The Eastern Region Winter Membership and Council meetings will be on Saturday, January 15, 2000, with the Council meeting beginning at 9:00 AM and the Membership meeting starting at 1:30 PM. Sunday may include various clinics. Please let us know what clinics you would like - Judges, Safety, Drivers, Scorers, etc. For any clinic with enough interest we will try to find an instructor.

There will be no formal banquet on Saturday night, but the Delaware Park Casino, a large shopping mall, and numerous restaurants are available within several exits. A limited number of rooms are available at the Best Western Delaware Inn for $55 per night for Friday and Saturday nights. Please make your reservations early, like now, by calling the Best Western Delaware Inn at (302) 738-3400 and mentioning the waterski meeting for the preferred rate.

DIRECTIONS: The Best Western Delaware Inn is located at 260 Chapman Rd, Newark, Delaware 19702. (302) 738-3400.

From NORTH - take the New Jersey Turnpike to the end, follow signs for I-95 South to Exit 3. At Exit 3 follow signs for 273 East-Dover, at first traffic light turn right to hotel.

From SOUTH - take I-95 north to Exit 3A in Delaware, exit and follow signs for 273 East-Dover, at first traffic light turn right to hotel.

Please come early, stay late, enjoy the meetings and clinics, and help guide the Eastern Region into the new millennium. Regardless of your level of skiing, past participation, or type of skiing, the weekend activities will be a great time to learn, share, fellowship, and participate. ACTION NEEDED NOW:
Hotel Reservations:
Best Western Delaware Inn, Newark, Delaware
Call (302) 738-3400 and ref. waterski
Clinic Information:
Steve Lohr

Men Slalom Finals
Andy Mapple  5 @ -39
Steve Cockeram 3 @ -39
Kreg Llewellan 2 @ -39

Wade Cox 4th -- 1.5 @ -39

No other US Skiers made it into the men slalom finals.  Mike Morgan and
Chris Parrish lost their gates at -38 and -35 respectively in the
preliminary round.

Women Tricks
Tawn Hahn 7880
Elena Milakova 6910
Britt Larsen 6590

Rhoni, Brenda, and Brandi did not make the finals.

Women Jump
Emma Sheers 47.8m
Toni Neville 47.8m
Rhoni Barton 46.7m

Emma beat Toni in the tie breaker.  Brandi and Brenda made the finals, but
did not place.

On Sunday, the following events will be held:

Men Jump -- All U.S. Skiers made the finals.  Freddy, Scot, and Ryan.

Woman Slalom -- Kristi and Rhoni will ski.

Men Tricks -- Cory and Russell will ski.

The men and women overall events will be conducted separate from the
individual events.  Each competitor will slalom, trick, and jump.   Men
include Jaret L., Kreg L., Patrice Martin, and Jason Seels.  Women are Rhoni
Barton, Elena Milakova, Britta Llewellan, Marina Mosti.

Overall Team Standings
Canada
US
France

At the close of Saturday's competition, the US trailed Canada by
approximately 200 points.

Sept. 19 Safety Clinic sponsored by Port Indian Ski Club Contact Suzan to register

Joe Biaforo, hardworking tournament director for 99 Nationals could be seen with a shovel, staple gun or other tool almost all the time that he wasn't driving the practice boat or driving his 4WD & trailer around and checking on the myriad tasks necessary for a tournament of this size and caliber. I also met the fellow responsible for the nice LONG JUMPING ramp and set up at Ski West - Dee Johnson, and another hard working guy with the magic jumpwax (alledgedly available from Home Depot) Gary Delano. Add to that a seemingly uniquitious and help[ful hospitality lady - (I believe Laura ?) kept things humming. Obviously there are many more folks behind the scenes that I did not meet, but from my vantage point, they pulled together and made for a really nice tournament. Long and exciting jumping, (see Jim Cara's site www.Skiflying.com and his "boards" under Nationals for discussion of the jumping and speed control at Nationals), plus super slalom led the way. Tricks might have been affected by the shallower lake and its effects on wakes, but there were many many really high scores. Just ask Russel Gay - 11,620 !

