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2009 Ending Pyramid
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.
The Mad-City Ski Team competed at the 2009 National Water Sk Show Tournament at Shorewood Park in Loves Park, llinois the weekend of August 7-9 with the goal of winning a fourth straight National Championship. Continue reading '2009 National Champions'»
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Mad-City’s Ending Pyramid at the Wisconsin State Tournament
The Mad-City Ski Team is competing at the National Show Ski Tournament this coming weekend at Shorewood Park in Loves Park, Illinois (near Rockford). The tournament features 14 teams from around the nation.
Mad-City will take to the water at approximately 9am on Saturday morning and will have one hour to perform our water ski show which features barefooting, human pyramids, doubles, trios, ballet, free style jumping and swivel skiing. The team has won the National Champioinship the past three years in a row and four of the five last years (Championships in 2004, 2006, 2007 & 2008).
For people not able to make it to Shorewood Park on Saturday morning for our show, the entire tournament will be webcast by a collobaration of USA Water Ski and the US Olympic Committee. The webcast can be viewed here (the link will start working at 730a on Saturday.)
The team also has members competing in the individual competitions taking place on Friday at the tournament. Ann Tieman will be competing in the swivel competition, Carly Cates and Paul O’Connor are competing in the doubles competition, our Jump Team is competing in the team jump competition and both Paul O’Connor and Dan Benz are competing in the free style jump competition.
Ann Tieman competing in Swivel at the Wisconsin State Tournament
You can check out more details regarding the tournament in these two documents. They contain all of teams and indivuals competing, including the running order:
The tournament results will be announced late Sunday afternoon, probably between 5 and 6pm. A highlight clip of our ski show, similar to our state clip mentioned below, should be ready sometime late in the afternoon on Monday.
In July at the Wisconsin State Show Ski Tournament, the team took 1st place for the 4th consecutive year giving us five state championships in the past six years (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009). At the tournament, the team was recognized for having the best ballet act, jump act, pick up boat drivers, dock & equipment personnel, audio presentation and most outstanding female skier (Kristen Block). You can view a short highlight clip of our State Championship show below:
Comments Off The 2008 National Show Ski Tournament was originally scheduled to take place at Traxler Park in Janesville, Wisconsin, but, due to the high waters that affected the southern part of Wisconsin and much of the mid-west the most prestiguos tournament was moved to Wisconsin Rapids, the same site as the Wisconsin State Show Ski Tournament.
Having Nationals in Wisconsin Rapids made it almost seem like a second state tournament for Mad-City. It’s a ski site a lot of us love and the Wisconsin Rapid Aqua Skiers always hosts a very fun tournament and we always seem to have a good time when we visit.
The tournament kicked off Friday morning with individuals taking place and Mad-City had a number of our members competing in the individual competition. In the individual Swivel Ski Competition, our own Ann Wittenberg took to the water first.
Ann competing in the Swivel Competition
Following Ann for Mad-City was Kristen Armstrong. Also competing in the swivel competition and she put together a great routine, even poking fun at the fact that she had to move around to find a place to ski.
She began her year skiing for the Tommy Bartlett Ski Show in the Wisconsin Dells, however, due to the flooding and subsequent drainage of Lake Delton, the Tommy Bartlett show was no longer and on the water and she eventually made her way to the Mad-City Ski Team.
Ironically, when she came to Mad-City, Mad-City was also on the move. Our primary ski site on Lake Monona in Madison had too much water and was “Slow No Wake” so we weren’t able to ski there. We were able to secure a site on Lake Wisconsin, only to later find out we had to move a couple hundred yards up the shore, and then encountered some blue-green algea forcing to just hold land practices. In spite of Mother Nature’s effort to keep Kristen off the water, she still put together a routine that was good enough for 1st place in the swivel competition.
