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By eric, August 6, 2010 12:11 am

This Sunday, August 8th, the Mad-City Ski Team will put our ski show back on the water of Lake Monona. The show begins at 5:30 pm with our Junior Team performing a short show. Then at 6:00 pm, the full team will perform our first home show since Sunday, July 11th, nearly a month ago.

The water level at Law Park on July 24, 2010

The team’s last show on the water was at the Wisconsin State Water Ski Show Tournament on July 17th, where we took 4th place. Following the tournament, we held two Junior Team practices and a Learn-to-Ski Clinic at Law Park before torrential rain fell on July 22nd. That heavy rain triggered Dane County to issue a Slow No Wake Order for Lake Monona on July 24th due to the extremely high water.

With our ski site under a Slow No Wake Order, the team was forced to cancel two home shows (July 25th and August 1st) as well as a sponsored private show. With the cancelled shows, the team lost significant donations that help fund our shows. What made the show cancellations especially difficult was the fact that, on all three occasions, the ski site had glass-like water, which would normally be perfect conditions for a show.

Still needing to practice, the team got creative and held land practices to work on our stage presence and choreography. We then found another place to practice on the water and ended up transporting our large floating dock and all of our boats to the middle of Lake Mendota. Although the middle of any lake does not offer an ideal ski site, it gave the team a chance to get back on the water as a group for a couple of practices.

Pyramid Practice on Lake Mendota

Pyramids on Lake Mendota

The team now has just a few practices and one show before the National Show Ski Tournament taking place next weekend at Lake Wazeecha near Wisconsin Rapids. There, we will compete against 13 other teams for the title of National Show Ski Champion. The Mad-City Ski Team has earned this title for four of the past five years.

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By eric, July 15, 2010 9:42 pm

The Mad-City Ski Team will compete in the Wisconsin State Water Ski Show Tournament near Wisconsin Rapids on Thursday, July 15 through Sunday, July 18. The team skis third on Saturday will perform our show at approximately 930am on Lake Wazecha. With 25 teams competing at the tournament, the tournament is the largest water ski tournament in the world. For more information about the tournament, please visit the Wisconsin Water Ski Federation Website.

On Thursday, two members of the ski team competed in the individual competitions. In the swivel competition, Sara Tubbs placed 3rd and Brea Imse placed 5th. Both will likely compete at Nationals in August.

Because the team will be out of town, the free weekly ski show at Law Park will not take place on Sunday, July 18. The team will return to the shores of Lake Monona for a show on Sunday, June 25, starting with the juniors’ team at 5:30pm and the full team at 6:00pm.

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By eric, July 12, 2010 12:37 am

This summer, as part of the Madison Public Library’s Splash Into Summer program, two of the Mad-City Ski Team’s skiers did a presentation at the Hawthorne Library Branch to a group of preschoolers to talk to them about the ski team.

Danielle and Mallory Talk about the Mad-City Ski Team

After watching a short highlight video of the teams’ 2009 season, Danielle and Mallory explained the many different aspects of show skiing, from pyramids to barefooting to swivel skiing to jumping. Assisted with a wide variety of team equipment, they told the kids all about how we do all of the tricks out on the water. They also answered several very unique questions, the kinds that only kids can think of.

The kids to inspect the water ski equipment first hand

At the end of the presentation, the kids were allowed to inspect all of the equipment first hand. Surprisingly, many of the kids found the long ski ropes to be some of the most fun to play with, although the spinning swivel binding was also a big hit.

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By eric, June 7, 2010 3:15 pm

The Mad-City Ski Team performed a small exhibition ski show in front of the Edgewater Hotel’s pier on Lake Mendota in downtown Madison, WI on Thursday, June 3rd as part of the hotel’s Jump Into Summer event as well as for the Sunset Party being held on the hotel’s rooftop which has hosted by Dane County Lakes and Watershed Commision and the Clean Lakes Alliance.

At the Sunset Party, the Dane County Lakes and Watershed Commission handed out their Water Champions awards for 2010. After the awards were handed out, the ski show started. In the album below are some pictures of the ski show taken from the rooftop of the hotel. It was a small, quick show, but the perspective from the rooftop is unique.