Except for some rough edges at Monday official practice - compounded by an item not under the tournament director's control - a certain large and market leading boat company not supplying sufficient boats so that their brand boat could be continuously available for tricks (skiers felt this item was serious enough to be brought up at Nationals Membership meeting), I'd call the tournament a 9.9. (as the song goes - "and on a scale of 1 to 10 friends, there ain't no 10's). On the site before the tournament - Saturday and Sunday - unofficial practice - we've never been treated as graciously at a Nationals. I'd go back in a heartbeat next year. Make your flight reservations and hotel reservations early - 99 Nationals was well worth it.

Under the able leadership of Chief Judge Bob Cosby (Western Region) and Chief Driver Larry Cox (SouthCentral Region), the appointed and volunteer officials ran a tournament with little controversey, while using RPM based speed control for jumping for the first time at Nationals, and also "all bouy" slalom timing for the first time at Nationals. Thanks to Eastern Region officials - Assistant Chief Judge Bill Baker, Assigned/Appointed Judges Donna Laskey & Ed Nichols, Scorer Marie Baker, Announcer Barry Sangrey, and Drivers Lee Mershon and Jon Thacher.

Well, the East garnered 23 total medals: 1 Gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze, 8 4ths, and 5 5ths. We had 64 skiers participate from the east.

The Connecticut crowd from Avon led the way. Anchored by a very strong performance from B3 skier (also an alternate on the National Jr. Team) Oliver Loeffler (2nd in jumping, 3rd in slalom and 5th overall), and B2 skier Harry Fulton (1st in jumping, 4th in slalom and 4th overall) - the Avon group did more than "just all right". We can only wonder "what might have been" if Jena Hinman had not injured herself at home on that unfamiliar beast called a trick ski. Jena was unable to jump, and was hampered to hand tricks only. Nevertheless, she came in 4th in slalom and 5th in tricks in W2. Brother Dana banged out a 206 foot 4th place in probably the most exciting Open Men jump event in years, while Avon's unofficial "godfather" Tom Hinman in M4 (yes 4) came home with a 2nd in jump and 2nd overall. Lisa Loeffler garnered a 4th in W1 jump. That's a dozen medals from essentially one club !! Way to go Avon !!

The Virginia contingent was minus a few members due to schedule conflicts with an important event taking place Friday and Saturday in Milwuakee (Sue Lohr's wedding), but those present held their own. Gordon Gay was 3rd overall in M5, Al Luck won 2nd in M6 slalom, while Sparta's G3 skiers & National Jr Development Team skier Tracey Lamb - (3rd in slalom) and National Jr. Team Skier Natalie Hammel (5th in tricks, 2nd in jump and 5th overall) together delivered for 2/3 of Virginia's half dozen medals.

Rounding out the east's medal hunt was B1 skier Jonathon Paulovich (NJ - Twin Lakes) 3rd in slalom (setting new B1 ER Slalom R Record 1@32 off) and 4th overall, Stuart Abelson (Mass.) 5th in Open mens tricks, Barry Sangrey (Pa.) 4th in M4 jumping (and a super announcing job by Barry - especially Open Men's Jump), and lastly Fritz Hassler (Md.) with a 4th in M5 tricks.

The final Nationals results including all the 64 Eastern Region skiers are available on the USAWaterSki home site. I hope to see more Eastern Skiers next year.

Roger Hammel.

Order of Events
Saturday: Slalom Round 1, Slalom Round 2, Trick Round 1
Sunday: Trick Round 1, Jump Round 1, Jump Round 2
Diamond State Waterski Team Inc.
Silver Lake - Silver Lake Road
Middletown, De.

Nationals 1999 - skier's eye view.

The site in Bakersfield is awsome - high was 85 degrees Tues and Wed, with almost no wind and no humidity. Skiing conditions are great. People hosting tournament have been VERY friendly and helpful - totally hospitable. 8 ski lakes within sight of each other, all with islands at the end and perfectly shaped. Only 4 are being used for the Nationals (room for larger nationals or shorter event on more lakes?).

