In this quiz, you have to name every man to run 10.75m (39.5′ off) in the 20th Century.
There were 36 men to run 10.75 meters before the turn of the century, from the first in 1988 right up until 1999. Two legends of the sport achieved the feat for the first time on the same weekend during the ‘Thrilla at Hydrilla’ in Palm Beach, Florida. We have mentioned their country, along with the year they first successfully completed the 10.75m pass.
Camille Duvall reflects on water skiing’s golden age
Hall of Famer Camille Duvall, a.k.a., the Golden Goddess of Water Skiing (image: eBay)
By RTB
In a recent episode of WaterSkier Magazine’s Podcast – Hit It!, the legendary Camille Duvall, hailed as one of the greatest water skiers of all time, took listeners on a journey through the golden age of water skiing. Her anecdotes and insights provided a unique perspective on the sport’s evolution, from its pinnacle in the late ’80s to the challenges it has faced in subsequent decades.
Duvall began by reminiscing about the extraordinary period from the early ’80s to the early ’90s, heralded as the golden age of water skiing. She described it as a time when the sport flourished, enjoying popularity across diverse demographics, thanks to sponsors like Coors Light and the emerging platform of ESPN playing pivotal roles. In her own words, “ESPN was in its youth; they didn’t have the big four [football, baseball, basketball, and hockey], so we had the luxury, privilege, and honor to be on national television every Monday night during the summer.”
Duvall expressed her pride in being part of a sport that had such a vast reach, allowing it to thrive and capture the imagination of the public, stating, “It was fabulous; we would go to the tournaments, we would ski, we’d do all the interviews; they’d have the television truck at the ski site. They would cut the one-hour show overnight and then they’d beam it straight up to ESPN.”
However, Duvall acknowledged the challenges the sport faced when it lost television exposure in the ’90s and 2000s, leading to a decline in sponsor support. Despite this setback, she commended the sport’s resilience in adapting to the times, particularly in embracing streaming platforms. In her words, “I’m really glad that we’ve embraced that; they’re doing a fantastic job with all of [the streaming].”
The discussion then delved into Duvall’s pivotal role in the breakaway Professional Association of Water Skiers (PAWS) Tour in 1990. Safety emerged as a paramount concern for Duvall, particularly given the challenges of skiing on large natural lakes. The PAWS organization aimed to address safety issues and collaborate with sponsors for the benefit of skiers. However, resistance from the existing tour, managed by WATERSKI Magazine, led to the establishment of a separate PAWS tour sponsored by Budget Rent a Car.
Reflecting on the reasons behind the PAWS Tour, Duvall emphasized, “The real impetus for it was safety for the skiers. Unlike today where they’re skiing on a lot of man-made lakes, we were skiing on huge natural lakes, so the wind would roll up, and the back of the jump is lifting out of the water, and they’re like ‘let’s go jumping, we have 15,000 people sitting on the shore’… at a certain point, yeah the show must go on, but you can’t risk hurting someone.”
Despite the initial success of the PAWS Tour, internal conflicts and a desire to unite the sport ultimately led to its discontinuation after just one season.
In closing, Duvall reiterated her deep-seated passion for water skiing, stating, “[I water ski because] I love it, I love the physical pleasure of it, I love being outside, I love being in the summertime, there’s nothing better than being in the boat with all of your friends and going out and water skiing. That’s why I water ski.”
Today, the 4th of January 2024, Ron Marks celebrates a remarkable milestone – his 60th anniversary in the Marine Industry. Born on September 17, 1943, in the picturesque setting of Baulkham Hills, NSW, Australia, Ron’s life evolved into an adventure that reads almost like a script for an extraordinary movie.
At the tender age of 8, in November 1951, Ron had his first encounter with water skiing on the Hawkesbury River at Windsor. This marked the beginning of a lifelong passion that would shape his identity and define his legacy. Fast forward to March 2, 1958, and Ron stepped onto the competitive stage for the first time at the Sydney Metropolitan Water Ski Championships held at Manly Dam, Sydney. His debut was nothing short of spectacular – winning the Junior Slalom, Tricks, and Overall Point Score events, a sure sign of the greatness to come. The journey continued through the 1958 New South Wales State Championships and the subsequent Australian National Championships, where Ron emerged as the very first Australian Junior Champion.
The World Championships have always delivered breathtaking competition, but perhaps the most exhilarating aspect has been the fiercely contested teams’ battles. Originally, these clashes were dominated by the United States, but in recent years, the field has become far more diverse, with four different countries claiming victory over the last three decades. As we approach the 2023 World Championships, the anticipation builds, and we find ourselves reminiscing about the ten most tightly contested team battles in the event’s storied history.