2010-06-03 - Mad-City - 2010 Edgewater Show

(06.03.2010, 50 Photos)

Click on the album to view all the pictures, click on the picture to view a larger image.

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By eric, March 3, 2010 2:59 pm

There is a new section taking shape on the team’s website. At the top you’ll notice a new tab called ‘History‘. There you’ll be able to find out all kinds of interesting information about the team, including theme information, awards won and vidoes. So far there is info about 2008 & 2009, but more will be coming soon.  Be sure to keep an eye on that section.

As for right now, I have pretty good information dating back to 1998, but if you have information on earlier years, or pictures or videos to share from yesteryear, please email it to the team at info@madcityskiteam.com.

In the meantime, here’s the team’s 40th Anniversary Video that shows highlights from 1963 to 2003.

40th Anniversary Video (1963-2003)

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By eric, January 28, 2010 11:17 pm

This weekend, Matt Heilman and Dan Wang will travel to Winter Haven, Florida to attend the USA Water Ski Awards Reception at the Admirals Inn. The awards reception celebrates the 2009 water ski season and will honor awards recipients from all of USA Water Ski’s sports divisions.

Matt and Dan will be accepting the National Show Ski Associations Team of the Year Award for the Mad-City Ski Team.

You can find out more details about all of the awards being presented on USA Water Ski’s website.

This will be the fourth year in a row that Mad-City has won the NSSA Team of the Year award (2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009). Previously, Mad-City was named USA Water Ski’s Team of the Year for 2008. That was the first time the award was presented to a show ski team.

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By eric, January 12, 2010 2:19 pm

Skipper Buds, Malibu Boats and the Mad-City Ski Team held the 1st Annual Project Snowflake on December 19th to raise money for the American Family Children’s Hospital at the UW Hospital. Despite nearly a foot of snow on the ground and a lake that was just starting to freeze over (they had to do some ice breaking the night before) the event was a great success. With just a couple weeks of planning, the event went great, raising about $3000.

T-Shirts are still available. If you’re interested in purchasing one, you can contact Mike at Skipper Buds. Click here to make a donation to Project Snowflake.

Skiing in front of a great crowd that was also braving the cold weather, the team did a small ski show that was appreciated by everyone. Most of the skiers knew what they were getting into and dressed appropriately for the cold conditions (dry suits and much more) but a few decided to brave the very cold conditions planning on the hot tubs being hot. However, they were only lukewarm. Everyone had a lot of fun and everyone that skied now has a new definition of what cold water really is.

We’re planning to do this again in 2010 with the tentative date being Saturday, December 4th.

Links:

• More Pictures from Jim’s Photos
• Local News Coverage – Announcement – Recap – Video

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By eric, September 1, 2009 1:59 pm

USA Water Ski has begun posting the shows from the 2009 National Water Ski Show Tournament online.  Here is the official announcement.  You can find the video archive online here (as of 9/1/09, only Mad-City and Wonderlake’s shows are online with the rest to be added soon.)

As a reminder, you can view the State Shows online here.

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By eric, August 31, 2009 7:29 pm

Ending Pyramid Intro at the 2009 National Championships

The Mad-City Ski Team was named the USA Water Ski August 2009 Team of the Month today.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The Mad-City Ski Team won the national team title for the fourth consecutive year at the 35th Division 1 Show Ski National Championships, Aug. 7-9, at Shorewood Park in Loves Park, Ill. Mad-City, which has won five national titles in the past six years, tallied 2,131.64 points in the 14-team field by sweeping box scores for Dock & Equipment, Pick-Up Boat, Towboat Driving, Showmanship, Overall Show and Sound Crew, and earning top-scoring awards for Ballet, Jump and Swivel. Mad-City’s Paul O’Connor (Belleville, Wis.) – who won the national freestyle jumping title and performed several incredible feats, including a 720-degree helicopter; a two-ski mobius; a one-ski mobius; a one-ski front flip; several tricks on his wakeboard; and centered the team’s four-tier pyramid – received the Skip Gilkerson Award, presented to the top male performer at the Nationals.

The team is now eligible for the US Olympic Committee Team of the Month award for August 2009.