Unofficial Nationals results of ER skiers through Wed 8/11. 
(some scores may not be reported here) 
B1-Jon Paulovich, S-3rd-67 buoys (Pending Eastern Region "R"
tournament record), T-8th-1280, OV-4th-1750
B1-Brock Hazen, S-31st-45 buoys
B2-Harry Fulton, J-1st-99', S-4th-52 buoys, T-21st-720, OV-4th-2289
B3-Oliver Loeffler-J-2nd-154'
M5-Gordon Gay, S-33rd-42.5 buoys, T-11th-1690, J-6th-91', OV-3rd-2333
M5-Lee Mershon, S-31st-43.5 buoys
M5-Bill Harris, T-18th-830
M6-Al Luck, S-2nd-50 buoys
Open Men - Russell Gay, T-1st-11620
W4-Donna Laskey, T-8th-1560, S-16th 37 buoys
W4-Julie Harris, T-10th-1020
W2-Jena Hinman, S-4th-50.5, T-5th-960 (Jenna injured her ankle
a few days before Nationals and was not able to jump, so no overall)
W1-Lisa Loeffler, T-10th-2110, S-25th-28.5 buoys, J-4th-113',
OV-6th-2169
W1-Betsy Harris, T-6th-3030
G3-Sara Roach, T-10th-2300
G3-Tracey Lamb, S-3rd-51 buoys, T-12th-1150, J-6th-98'
G3-Gigi Hazen, S-22nd-43 buoys
G3-Natalie Hammel, S-13th-46 buoys, T-5th-3350, J-2nd-119', OV-5th-2810
G2-Courtney Swift-S-10th-32.5, T-11th-1390, J-13th-56'
G2-Marcie Goeden, S-11th-32 buoys

Eastern Region Waterskier Natalie Hammel medals in Mexico.

Natalie Hammel of Herndon, Va., youngest member of the US Junior Team, was awarded two Bronze medals in the America's Challenge in Los Morales, Mexico this past weekend. Natalie's results netted her third place in Junior Team's slalom behind older US teammates Regina Jaquess and Tarah Benzel. In Jump, Natalie also won Bronze, with Regina Jaquess finishing second for the silver medal. Overall, Natalie again won third place, as the US swept overall Junior Women awards 1-2-3 with the Jaquess-Benzel-Hammel trio. The Junior Team won Gold, thanks to the ladies' efforts coupled with some very strong skiing by 3 event phenomenon Jimmy Siemers and overall skier Matt Curmi.

Natalie is sponsored by IntensitySports and Performance Ski & Sports - both of Orlando, and mom & dad of Herndon.

U.S. Teams Bring Back the gold

Press release from USA WaterSki -
U.S. Teams Bring Back the Gold - Junior, 17-21 and Veteran Teams Win Titles The U.S. Junior, 17-21 and Veteran Water Ski Teams dominated the Americas' Challenge last weekend in Los Morelos, Mexico, winning three team gold medals and 20 of 24 individual gold medals awarded. In all, the US captured 40 of 72 individual medals that were awarded.

Five U.S. athletes won individual gold medals in overall out of six possible. Winning the overall titles for the Junior Team were Regina Jaquess (2895) Jimmy Siemers (3000); 17-21 Team: Joey Blakley (2800 and Brandi Hunt (3000); Veteran Team: Leza Harrison-Davies (2706).

The U.S won four of the six slalom titles. Winning gold medals were Junior Team member Jaquess, 17-21 Team members Holli Hunt and Charles Mueller; and Veteran Team member Rondi Huso-Lang. Five of the possible six tricks titles were won by U.S. athletes: Jaquess, Siemers, Holli Hunt, Blakley and Harrison-Davies. Winning jumping titles for the U.S. were Siemers, Brandi Hunt and Huso-Davies.