Kristen competing in the Swivel Competition
The next event was the doubles competition. Mad-City had a couple qualify for this event as well. Paul O’Connor and Carly Cates competed and did very well for the first trip to Nationals. They suffered a bit of a snafu with the sound for their short opening dance and skit, but, they took to the water with a sliding dock start. Unfortunatly, Paul lost a ski on the start, but they skied away and completed their first couple passes before they needed to get Paul’s lost ski. Here are a couple pictures from their run…
Paul and Carly in Doubles - Notice Just the One Ski
Paul and Carly in Doubles
After doubles, the final event taking place on Friday was the Team Jump Competition. Mad-City features a large group of very talented jumpers, however, on that day, it simply was not meant to be. After waiting through a two-hour delay caused by stormy weather, the Mad-City jump team took to the water and competed and that’s about all we can say about it…
One of the highlights of the act was Rock Cates jump. Unlike some of the other jumps, he skied away.
Rock in Team Jump
Mad-City's Jump Team
After individual’s wrapped up, the team gathered together at a picnic shelter for our normal pre-tournament team meeting. Our picnic featured some tasty pizza from a local pizza place, a slight change from our pot-luck that we have prior to our State Ski Show weekend, a pot-luck that normally features the Wang families fanstastic turkey sandwhiches. This meeting allows us one last chance to go through all of the details of our show… our intros, our dances and our comedy skits.
One of the few changes from our State ski show was that we decided to revamp some of the comedy and we completely redid one of our skits.
A week before Nationals, Adam Schaller and Matt Baumler (our announcers) put together a brand new playlist for a new dance they planned to do and sent it to Eric Wedige (me, our sound technician) so their new routine could be put together. After a long ski practice and late night of editing, I sent them back their new song to dance to. At the picnic, they performed their new dance in front of a crowd for the very first time and we, the team, loved it. (Here’s the video of them performing it at Nationals.) Here are a few pictures from the team picnic.
Team Picnic
The Kids in the Pick Up Boat
We did take time for our team picture…
The 2008 Mad-City Ski Team
Finally, after months of preparation, Saturday arrived. The culmination of almost 10 months of preparation and countless hours of behind the scenes work, we were about to put on the the most important show of the year. We gathered at the ski site early, where some of us grab an early breakfast, while others eat some leftovers from the night before, and others simply pace around the site anxiously. Finally, show time arrives. Instead of a ton of pictures of every act, here’s a highlight clip of the ski show…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU9Y5DWYCqg&hl=en&fs=1]
Mad-City 2008 National Highlight Clip [video]
With the show over, now we can all relax. The rest of the weekend is spent relaxing, watching the other ski teams’ shows and having a good time. Sunday afternoon finally arrives and the last ski show finishes up. All the ski teams gather on the beach for the award ceremony.
First up for the awards are some awards from the individuals. Here is Kristen collecting her trophy for 1st Place in the Swivel Competition.
Kirsten - 1st Place National Swivel Competition
After the individual awards are handed out, they start doing the act awards for the tournament and Mad-City collected a few of those…
Mad-City Wins Best Ballet
Mad-City Wins Best Barefoot Act for the Backfoot/Backbreaker Combo Act
Best Jump Act - Tony, Cyndi and Paul
Best Swivel Act - Kristen, Kelsey, Kristen and Ann
Mad-City also won manys of the traditional box scores…
Best Pickup Boat Crews
Best Boat Drivers... and Riders
Best Sound Crew
Finally, it was time for the overall team awards and Mad-City had a long wait to find out their placement, which is always a very good problem to have. They work their way from last to first.
Anxiously awaiting, they made their way to the final two teams…and they were both announced simultaniously.
2nd place had 1981.4 points and 1st place had 2069.22 points.
And then they announced that the Rock Aqua Jays took 2nd place meaning that we, Mad-City, had taken 1st place. Our show directors for 2008, Matt and Kristen run down to accept the award and the team follows them down in a crowd dust.
Mad-City Celebrating 1st Place with a Mad-City Team Woo Ha!!!
Kristen and Matt Celebrate
Mad-City - The 2008 National Show Ski Champions
Much like State weekend, Nationals weekend was very successful for the Mad-City Ski Team. We took home the awards for Best Ballet, Best Barefoot Act, Best Jump Act, Best Swivel Act, Best Pick Up Boats, Best Tow Boats, and Best Sound Crew, and had the highest scoring act of the tournament with our Comedy Act. We also had the best showmanship and had the 2nd best pyramid act.
