Two of the comedy fills in the show involved a message from Adam, the team’s old announcer, to Jed & Brian, the team’s new announcers, to let them know what the 7 Golden Rules of Announcing are. These fills don’t involve skiing, but they should keep you laughing.

7 Golden Rules of Announcing [video]

A full Mad-City tournament recap and highlight video are coming soon.

Mad-City Ski Team Opening Pyramid - State 2010

The Mad-City Ski Team will compete in the National Water Ski Show Tournament on Lake Wazeecha, near Wisconsin Rapids, on Friday, August 13 through Sunday, August 15. Because the team will be out of town, the free weekly ski show at Law Park will not take place on Sunday, August 15. The team will return to the shores of Lake Monona for a show on Sunday, August 22, starting with the junior team at 5:30 and the full team at 6:00.

Individual Mad-City team members will compete in the tournament on Friday, August 13. Then, at 9:20 am on Saturday, August 16, the full Mad-City Ski Team will take to the water.

The Mad-City show and the tournament will be webcast by USA Water Ski.

Webcast Details

The 2010 Show Ski Nationals will be webcast live the weekend of August 14th & 15th by USA Water Ski. The Mad-City Ski team will take to the water 2nd on Saturday the 14th at approximately 9:15am. If you’re unable to make the trip to Lake Wazecha near Wisconsin, Rapids, be sure to tune in to the webcast . The webcast page will go live each morning at 730am when the competition starts. The link won’t work until then.

If you’re interested in making the trip to view the tournament in person, Lake Wazecha is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes from the east side of Madison, WI and is near Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Click here for driving direction.

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.

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.

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.

You can now view the Mad-City Ski Team’s 2009 National Championship show online right here. Just press play below.

2009 Mad-City Nationals Show [video]

For the full results of the 2009 tournament, click here.

In the future, a higher quality version of it will be online, but for now, enjoy.

You can watch our show from our first tournament of the 2010, the Mercury Open, online now. The video is below.

Mercury Open Show [video]

The team took 5th place at the tournament. You can view the full results here.

NBC 15 Morning Show Weekend Live from 6/20 [video]

Mad-City’s Opening Pyramid

In the tournament, Mad-City took 5th place overall and was only about 160 points from 3rd place.  With lots of places in our show for our team to continue improving, we were very happy with our overall show and placement. The state tournament is just 3 weeks away and we plan to put on a great show for everyone up in Wisconsin Rapids on July 19th.

Final results of the all the teams were as follows:

1. Rock Aqua Jays
2. Wonder Lake
3. Webfooters
4. Water Bugs
5. Mad-City
6. Beaverland
7. Lauderdale
8. Aquaducks
9. Five Seasons
10. Minneiska

To view more pictures from the tournament and all of our shows, please visit Jim’s Photos.

The tournament will be held on the Rock River at Traxler Park in Janesville, WI at the Rock Aqua Jays’ ski site (follow link for directions).

With several members having moved away or taking time off this season, the team on the water is young and eager to prove themselves on the water at their first tournament. For many members, it’ll be their first time competing in any tournament.

One thing that will provide a challenge to Mad-City, and all of the other teams competing, is the Rock River itself. With all of the rain in southern Wisconsin over the past several weeks, the Rock River is currently very high and with a reported very swift 6 MPH current. The current will be fast enough to move you nearly 100 feet in about 10 seconds.

For the complete running order of the tournament, please visit the Rock Aqua Jay’s website.