Marrakesh last month, and Jaimee Bull, victor in the Italian and Monogasque events more recently. Surprisingly neither made it through 11.25m, resulting in Costard’s first professional win since September 2020. After oh-so-many near misses since, there was not a happier face in the UK. Competition, however, would arrive an hour later.
The men’s field followed something of a similar pattern. Will Asher, so adept at tough conditions, surprised everyone with an early low score as did Rob Hazelwood. However, a mid-pack triple whammy of completed runs at 11.25 left Corey Vaughn in the lead with 2.5@10.75m, ahead of Adam Sedlmajer and Thomas Degasperi on 2, with the top three seeds left. Minutes later falls from Davies, Joel Poland and Descuns resulted in an incredibly emotional Vaugh taking his first pro victory at 38 years old in his 16th year on the circuit. Both winners then were able to drop a monkey from their back; their seasons will continue unburdened from here.
And so, after the busiest period of the year, and over half the slalom Tour done, Asher and Bull remain in commanding positions at the top of the Leaderboards with 243 and 298 points respectively. Costards 2nd last week in Italy and victory in the UK has catapulted her into the top 3 with 138 points. Rob Hazelwood moves into outright 2nd with his 8th place finish just edging him back ahead of Cole McCormick with 122 to 118 points.
This thick and fast Africa-Europe stint has in many ways become the centerpiece of the year with its varied countries, lakes and the challenge for the skiers to keep their level high with such little practice. No doubt next year will be just as exciting. Looking ahead to the immediate future, the Tour takes a short break before a return to the USA, and excitingly the jump event, at the California Pro-Am in late August. This will be followed very closely by the Canada Cup jump event within a few days. See you there.
For event highlights, scores, replays and more visit Waterski Pro Tour.
Relive all the action from the finals of the San Gervasio ProAm.
Image: @jollyski
Amongst the frenetic cadence of this current Afro-Euro leg of the Tour, it would be easy to forget to pay close attention to the unique attributes of each of these events as they pass in a blaze of activity week by week. It would be a shame though, especially in the case of the San Gervasio Pro-Am, that this weekend celebrated its 10th edition.
Looking back 10 years, the landscape of waterskiing was drastically different. Professional waterskiing had approximately half the events per season as today, nearly all of them in the USA, with none in Europe. That changed in August 2014 when Matteo Luzzeri, a youthful idealist of a pro skier, put on an event that, while initially on the smaller side, would grow over the coming years to become the cornerstone and catalyst of pro skiings expansion into Europe and beyond. As a result, worldwide event numbers have increased and therefore opportunities for pro skiers to compete and earn, consequently improving the level of the sport.
It is the view of many that, without the cosmic spark of the 2014 San Gervasio Pro-Am, waterskiing would be in a far darker place. As it is, pro skiing has gone from treading water to thriving and the San Gervasio Pro-Am is the longest running event on the Tour in the same location (California Pro-Am has moved between various lakes over its 20+ years). Only an enforced government-ruled cancellation of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 has stopped San Gervasio running every since 2014.
10 years has brought its fair share of memorable moments. 2021 champion Thomas Degasperi became the oldest male slalom skier to win a tournament at 41 years old, breaking a record set by the late, great Andy Mapple 18 years prior. A very rare instance of consecutive, competitive complete 10.25m passes happened in 2016 by Nate Smith and Freddie Winter, the same year Manon Costard ran 10.75m on a borrowed ski.
And of course, with much of the world’s top slalom talent once again turning up to their favorite Italian event, this year was no different. While one could be forgiven for thinking a perfect slalom lake, custom built for peak performance, would cause few upsets, it turned out not to be the case.
Qualifying highlights from the men’s side came from the home field: the aforementioned organizer, Matteo Luzzeri, competed in his first event since an achilles tendon tear 11 months ago. His competitive score of 3@10.75m, having only just recently started training at 36mph, was heroic. More from him in due course, no doubt. Luzzeri’s countrymen, 19 year old Vincenzo Marino, made waves by qualifying for the final in a fairly comfy 7th spot with some gutsy skiing. With a similar situation at last year’s World Championships, here we have a young man who enjoys the big stage.
San Gervasio is one of the increasingly few tournaments that uses the Head-to-Head bracketed final format. Once seen as the future for pro skiing, it has more recently fallen out of fashion, only seen a small handful of times a year. However, when used it is a nice break from the norm and, as this weekend, can cause some upsets. Will Asher, the form skier on the Tour, did not get a forecast win despite dominating the first few rounds. After a huge 5@10.25m in the semi final to knock out fellow two-time World Champion Thomas Degasperi, Asher was set up against good friend Jon Travers in the final. Going first, however, he fell at 2, uncharacteristically blowing the fin on his infamously strong on-side, leaving Travers to only need a complete 2. Travers duly did what he needed to, emotionally winning his first tournament since Lake 38 Pro-Am 2018 – a win he also won directly against Asher, that time in a run-off. A well deserved win for one of the hardest working men in the sport.
On the women’s side, perhaps the story of the tournament was the return to the podium of 2019 World Champion and 11-time pro event winner, Manon Costard. Having taken a step back from the sport in recent years, Costard took 2nd, completing her first 10.75m pass since 2021 along the way. Jaimee Bull took the win, emphatically running her own 10.75m pass in the final to underline her dominance of the Tour so far this year. The two Tour Leaderboard points for best score of the event, however, went to Costard with her 1@10.25m as Bull did not attempt her return pass at 10.25 having won. After winning the Tour by just 2 points in 2023, could she live to regret this?
On that note, the top of the Leaderboards remain unchanged with both Jaimee Bull and Will Asher extending their leads with these results. They have 258 and 228 points respectively. Though Bull has more points, the gap to Allie Nicholson in second is significantly less at 69 vs 100 for Asher. Asher has close to double the points of 2nd place, perhaps demonstrating the greater number of skiers, and therefore competitiveness of the field, he has shared the podium with this year of his near total dominance. Freddie Winter, in 3rd with 114 points, has run his race in the 2024 Tour and will fall down the rankings in due course; he is looking to hit 2025 with a recovered femur after his crash at the last event 10 days ago.
And so, from celebrating a monumental milestone in Italy to breaking new ground in the UK next week. The inaugural Oxfordshire Pro-Am will offer a slalom final under lights next Saturday, something not seen in pro skiing for a decade or more. A fitting way to wrap up this intense localized leg of the Tour that has kept us so entertained these past weeks. See you there.
For event highlights, scores, replays and more visit Waterski Pro Tour.