The local Mulwala Water Ski Club Show Team stamped their dominance once again in their sport on the weekend, successfully winning their fifth National Show Ski Title while representing NSW at the Max Kirwan Ski Park.
Defeating a talented Western Australian team who finished second and the skilful Victorian team in third, the NSW team scored their highest ever points for a nationals competition to claim victory.
The competition ran over two days with the first day featuring team competitions seeding the teams for the finals.
The (local) NSW team, directed by experienced local skiers Abbey Hicks and Braden Ellis, started well on the first day but saved their best for the last day of competition.
Friday’s events featured individual swivel, individual jump and team jump competitions, with local skiers also doing well in all three events.
With more than 60 local skiers, boat drivers and officials the NSW team were well in front after their Friday performance and finished off well with their final show. In fact, their final show score would have placed them well in a world event.
The jumps, barefoot action, large ballet lines, doubles act, wakeboard tricks and skilful swivel skiing brought huge cheers from the crowd of up to 1,500 on the Sunday.
The NSW show also finished with an impressive 16 person, four-tier pyramid that wowed everyone from the crowd to the judges including three who came from Belgium and the USA to adjudicate.
The scores in the end showed the NSW team were clear winners with 1725 points, in second was the WA team with 1443 and close behind in third place was the Victorian team with 1417 points.
Team members were ecstatic and very thankful to see so many locals come out to the ski park to support them.
Overall event director Pete O’Neill said the team, which is made of mums, dads, and their kids along with some of the more experienced skiers, just got better as the event progressed.
“It was great to see all the hard work paid off for the team,” Pete said.
“There have been a lot of long hours put in by all the team members, young and old, especially as we hosted the event.
“We have a great support crew including employees at the club and skiers with their mums and dads, from setting up the site to organising the show.
“The team was awesome and should be very proud of hosting the tournament and even more so with their performance.
“A big thankyou to the Mulwala Water Ski Show Team, you are all such an amazing team, from the boat drivers, observers, parents and helpers right through to the skiers, you all helped to get us to this level and to bring home the national championship now five times in a row.
“The whole event has a great feel to it, it was really sociable, people got along really well and they had a lot of fun.”
Pete said officials are aiming to have another national event in 2024 in the lead up to the 2025 World Ski Show Championships to be held in Mulwala in March 2025.
“With the World championships here in 2025 it would be ideal to have a lead up event in 2024, whether it be in Perth or even back here, but this is all yet to be worked out, so stay tuned,” he said.