André did his 1st tournament yesterday!!

[Brent]

André came to the Montreal MasterCraft Head to head yesterday & did great. We got there at 8am for registration & did a opening qualifying round of which André was the only one to complete 2 passes & to top it off he got 4 balls on his 3rd pass (28off), he placed 5th out off 18 skiers. I only placed 7th & a bunch of the higher end skiers did not even complete a pass in qualification.

[Laurel_Lake_Skier]

Way to go guys.......the practice does pay off!

[MarkP]

Congrats!!!

[Brent]

The Qualifying round determines who you ski against in the head to head ,so the top finishers ski against the bottom rated guy's. Not a gimme seeing as alot of good skiers did not even complete a pass, which leads to André & I , he had to ski against a 10 year old who starts @ 26mph 15off in the first round, I don't know if you realize that a 6'3" guy who is about 200lb does not have an easy time of it a 26mph , André went down at ball 2 & the little kid went on for another 2 rounds ,while André settled for the consolation round ( don't remember how that went).I got to ski against a 14 year old who's starting speed was 28mph & skied 28-30-32 & beat him at 34mph & afterwards found out that he normally skis into 36-mph 22off & was using the low speed as a grown up killer strategy . I got taken out the next round @ dare I say it 22off. Scott our winter waterski video king came in second after losing to a 16 year old @ 28off (Scott's normal first gimme pass). all in all it was tons of fun & it was great to see André & Natalie.:)

[André]

HEY,THAT WAS 5.5 BALLS AT 26 MPH 15 OFF!:D
That was a lot of fun and VERY different from skiing at my own site with always perfect conditions!
They had side by side courses like you see at Ski Paradise ,both courses were very close to so that the 1,3,5 bouys of the left course are almost line up with 2,4,6 of the other one so you could take a glance at your competitor while skiing.Some guys were beat just because they thought that the other guy had fell and stopped skiing.
Had to ski against that 10 years old kid at his starting speed of ...26 mph!All the guys were giving me advices like i was going to ski at 41 off.
They all told me NOT to reach at bouys which was the first mistake i made.By 6 ball,i was sinking to my ankles and the ski stayed there and i went down...at 26 mph,15 off!:D
Water was very rough for qualifying but could have done better if it wouldn't have been for that horrible 197 wake ...(Did i type that out loud?)

[BriEOD]

Congrats Andre!!!!!!!:cool:

[east tx skier]

Way to go, Andre!!!

[H20ski Dude]

That's great for Andre & what a cool event.
why did everyone have to ski against someone so much older or younger? wouldn't it make sense to pit skiers of the same ability off one another.

we should organize something like that here in Ontario. any ideas you can throw my way would be great. I can approach some of the local dealers.

I'm also glad to hear that the mastercraft dealer is a big supporter of slalom skiing. I find that most ski boat dealers in Ontario are only interested in wakeboarding and the boats that tow that discipline. can't forget the roots!

[MSOUCY-TT]

Thanks Brent and André for talking about my tournament, it is a small tournament but skiing against someone next to you is special (too close for André!!) compare to those long day skiing once or twice.

The way it goes it simple: your score of the morning round(rating ball count net) is post on a board for a seeding set-up(like tennis). Top seed against lower but you always start at the sppeed or line of the lowest seed. After the first two round, usually the kids are usually already in the consolation round but last sunday, André let one go thru...!!!

Anyway, my biggest accomplishment is to get some skiers in a tournament like the regular ones in the morning, but then ski another 3 to 5 sets and having fun at every ends talking to your ``competitor``.

I have not re-invent anything, it is existing already but rarely at a local tournament.

And yes I am proud of still covering the slalom tournament more then the wakeboard ones, even if I am selling more wakeboard boats!

That is why André skied behind 2 PS 197 TT with mini tower...

Michel

P.s: I will be glad to help you in anyway for having that format use in your future tournament

[MSOUCY-TT]

That tournament is actually more for those skiers that we don't see during regular event but are dying to ski that one. 2 courses next to each others, sitting and talking to you ``friend`` at every hand, running a 26 mph and being happy to come back at 28 mph because the kid is still there...it is all that.

Anyway, here are 2 links from the father of the winner. Scott came for winning(like in 04) so since he was not filming , it is not as professional as the January skiing movie! And he lost in final...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DA09n8kfVE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pYz0SyU9rA

[André]

A couples of pics from the event...
5 MC were provided by Montreal MC.Missing on that pic is a 00 190 that was use as a shuttle...

[André]

07 TT boat in the background and a black 06 197 that was use in the Head-to-Head comp...

[André]

Coming back from my first ever set in a competition.
2.5 balls at 28 off...Enough for me to smile knowing that peoples had bet on me for falling on my opening pass.:D

[André]

Scott who finished second (and is also the winter waterski video guy),John, who was driving in that video,Brent and me.
All very tall guys,i'm 6' 2" ...
Greats guys!:)

[MSOUCY-TT]

Others pictures

[MSOUCY-TT]

We had 5 boats on the water , but also 3 on site

[MSOUCY-TT]

second one

[MSOUCY-TT]

finally the third one

[MSOUCY-TT]

That was one of the 3 pick-up boat... Quit interesting to here all the comments about that CSX!!!

[MSOUCY-TT]

From a another boat

[MSOUCY-TT]

Poor guys that had to pick André...