Other athletes representing the U.S. were Curtis Rabe, Jeff Smith, Matthew Curmi, Tarah Benzel, Natalie Hammel, Caroline Wolfe, Benny Lohr and Daniel McCormick.

Olympics Challenge

Mr. Steve Lohr
Executive vice-president
USAWS Eastern Region

Dear Steve,

You may recall that at our winter meeting I mentioned that the IWSF would begin a fund drive to help finish the job of getting water skiing in the 2004 Olympics.
The fund drive has begun with a web site where you can donate through a simple credit card transaction. The IWSF has set a very modest donation level of $150 for ski clubs. How many $25,000 ski boats are in each of our ski clubs? How many $500 slalom skis? $150 for a whole club is a bargain considering what we are doing for the future of our sport, the future of our young, junior skiers who are just beginning their careers in skiing. In five years and every four years after that, they could be shooting for Olympic Gold, if the IWSF can succeed in their mission. I also know that the chances are much worse if the effort isn't adequately funded.

On behalf of the South Jersey Ski Club, I have made the Olympic Club donation. I would like to challenge the Eastern Region and all of its clubs to join my club by making a similar donation and receiving their Olympic Supporter Certificate. On its way to achieving 100% participation, I would like the Eastern Region to challenge the other Regions to do as well as we will. The IWSF will publish an Honor Roll of those making Olympic donations and I would like the Eastern Region to hold a prominent place on the Honor Roll. Further, I would like to to publicly post this challenge letter on the Eastern Region web site for all clubs to see.

The donations may be made by simply accessing
http://st14.yahoo.net/iwsf
and reading about the IWSF's efforts in its Olympic Campaign.

Along with making the donations, I would like every club member to sign the IWSF Olympic petition. Once again this is easily done on line by accessing
http://www.iwsf.com/guestbook/sign.htm

You can see the petition at
http://www.iwsf.com/guestbook/guestbook.htm

With these two modest gestures by our ski clubs and their members, we will be doing our part to secure the future of our sport for our junior skiers. Let's join in and proudly say that we were an essential part of a successful drive to have water skiing in the 2004 Olympic Games.

Yours truly,
Bob Corson
President
South Jersey Ski Club

Change in Nationals Schedule

After some discussion it has been decided to reverse the order of events
for SATURDAY .
LAKE 1 will be MEN 1 Slalom followed by MEN 2 Jump.
LAKE 2 will be MEN 4 Slalom followed by MEN 1 Tricks.

RATIONALE
In discussions it was felt that it is more difficult for Jumpers at 7:30 in
the morning to get started that Slalom skiers.

Observations

by Roger Hammel
What do you do when you have your own lake, are a die hard skier, a coach and instructor, promoter of jr development & juniors in water skiing but your children have grown and left for college ? No one to coach and instruct in the fine arts of tricking, slalom and jumping. Well, as a solution you can "import" to your lake young skiers busting at the seams to learn the sport. At least that's what Steve Lohr, our EVP, and his wife Ann are doing.

I've had occasion to drop by Lohr's Lake 4 or 5 times in the past several weekends, and am always finding that Steve and Ann still have managed to fill their dock with young skiers. Some refining technique in the course, some going at it for nearly the first time. Many fresh faces and a few familiar ones. Weekends, you still see mostly all juniors. Not Benny & Sue nor Bobby Hughes doing flip-a-bouy slippery slalom (flip between EACH slalom bouy using a trick ski to run the course) any longer, but a new set of faces, imported for the weekend. Learning fundamentals and growing the sport.

I agree with Steve, that the huge leaps in progress these beginning youngsters make in very short time periods can be most rewarding to a coach. As an example, in a single day a couple of weeks back, they had a young lady who had not previously completed the course using the end gates improve to the point of running the full course, properly letting go with the outside hand around the buoy, and upping her completed pass speed by nearly 4 mph. Recently this same lady entered her first class C tournament, and skied quite nicely.

Thanks to the Lohrs. And like Steve and Ann, I am sure there are many success stories like this in our region, teaching, coaching and growing the sport. I'd sure like to read about them on this webpage. Grow or stagnate.

