Kakamas 2010 Report Back
As much as the truly spectacular and world-class site of Lake Grappa blew away the minds of the skiers and officials at the SA Waterski Championships which took place in the Northern Cape, so did the weather blow away chances of any personal best of SA records for the event, which was held from 24 – 26 April 2010 in very windy conditions.
Arriving at the site was akin to seeing Las Vegas for the first time. Travelling either from Cape Town via Springbok and Pofadder (8 hours) or east to Johannesburg along the N14 (9 hours), one travels past vast tracts of land – shrub, vineyards, citrus and not much else – for hundreds of kilometers. Then, in a beautiful valley between the Augrabies Falls and Kakamas, you come across Visser family’s 680 x 70 metre private ski course on their 2,000 Ha. farm – which was dug with their own equipment and people in 14 months. Completed in 2008, the ski site now includes guest cottages, camping sites, a huge clubhouse and is now one of the finest in the world, and it is there that the 2012 European and African championships (Under 21) will take place.
With an entry of 46 skiers representing both South Africa and Namibia, hopes were high for many records to tumble. GJ Visser, who had just earned the top skier award at the All Africa championships in Namibia, was hoping to improve on his already impressive 4 buoys on 11.25 metres which he achieved at the 2009 EAME (Europe, Africa and Middle East – but the Middle East defected to the east so it is now EM). Gabriella Viljoen, fresh from taking second at the Moomba Championships in Australia, was hoping to improve on her astonishing half buoy on 11.25 before she left for a string of competitions in the United States later in May, while Lizette Bekker (Senior Ladies 2) and Jan Johnson (Senior Ladies 3) were hoping to break SA records they had broken earlier this season in ramp and slalom respectivel
All African Championships.
South Africa were the overall winners at the All Africa Waterskiing Championships at the Von Bach Dam over the Easter weekend, winning the team event with 6 139,45 points, while Namibia came second with 4907,74 points. South Africa’s GJ Visser was the male All Africa champion in the slalom event, while compatriot Simon Fairbank was the male All Africa champion in the tricks and jumps events.
South Africa’s Leandra Le Forestier was the female All Africa champion in the slalom and tricks events.
Namibian skiers however excelled by winning some of the individual categories that were contested.
Andre Mostert was the overall champion in the Senior Men’s category, Silja Waldschmidt was the overall champion in the Girls Under 14 category and Sylvia Schmidt was the overall champion in the Girls Under 17 category.
South African skiers won the other individual awards on offer, with Simon Fairbank winning the Open Men category, Eamon van der Merwe winning the Boys Under 14 award and Tyrone Stroberg winning the Boys Under 17 category.
Two new All African records were established at the event with Leandre Le Forestier setting a new record in the Senior Women’s Slalom event, while Eamon van der Merwe set a new record in the Boys Under 14 slalom event.
For the first time, Wakeboarding was included as part of the All Africa Games and the contestants thrilled the crowds with some amazing manoeuvres like the ‘helicopter,’ ‘the scarecrow,’ and ‘the elephant.’
Dylan Mitchell of South Africa was the overall winner of the wakeboarding competition which saw a total of 10 South Africans and two Namibians participating.
The All Africa Championships were preceded by the Namibian National Championships on Friday, April 2, where the various winners were as follows:
Under 12 girls:
Sylvia Schulz of Namibia won the slalom and tricks events.
Under 12 boys:
Dieter Kebble of Namibia won the slalom and tricks events.
Under 14 girls:
Elizna Schutte of South Africa won the slalom event while Namibia’s Silja Waldschmidt won the tricks and jumps events.
Under 14 boys:
Eamon van der Merwe of South Africa won the slalom and tricks events, while Kyron Sprake of Namibia won the jump event.
Under 17 girls:
Natasha Rottcher of Namibia won the slalom; Silvia Schmidt of Namibia won the tricks and Jolynde Aucamp of Namibia won the jump event.
Under 17 boys:
Marco Kiesewetter of Namibia won the slalom; Jaryd Cohen of South Africa won the trick event and Tyrone Stroberg of South Africa won the jump event.
Under 21 girls:
Stephanie Rottcher of Namibia won the slalom while Hannelie Aucamp of Namibia won the jump.
Under 21 boys:
GJ Visser of South Africa won the slalom, while Luke Schmidt of Namibia won the tricks and jump events.
Open Men:
Simon Fairbank of South Africa won the slalom and jumps, while Loic Ricaud of France won the tricks event.
Senior Women I (35-45 years)
Heike Schulz of Namibia won the slalom and tricks event.
Senior Men I (35-45 years)
Gerald Rottcher of Namibia won the slalom event.
