2003 Winter Haven, Florida Junior and Senior Worlds Wrap-Up

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Tournament Wrap Up
The 2003 Jr/Sr worlds hosted the second largest number of competitors at any world barefoot championships in the history of the sport. Twelve countries competed for the top honors with 93 total competitors at the event. (12 Jr Girls, 29 Jr Boys, 15 Sr Women, and 37 Sr Men). No injuries were reported for the 6 day competition.

Recent changes in the qualification standards allowed more independent competitors than ever before. This change combined with the change in the number of independents that advance to the semi-finals made for an interesting challenge to the Chief Judge and the tournament organizers. There was not enough time in the week to run the tournament!

Fortunately for the host club, and all involved we were in Winter Haven Florida where there are plenty of lakes and boats. So the solution was to pull a set of officials from the WBC members present and run a second lake with all of the senior elimination rounds of tricks and slalom. This required us to go buy some more gear. Anyone need a new video camera?

Banana George loaned us his boat for the second lake, and fortunately we were able to catch up to the point of being back on track to finish the tournament by Sunday. Thanks to all of those folks involved that made that happen.

We also faced a host of boat problems, and a little storm that took down the circus tent. We had some shocking problems with the power pole, but eventually we got it all fixed and were able to have the video feeds under the circus tent, and everyone back at the same site.

God blessed us with excellent weather for the competition with only 1 afternoon that we had to shut down for a storm. This is indeed a miracle as the weather pattern in Florida has been extreme all summer long. Generally we had days in the mid 80’s with nights in the mid 70’s. The water temperature was running cold at a 78F temperature. Lot’s of sunshine to tan all those white European legs too.

Tuesday night we had the opening ceremony at the host hotel which came off great. Wednesday night the Aussie’s closed down our local pub “Rocco’s”. We took a visit on Thursday night to the USA Waterski Hall of Fame to toast the 30 year anniversary of the first International Barefoot Competition held in 1973 at Cypress Gardens. Many of us were surprised to see that a very large portion of the hall of fame is full of barefooting memorabilia! Friday night was a trip to see the Tampa Bay Lightning play hockey, and Saturday night was another night at “Rocco’s”.

The semi-finals ended on Saturday with the USA on top in both Jr and Sr events. Andre Devilliers gave us a spectacular show of tricks that resulted in a new jr world record, and is very close to the elite world record. I’m sure that Andre is planning to be the next world champion in Australia.

Sunday was devoted to the finals, and we had quite a show. When the competition ended we had a few demonstration runs while the judges were getting the final results together. Brett New did a little jump demo and KSO brought it on with a cool trick run. The Geico Gekko took a pass, we saw a Bro-dee-O, and Banana George took the final victory lap to close the day.

The last party for the week was the awards ceremony. In addition to our own dignitaries, we had Kuno Ritschard the IWSF president, and Steve Mcdermeit the president of the USA Waterski on hand to help with presentations and awards. We had a packed house with no open seats. Good food, good friends, and quick speakers made for a great evening. Thanks to all the folks who made this possible.

Sincerely,

Brent Benoist
Former Tournament Director…

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