For the elite team going to the Pan Am Games in Winnepeg Canada this August, Russell Gay, a former Eastern Region Skier known for his world class tricking was selected to the team, based on his outstanding score of nearly 11,600 points. Russell defeated perennial winner Cory Pickos Thursday afternoon in the third round to gain a berth on the elite team.
On the 17-21 year old 6 member team which is slated to go to the Americas Challenge in Mexico July 11 weekend, Benny Lohr was selected based on his strong overall-three event performance.
On the Junior team (under 17) which also goes to the America's Challenge, Natalie Hammel was selected to the 6 member team for strong performances in Slalom and Jump. Oliver Loeffler was designated an alternate, based also on Slalom and Jump scores. Natalie pushed up her slalom personal best to 2.5@32 off, while Oliver racked up a personal best with a powerful jump of 158 feet, going over the McCormick Lake's big red jump set at 5.5 feet. Look for even bigger things from both Natalie & Oliver - they both are looking strong !
Also of note at the Team Trials, Southern Region skier Regina Jaquess (father and mother are former Eastern Region skiers from the 70's) set a pending National slalom record and then tied her pending record later in the tournament series with a huge 3@38off. Prety exciting to see that level of skiing.

5 EP's at Dubes Pond Slalom

Dube's Pond Ski Club held their three-round Slalom Fest on Saturday June 19. There were 26 skiers in this class-C event. Buoy counts of 50 or greater were achieved by:

Mens 2:
Paul Myers	50 (EP)

Mens 3:
Tony Rotella 50.5
Dave VanHam 56 (EP)

Mens 4:
Jan Stoklosa 51 (EP)
Bruce Epstein 51 (EP)
Bill Putnam 51 (EP)

SHOW SKI CLUB ON TV

Well, Sy Becker was finally able to make it to the ski club last night (Thurs). And this is all the notice I have! Our Team will be featured on Channel 22 - WWLP 5:00 broadcast tonight - Friday - May 28th. Becci is interviewed and skis, Cassy skis. In the ballet line (girls on one ski) Becci is closet to shore. In the parade of young skiers, (4 kids on dock/ 3 made it, they're on two skis) Cassy is also closest to shore. In the pyramid, Becci is on the second level, center girl. When we get more practiced, there would be one more level making it "4hi". This was our first time on the water, so we're a little rusty. Of course it was sunny before & after we skied, cold, windy & rainy while the camera was rolling! Hope you enjoy.

New Safety Coordinators at Lake Mohawk, NJ

The Safety Clinic held this past weekend for the Lake Mohawk Show Ski members was lots of fun and the weather was perfect. There are 6 new Safety Coordinators with lots of enthusiasm. Thanks to all!

USOC JUNIOR TEAM MEMBERS SELECTED

Congratulations to three Eastern Skiers who made the USOC National JR Team.
The Team consists of the the top 16 skiers in the Nation. They recently had a clinic in Florida with United States Waterski Coach, Jack Travers and other elite coaches (Cory Pickos, Marc Bedsole, Rhoni Barton, Brandi Hunt and Michael McCormick). The three skiers were: Natalie Hammel, Tracey Lamb and Oliver Loeffler.

Congratulations to the following twenty Eastern Region USOC Team Members:
Kyle Mahan, Sara Roach, Jamie Harrie, Matt Laurentano, Chris Lavigne, Harry Fulton, Micheal Beaudoin, Paul Beaudoin, Cory Humburg, Markus Loeffler, Steve Arnberg, Alex Laurentano, Johnathan Paulovich, Eddie Wiley, Jamie Aurino, Courtney Swift, Jason Driggers, Marcie Goeden, Tom Henderson and Gigi Hazen. Two clinics will be held for these skiers at a date that is yet to be set.

 

• bath house
• camp area
• swimming beach]
• jump ramp

• boat ramp
• slalom course
• floating dock
• covered boat storage available at additional cost