Waterski Pro Tour

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.

Waterski Pro Tour

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.