By Jack Burden

Another season of the Waterski Pro Tour has drawn to a close, delivering a whirlwind of action across 14 events, spanning six countries and boasting almost $500,000 in prize money. The Pro Tour, with its mission to weave a captivating season-long narrative by uniting various standalone professional events under a single ‘tour,’ has generally been a resounding success. Much akin to the glory days of the U.S. professional water ski tour (i.e., Coors/Bud Water Ski Tour), the aspiration here is to elevate securing the top spot in the standings to one of the most prestigious titles in the realm of water skiing. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that not all tournaments have chosen to be part of this evolving movement.

For the third consecutive year, our sport’s two longest-running and highest-prize-purse events, the U.S. and Moomba Masters, have decided to stand apart from the Waterski Pro Tour. Likewise, the Botaski Pro Am, which serves as a U.S. Masters qualifier and was a part of the Pro Tour in 2022, made a similar choice this year. Other smaller tournaments, such as the Fungliss Pro Am have also opted out.

Despite the overwhelming inclusion of professional events in the Pro Tour, we were curious to explore how the leaderboard might have appeared had all events been encompassed, similar to the old IWWF Elite Ranking List. Employing the same rules and methodology as the Pro Tour, we proudly present our Unofficial Professional Water Ski Rankings for 2024, offering an arguably more complete picture of the competitive landscape over the course of the full calendar year.

Slalom

As expected, we’re witnessing minimal changes in the slalom leaderboards, given the extensive pool of events already factored in. However, the addition of the U.S. Masters and Fungliss ProAm has valuted Cole McCormick from sixth up to second. Similarly, the inclusion of the Botaski ProAm moves Rob Hazelwood, one of only three men to win multiple slalom titles in 2024, into the top five. Besides these noteworthy shifts, the top positions in men’s slalom remain largely unaltered. On the women’s side, there are no changes in placement from the inclusion of non-Pro Tour events. This reaffirms the Waterski Pro Tour’s status as an accurate reflection of the world’s premier slalom skiers, particularly due to its critical mass of slalom-only tournaments.

Tricks

This is where the inclusion of non-Pro Tour events has the potential to shake things up the most, as only two events, the introductory level Swiss Pro Tricks and Monaco Slalom Cup, were featured in the Waterski Pro Tour for 2024. By incorporating the three highest prize purses from the trick event, we gain a much clearer perspective on the athletes’ performance throughout the year. However, changes for this season were minimal at the top of the list. Gonzalez, the only man to finish on every podium of the season hangs on to top spot, with Font and Labra staying tied for second. On the women’s side the top three is similarly unchanged, with Danisheuskaya and Cuglievan vaulting into the top five on the basis of their strong performances at the Moomba and U.S. Masters, respectively.

Jump

Out of the seven professional jump tournaments held in 2024, five were featured in the Waterski Pro Tour, while the legacy events, the U.S. and Moomba Masters, opted out. Our rankings typically align with the Pro Tour, the only significant mover in this category is Ryan Dodd, whose mid season injury ruled him out of the majority of Pro Tour events. Dodd started the season with a victory at the Moomba Masters, then two runner up finishes in Moomba Night Jump and the U.S. Masters. Including these events propels him to fifth place in the rankings. Otherwise, any changes were essentially a reshuffling of podium placements.

Overall

Finally overall skiing, which is not officially recognized as an event by the Waterski Pro Tour. The last two seasons have heralded in a resurgence for the discipline, with competition across four professional events on the WWS Overall Tour. These rankings, although using a different methodology, line up exactly with the final standings of the WWS Tour.