Senior Men II (45-55 years)
Andre Mostert of Namibia won the slalom, the tricks and the jump event.
Senior Women III (Above 55 years old)
Jan Johnson of South Africa won the slalom event.
Bon Es Night Skiing
"Sun, camera, action" and "lights, camera, action" were the order of events at Bon Esperanza, the venue of the BonEs Championships by day and a slalom classic by night.
Organisers gave the skiers every opportunity to familiarise themselves with conditions by offering official practice the whole of Friday until late into the night. A persistent breeze and the lack of a warm sun saw the drivers having to don warm jackets. Skiers found the icy wind biting in to their skin, only finding refuge in the warmth of the water at either end of the lake. This did not look good for the nights ahead.
Saturday morning organisers were greeted with yet another problem. The EAME Scoring Software licence had expired over night, something EAME has omitted to advise us poor souls in the southern hemisphere. FortunatelySamantha Martin came to the rescue with an older version of the software which had no expiry date and the tournament began, albeit an hour late.
The first round of slalom, jump and tricks were the order of events. The boats used were all Ski Nautiques, the 196 for slalom and a 206 for jump and tricks (Many thanks to Waldie van Schalkway, Piet van der Merwe and Brian Nieuwstad for their generosity). Many personal bests (PBs) were achieved as conditions were perfect for skiing.
The skiing finished just before the kick-off of the Stormers vs Cheaters rugby match, a prefect way to pass the time (depending on which team you support) before the night skiing started. At 19:45 the first skier in the night classic took to the water in warm, windless conditions. Although the skiing was taken seriously, spectators enjoyed the occasion by lighting fires, burning some meat and enjoying a glass or two (or three, or four).
Sunday was a repeat of the Saturday. But with no rugby to the pass the time, the WP Water-ski Association organised an impromptu head-to-head slalom classic. The top 4 women skiers, based on a handicap system, were seeded and paired against each other, effectively creating two semi-finals and a final. The same was done for the men.Anne Landman won the finals of the women and Tyron Stroberg the finals of the men. These tow skiers then took to the water in "The Battle of the Sexes". Tyronstumbling on his 3rd pass with a total of 15 buoys was not enough as Anne cleared her 3rd pass to take the title.
Prizes were given for the most improved skiers in each discipline. Michael Zaaiman won the slalom prize by shattering his PB by almost 14 buoys, while Mathew Nieuwstad won the ramp and tricks.
Click here for results of the BonEs Champs
Click here for results of the Night Slalom Classic
WP Champs 2010, Mofam Report Back
The Mofam organising committee once again pulled out all the stops for the hosting of the Western Province Open held from 15-17 Jan '10.
The traditional pre-tournament slalom classic started at 9am sharp with the intention of giving the 40 plus skiers 2 rounds. Unfortunately there were some timing technical problems which meant the 1st round took 6 hours to complete, and the 2nd round was postponed, allowing the 1st round of the WP Open tricks to commence.
Saturday skiers were greeted with near perfect conditions with a slight breeze fro the south, just enough to take the wash away. The 1st round of slalom went off without a glitch, which was followed by 2 rounds of jump. It was great to see a large contingent of Namibian jumpers. SA had better up their game if they intend to keep their All African Champion status. A full day of skiing came to an end close to 7pm after the 2nd round of tricks.
The 2nd round of the Open slalom event started Sunday morning at 6:30am. While some were still recovering from the night before, others were tearing up the water in awesome conditions. The early start meant an early finish, allowing the organiser to finish the 2nd round of the classic before the event came to a close.
Thanks to all at Mofam for their hospitality and look forward to next years event
Click Here for WP Champs Results
Click Here for Slalom Classic Results
From http://www.wpwaterski.co.za/
Piketberg lived up to it's reputation by delivering scorching heat over the weekend of 31 October. Ironically the wind was a welcome relief from the heat even though it whipped up the water making skiing conditions difficult. However, those skiers that got in early used the glassy conditions to their advantage and some awesome results were achieved.
On Saturday skiers took advantage of the first WP Ski School where experienced skiers were at hand to help. Most, if not all present, stayed on site for the evening festivities, while on Sunday morning the 2nd of the league events took place.
Thanks to the Viljoen family. Your hospitality is greatly appreciated.
Based on a handicap system, honours in the divisions were as follows:
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Super League -Eamon vd Merwe
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Qualifying League -Elizna Schutte
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League -Carol Lockwood
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Mini-League -Bronwyn de Lange
for detailed results Click here.Click Here
Jan smash's SA record and take's gold and Eame's
South Africa took gold at the EAME (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Championships which took place at Maurik in the Netherlands when Bryanston, Johannesburg’s Jan Johnson won the Senior Women 3 Slalom division on 20 September 2009.