In this prestigious competition, each country assembles a team of six skilled skiers, with a limit of four from each gender. These athletes compete across all three disciplines: slalom, tricks, and jump, with the top three scores from each discipline contributing to the team’s total. This format places a premium on versatile all-around skiers, as teams that lean too heavily on specialists risk lacking depth and the margin for error becomes razor-thin. Join us on a journey through the most thrilling team competitions in the history of the World Championships.
Image: WATERSKI Magazine
10. Toulouse, France 1985
Contenders: Australia vs. the United States
Australia
Geoff Carrington
Sue Lipplegoes
Bruce Neville
Karen Bowkett Neville
Mick Neville
Glenn Thurlow
United States
Deena Brush (Mapple)
Camille Duvall
Sammy Duvall
Bob LaPoint
Lucky Lowe
Carl Roberge
Australia’s golden generation secured podium positions in six consecutive World Championships from 1979 to 1989. During this period, they came second to the United States on four occasions. However, it was the 1985 World Championships that marked their closest attempt to dethrone the Americans from the top of the podium. While the Australians boasted arguably the greatest jump team ever assembled, featuring Carrington, Thurlow, Lipplegoes, and Bruce Neville, as well as two of the best overall skiers of the 1980s, Mick and Karen Neville, they couldn’t quite match the star power of the Americans in the slalom event. LaPoint and Camille Duvall clinched gold medals for the United States, with Roberge and Brush also standing on the podium. The United States’ unbeaten streak would remain intact for yet another World Championships.
Key Moment: Lippelgoes’ mixed tournament, in the preliminary round she set a World Championship record of 40.5m (133 feet), but also missed her first pass in slalom.
Winning Margin: 175 points. Equivalent to roughly two passes in slalom.
Heading into the tournament, the United States boasted an incredible undefeated streak over the 40+ years of World Championships history. However, they were facing a vulnerable situation without their 1980s stars, including Brush, Roberge, and the Duvall siblings. Meanwhile, Team Canada, led by Steve Bush, had been quietly assembling a young team of future superstars, with veteran McClintock Messer anchoring the group. However, it was Kreg Llewellyn who stole the show in Austria. He not only secured medals in trick and jump but also finished as the runner-up in overall. Llewellyn’s margin of defeat was the tightest ever seen in the sport, with Patrice Martin claiming victory by a mere 0.2 overall points.
Key Moment: The U.S. Team selected two trick specialists, Baggiano and Pickos, both of whom failed to secure a podium finish. Yet the Larsen twins, who were not part of the team, claimed the gold and silver medals with the two highest scores of the tournament.
Winning Margin: 159 points. Equivalent to roughly 1,100 points in trick.
Early falls in the tricks event proved costly for Regina Jaquess, Erika Lang, and Whitney McClintock. Their slips left both the United States and Canada out of contention. From this wreckage emerged Belarus and France as the top contenders. Both countries exhibited exceptional strength in the tricks discipline. France held a clear advantage in slalom, but ultimately, Belarus surged ahead, driven by their remarkable jumping performances. Berdnikava led from the front, clinching three individual gold medals across the tricks, jump, and overall events.
Key Moment: Beliakou jumped a 3 meter (10 foot) personal best in the preliminary round, going over 60 meters for the first time in his life.
Winning Margin: 149 points. Equivalent to less than 5 meters in jump.
In another tournament of upsets, the United States faced an early elimination when both Rhoni Barton and Scot Ellis failed to run their first passes in the slalom preliminaries. The defending champions, France, were then left to defend their title against challenges from Canada and the emerging Italian team, which had not graced the podium in nearly four decades.
Italy fielded arguably their two greatest three-event skiers ever, with veteran Alessi and newcomer Mosti on their team. While France and Italy showed relative parity in tricks and jump, France managed to pull ahead thanks to Martin’s bronze in the slalom event and strong performances from the young talents Amade and Jamin.
Key Moment: Jamin ran close to a personal best in the preliminary round with 1@11.25m (38’ off), finishing one buoy short of the top score.
Winning Margin: 108 points. Equivalent to roughly a pass in slalom.
This World Championships finds its place on the list due to a technicality. The scoring system for teams was changed to the points system we use today for the next event in 1961. While the competition might not have been as tight in relative terms, it marked the closest any team came to putting pressure on the United States during the first two decades of World Championships.
