The East is at risk ….. We have several sites in the East that are at risk for not being able to run 3 event tournaments in 2017.  And some single event sites that are teetering on being able to run a slalom tournament.

Those sites, from what I can determine, from NJ and south are likely OK; those north of NJ will likely run into issues.

We have 3 event sites that have landed with a single point of failure because there is only one judge that has the applicable credentials to run all three events.  We all know that slalom can be covered (for the most part) since that event has the highest concentration of regular/senior judges; for Jump we are getting slim with judges with the appropriate ratings and for Trick we are running on a very weak thread. 

Personally I have done all that I can do to replenish the pipeline of officials (many have landed with cramps in their hands from the number of forms that I had them to sign), however what I have seen is that we have a limited number of assistant judges willing to move up the food chain and gain a regular judge rating, especially in Trick.  The other issue is State Safety officials – they are far and few between; again, for some sites, all the eggs are in one basket and if certain people win the lottery – buy that island in the Pacific – then we have sites that will not be able to have tournaments because certain officials can’t be cloned.

If you are a trick skier and you have an assistant judge rating; or you are a parent of a trick skier; I implore that you work towards applicable judge rating so that our 3 event tournaments can continue.  We need more officials with a ‘regular’ rating.

If you are a skier that can be fast tracked …. what are you waiting for?

For those veteran officials, please continue to work to find your backfills.  You need an exit strategy, please please please pass on your knowledge and experience to those around you.  Put kids, spouses and parents in towers, in boats, at the computer and in front of a monitor – expose them to what happens behind the wizard curtain.  Once that wizard curtain is open and we see that there is only one person standing behind it ….. we are in big trouble.

The unintended consequence of not having the appropriate judges with the appropriate ratings is that there will no longer be 3 event tournaments close enough to participate in; which means those seeking overall scores to qualify for regionals and/or nationals will lose the opportunity to do so.

What can you do to help?  Ask someone because we need you!