3 EVENT WATER SKIING
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Slalom, tricks and jumping are the three events of traditional water skiing.
Each skier begins with a 23-meter (75-foot) slalom rope at the minimum boat speed for his age/gender division. Once an athlete has run enough passes to reach maximum boat speed for his division, the rope is shortened in pre-measured lengths until he misses a buoy or falls. Therefore, the skier who rounds the most consecutive buoys at the shortest line length wins the event.
The object of the jumping event is for a skier to jump as far as he can.There are no style points, just pop off of the ramp and fly! Each skier has three attempts to jump as far as he can.
In each age/gender division, there is a set boat speed and the ramp height is set at five feet (1.5 meters) in most divisions. However, elite women jump at a ramp height of 5-1/2 feet (1.6 meters) and elite men jump at six feet (1.7 meters). Although most jump distances for the average male and female range between 80 and 170 feet (24 and 52 meters), the Men's world record is 233 feet (70.9 meters), which is equivalent to jumping as far as someone kicking a 77-yard field goal in football!
A skier attempts to perform as many tricks as he/she can during two 20-second passes. Each trick has a pre-assigned point value and an athlete may perform each trick only once. And each trick must be performed correctly, according to predefined criteria, in order to receive credit by the event judges. The skier who earns the most total points for the two passes wins the event.
Tricks are performed either with the skier's foot slipped into a strap attached to the handle, called toe hold tricks, or with the handle held in the athlete's hands.
