Waterskiing in Ireland is at a minority to other sports but is still growing in popularity throughout the country. One of the positives in having a small number who compete is that everybody knows everyone. For people who don't know what waterskiing consists of, there are 3 disciplines slalom, jump and trick all of the separate disciplines have there own techniques but the key to each is having good balance.
Slalom is skiing down a course of 6 buoys on one ski. the measurements from the boats gates in the centre of the course to the buoys is 11.5 meters .Each time you run a pass (complete the 6 buoys) the speed will go up by 3 km/h once the skier reaches there max speed for their division 55km/h for women and 58 km/h for men the rope gets shortened which makes it even more difficult for the skiers to reach the buoys. Slalom is definitely my favourite of the 3 disciplines as I love the feeling of joy and excitement as you go through those closing gates having ran a new personal best or even just having a really nice pass.
Jump is going over a ramp on two skis the overall aim is to travel the longest distance but for your score to count you must land the jump if you fall your score for that jump will not count. In competition you jump 3 times and your best score is counted.When the skier is going out to jump they choose there speed the maximum is 58km/h.The height of the ramp varies for the different divisions.Once you get to the higher speeds and compete at a higher level you start to cut across the wakes behind the boat to create speed to jump further. I really enjoy jumping you get a great sense of satisfaction when you land the jump.
trick skiing is definitely the most challenging of the 3 disciplines, imagine trying to balance on a bar of soap that is what trick skiing feels like.the trick ski itself is a small,smooth oval shaped ski with no fin.This makes it very hard to get control of the ski. In competion the skiers are given 20 seconds to complete their routine of tricks, the first pass is for hand tricks which is all the flips and the second pass is for toe tricks which is doing tricks with their foot in the rope!I havn't got the hang of trick skiing yet, I can get up on the ski but I'm a bit far off yet from doing all the flips and toe tricks so i'll have to keep practising.