Johnson, who was the SA Ladies Open Slalom champion for two years in her mid twenties, returned to competitive waterskiing after a gap of nearly thirty years. “Although I was not skiing competitively, I skii’d several times a month to keep fit. Then I went through a slalom course at Germiston Lake and realized I was skiing better now at my ripe old age, so I entered the SA Champs in April and broke the SA record in my age division”, she said. 
Ski World’s Don Shead encouraged Jan to purchase a new ‘West Coast’ style D3 ski, and trained her to change her outdated skiing style, which she did with the help of Senior Men 1 champion Richard Levey and her long-time ski training partners, Colin Pepin and Francois Stemmet, with whom she trained throughout this winter. Her SA record of 5.5 buoys @ 55k/ph on 16 metres improved to regularly clearing the course on 14 metres. (In slalom tournament waterskiing, the rope is shortened once the skier reaches the maximum speed for their age division, and for the senior ladies and men’s divisions, it is 55 k/ph).
Johnson cleared 2.5 buoys on 14 metres in the Netherlands in choppy water conditions, beating her closest opponent, Dianne Kirby of Ireland, by 13 buoys. She is now training to compete in all the local tournament waterski championships, and plans to return to Europe in September next year to defend her title at the EAME Championships, which is being combined with the World Championships in Milan, Italy.
Jan’s other sporting achievements include being SA TU Powerboat Champion twice in the Eighties, and competing in National Drag Racing in her B Class Dragster, winning several rounds between 2005 and 2007, and taking the national runner-up title twice.
More Images from her trip, here
Eame Youth 2009
Tyron Stroberg, GJ Visser and Eamon vd Merwe represented South Africa at the Eame Youth championships.
Eamon vd Merwe skiing in the Dolphin(u14) division achieved a personal best of 3.5/14m/55kph in the the prelims.
Tyron Stroberg of KZN had only qualified to ski in the EAME slalom event. Not happy about that, Tyron jumped a new personal best of 31.2m in a warm up tournament, enough to qualify for the jump event in the EAMEs. Tyron skiing in the Junior Boys division got 1.5/14m/58kph in the slalom even and jumped 28.7m
GJ Visser also skiing in the Junior Boys divisio,n scored 3.5/12m/58kph in the preliminary, which was enough to secure a position in the finals. In last effort to break the South African Junior Boys record, GJ put in a monumental performance and set a new SA Record of 4 buoys on a 11m rope, which put him tied for 2nd place with 3 other skiers. Unfortunately GJ had the lower preliminary round score of the 3 skiers and hence was placed 4th, just outside of the medals. Well done GJ!
The whole SA team and SAWF, can be proud of their achievements while on the EAME Youth Tour.
For the full results click here.
World Games 2009
Well Done to Samantha Martin who competed in the 2009 World Games. Pictured below Samantha Martin and Team Manager Eugene Sam
Report Back From Samantha Marthin The trip to the World Games was a life time experience and will never be forgotten. I had the most amazing time. I have never felt so proud to be a South African, and to be part of the 120 member team was awesome. While walking into the stadium for the Opening Ceremony we sang SHOSHOLOZA,something I wish everyone had the opportunity to experience.The organisation in every aspect was fantastic. Every bit of effort was made to make the athletes stay a memorable one. The whole of Kaohsiung pulled together in order to run this huge event. There were 11 900 volunteers helping, which was especially needed with the language barrier. Every lamp post had a World Games banner on it and every bus showed a sport involved in the world games.As far as the WaterSki Team goes, it was made up of Sam Martin (tournament), Shaun Faccio (wakeboard), and Andre De Villiers and Heinrich Sam (barefoot). All waterskiing was run on the Lotus Pond. It was a beautiful piece of water, surrounded by the famous Chinese Temples. It was unfortunately very open to the wind and made skiing conditions difficult at times. But it was a great opportunity to see the top skiers from each country competing.In tournament skiing there was only an overall final, which made competing with the top skiers a challenge. I managed 11th position with only the top 6 going through to the finals. It was just great to be able to learn from other skiers from around the world.We, the SA Waterskiing contingent, supported the SA Team in other sporting disciplines. While supporting the SA Tug-of-War Team, we had the Taiwan Cheer-Leading Team shouting our South African War Cry.I can truly say this was a great trip and an ideal opportunity to promote waterskiing with the hope of having waterskiing an Olympic sport one day soon.I would like to thank all involved, from the SA Waterski Federation, IWSF, SASCOC and the World Games Organising committee.
Samantha Martin |