The host nation, Italy, put up a valiant fight against the American superstars. Notably, all five members of the American team would later earn spots in the USA Waterski Hall of Fame. Castelverti’s exceptional tricking skills secured Italy’s first-ever gold medal, and she also clinched runner-up positions in women’s slalom and overall events. However, the Americans proved to be too dominant, securing six out of the eight individual gold medals and two-thirds of all individual medals.
Key Moment: 15-year-old Van Hook’s overall victory ahead of Castelverti and the favorite Rideout. Cypress Gardens, where Rideout was the poster girl, continued to bill her as the World Champion in advertisements for the next two years, only mentioning Van Hook in the fine print.
The first real challenge to the United States’ dominance of the team title emerged in the late 1970s, and it came from Venezuela. The South Americans showcased their prowess in tricks, with both world record holders Maria Victoria Carrasco and Suarez securing gold medals in tricks and finishing as runners-up in the overall standings. An unexpected standout, Rodriguez, even outperformed LaPoint in the preliminary round, achieving the highest slalom score of the tournament.
However, the Americans ultimately held the advantage in the jumping event. Suyderhoud claimed a late-career world title, and LaPoint, Todd, and Duvall all earned medals in the jumping competition. This collective effort in jumping proved to be the difference-maker, allowing the United States to maintain its grip on the team title.
Key Moment: the U.S. took a chance on a 13-year-old trick specialist by the name of Cory Pickos, while he may have only placed 6th, he produced the highest trick score for Team USA.
Winning Margin: 85 points. Only 2.5 meters (8 feet) in jump.
United States (7,614 points)
Venezuela (7,529 points)
Canada (7,118 points)
Image: Facebook
4. Linz, Austria 2007
Contenders: France vs. the United States
France
Anais Amade
Nancy Chardin
Jean Baptiste Faisy
Nicolas LeForestier
Clemetine Lucine
Marion Mathieu
United States
Rhoni Barton Bischoff
April Coble Eller
Regina Jaquess
Mandy Nightingale
Cory Pickos
Jimmy Siemers
This team’s result was all about the women, as both France and the United States fielded teams consisting of four women and two men for the tournament. The competition remained evenly balanced throughout. After both Amade and Lucine posted scores deep down the 11.25m (38’ off) pass, the American duo of Jaquess and Coble Eller responded by running it. While Lucine secured victory in the tricks event, earning 1,000 points for her team, Barton Bischoff and Nightingale of the United States both finished in the top five.
In the jumping event, there was only one meter separating Lucine, Jaquess, Chardin, Amade, and Barton Bischoff. In the end, the Americans finished on top, but it came right down to the wire.
Key Moment: Lucine broke Tawn Larsen’s World Championship trick record which had stood since 1989.
Winning Margin: 20 points. Less then a buoy in slalom.
After suffering consecutive defeats at the hands of Canada, the United States was determined to secure a victory and managed to assemble their strongest team since the 1980s. Loaded with overall talent, all four American overall competitors performed exceptionally well, with each of them finishing within the top five. However, the French team had the advantage of competing on their home turf and strategically built their team around a Martin who was performing at the peak of his abilities.
Both teams faced some challenges in the slalom event, as Martin was the only skier from either team to finish in the top five. However, the French team displayed exceptional strength in the trick event, with Savin achieving the highest score among the women during the preliminaries and a young LeForestier posting the top score among the men.
The American team excelled in the jumping event, with Nichols, Roberge, and Slone securing gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. When the final results were tallied, it was Team France that emerged victorious in this hard-fought competition.
Key Moment: After failing to ride out a jump in the finals, Martin had to watch from the shore as Roberge, the in form jumper in the world at the time, attempted to squash the French jump scores (all three of which came from the men’s side).
Winning Margin: 19 points. Equivalent to 0.7 meters (2 feet) in jump.
Contenders: Canada vs. France vs. the United States
Canada
Ryan Dodd
Dorien Llewellyn
Whitney McClintock Rini
Stephen Neveu
Paige Rini
Neilly Ross
France
Pierre Ballon
Emma Brunel
Manon Costard
Tanguy Dailland
Thibaut Dailland
Louis Duplan-Fribourg
United States
Taylor Garcia
Anna Gay
Brittany Greenwood
Regina Jaquess
Erika Lang
Adam Pickos
The only World Championships where three countries remained in contention right through to the final event was competed in challenging conditions in South East Asia.
The French team initially built a lead through slalom, thanks to Costard’s winning performance and Thibaut Dailland’s impressive preliminary score into 10.25m (41′ off). Canada and the United States caught up in the tricks discipline with strong performances from Llewellyn, Gay, and Ross.
After solid jump scores from Greenwood, Jaquess, and McClintock Rini, it all came down to the men’s jump final. An unknown teenager at the time, Duplan-Fribourg, led the way for France in the preliminaries but wasn’t able to improve in the finals. Garcia managed an extra 10 centimeters for Team USA, extending their lead with only one jumper left to compete. It was Dodd, the final skier of the tournament, who would decide the outcome. Despite the rough conditions, he managed a 67.9-meter (223-foot) jump, securing both the individual jump title and the team gold for Canada.
Key Moment: Canada was in third when Dodd left the dock, but by increasing on his preliminary score by a full 2 meters he squashed Garcia’s and all three French jump scores to leapfrog into first.
Winning Margin: 6 points. Equivalent to 0.2 meters (less than a foot) in jump.
After experiencing their first defeat in 1991, the U.S. returned to the World Championships with a determined vengeance. They even convinced Kristi Overton, a previous U.S. Masters trick champion who had shifted her focus to slalom in 1989, to compete in trick and jump again for her country. Canada, on the other hand, faced challenges with their star from the 1991 Worlds, Kreg Llewellyn, unavailable due to injury.
Competition remained intense throughout the championship. Graham and Overton tied in slalom, just two buoys behind the leader. The American team dominated in the tricks event, with Larsen and Baggiano securing individual gold medals. Unfortunately, an early fall for Jaret Llewellyn ruled him out of the final. While Slone managed to secure 1,000 points in women’s jump during the preliminaries, Nichols missed the finals, only scoring 30.8 meters (101 feet) in the challenging conditions. Strong performances from De Macedo and McClintock Messer, who finished second and third in women’s overall, kept Canada’s hopes alive as they entered the men’s jump final.
With no American men in the final, the United States could only watch from the sidelines as Llewellyn improved his first-round score by over two meters, closing in on the Americans’ lead. The fate of the team’s title now rested with the fiery little truck driver, Clunie, who was the last to ski after posting the longest jump in the preliminary round. Team Canada had been good-humoredly teased for their meticulous approach to the team’s competition, including sending scouts to Singapore in advance to arrange accommodation and training, and using portable computers to calculate live results in the overall standings. One thing was certain: the team management would have made sure Clunie knew exactly how far he needed to jump when he left the dock. His best effort was 58.7 meters (192 feet), which might have seemed somewhat disappointing out of context, as it fell short of Andrea Alessi’s lead. However, for Team Canada, it was just enough to secure the title by the narrowest of margins.
Key Moment: De Macedo’s gold medal winning jump, the only individual gold Canada earned in 1993, where she improved her preliminary score by almost 5 meters.
Winning Margin: 2 points. Equivalent to less than a side slide in tricks.
In New Hampshire, water skiers keep their sport skimming along
Aaron Bartlett, 13, practices his moves on the slalom course (image: Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff)
By Stan Grossfeld
WOLFEBORO, N.H. — The best part of water skiing is the jump, says Aaron Bartlett.
“It’s fun to fly through the air,” says Bartlett, a sun-bronzed 13-year-old who started skiing at age 4.
Bartlett’s last competitive jump on June 25 was heart-stopping. He was leaning on his heels heading into the ramp, but then pressed too hard on his toes while in the air. The ski tips pointed down into the water and he did a face-plant in Lake Winnipesaukee and was knocked unconscious.
Way back in 1922, Ralph Samuelson, an athletic 18-year-old Minnesotan, was the first person to get up on water skis. With natural ability combined with ingenuity (and some degree of bravery), he accomplished the feat, skiing upright on Lake Pepin, a picturesque 30-mile segment of the Mississippi River.
In this quiz, you have to name every man to trick 10,000 points in the 20th Century.
There were 13 men to trick in excess of 10,000 points before the turn of the century, from the first in 1984 right up until 1999. Two legends of the sport achieved the feat within two months of each other, then traded the world record for almost 20 years. We have mentioned their country, along with the year they first tricked 10,000.
Note: Quiz is based on historical ranking lists, skiers must have achieved an average of 10,000 points or more.
Quiz: Every man to jump 200 feet in the 20th Century
Image: the 200 foot club
By RTB
October 8, 2021
6 minute play
In this quiz, you have to name every man to join the 200 foot club in the 20th Century.
There were 48 men to jump in excess of 200 feet before the turn of the century, from the first in 1983 right up until 1999. Only five men, three Australians, a Brit, and an American, managed the feat in the 1980’s. We have mentioned their country, along with the year they first jumped 200.
Independent perspectives on tournament water skiing