The 2008 National Championship is Mad-City’s 3rd National Championship in a row and 4th in the past 5-years. We previously won in 2004, 2006, 2007 and now in 2008.
Attached is the Official Scores: 2008 National Results
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In the most recent issue of “The Water Skier”, the magazine for all USA Waterski Members is a great article about Mad-City and our National Championship!!
Click on the link below for the article in PDF format.
Comments Off The Nationals weekend was a long, hot weekend for the Mad-City Ski Team. The culmination of almost a years worth of hard work, sacrifice and dedication paid off in the most amazing way imaginable. We put on one of the best ski shows in the history of the Mad-City Ski Team.
The Following is a picture recap of our weekend, special thanks to Jim’s Photo’s and Eric Wedige for the pictures. Please visit www.JimsPhotos.com to view our complete seasons worth of pictures.
Friday Jump Competition
For the second year in a row the Mad-City Jump Team took home top honors for the best jump squad in the entire country. The competition allows every team five-minutes to perform any number and combination of jumps and are judged on difficulty, flow, crowd appeal and execution.
Our team hit the water first and put on a show that no one was able to match! You can view more pictures of our team jump competition at Jims Photos (Link)
Double Gainer
Four Man Front Flip
Quad Helicopters
Ladies and Gentleman, Your national champion Jump Team!!
Saturday Nationals Ski Show
The temperatures on Saturday were climbing into the mid-80s by 9:00 A.M, we knew we were in for quite a day. Mad-City skied third after the Janesville Rock Aqua Jays and host ski team the Ski Broncs. Our show finally hit the water at about noon. More pictures can be seen at Jims Photos Website (Link)
The story behind our show is that with the addition of announcer Matt Baumler, who brings with him a theatrical style all his own, he is looking to make the Mad-City Ski Team over, make us into a theatrical ski show. However, our incumbent announcer, Adam Schaller is resisting, satisfied with Mad-City’s free-wheeling, rock and roll, style ski show. Who will win? Lets find out!!
Sandy, Libby, Taryn, Ann, Kristen and Teri welcome you to our show with a pre-show dance!
The trumpets begin to blare, and that means only one thing…
Welcome to a “Tale of 2 Ski Shows”!!
Kicking our show off in style, a 7-man Bacwards Barefoot Line
Matt Baumler, your court jester!
Our 4-2-4 Opening Pyramid Team
Adam doesn’t look like he is enjoying this! Lets try something in Mad-City Style.
Montage – Jeff on a sky ski
Montage – Kirk and Beau on shoe skis
Montage – Paul on a wakeboard
One Act Show – A Mad-City Original! Shoe Skis, Four-High Pyramid, Strap Doubles and a Pinwheel!!
Now, back to Matt’s style. Hey Meistro, Give me some rhythm!
Ballet – Your Mad-City Dream Girls
Ballet – Dream Girls on the water
Ballet – Dream Girls on stage w/ Matt.
Now we head back to Adams style of ski show, some freestyle jumping
Jump 1 – Paul and Scott perform a double gainer
Jump 1 – On the Dock
Matt won’t stand for this, here comes a pirate theme….
A Pirate Theme? Jack Sparrow thinks so!!
Star Swivel – Kristen Heilman on the water
Star Swivel – Ann Wittenberg, Joey O’Connor, Laura Fick and Kristen Heilman
Adam has other ideas about this Pirate theme! Here comes the Mad-Ciy Big Act!
Big-Act – Trio
Big-Act Doubles
Big-Act Swivel Line
Big-Act Star Staggered Swivel
Big-Act – Conventional Doubles
But wait, what is this? Matt coming in as Adam? This should be good.
And it is…here comes our national champion jumpers again!!
Jump 2 – Dan Wang, Paul O’Connor and Kirk Schultz perform the hangman (Flip over Helicopter and Flip)
And now, Taryn and Adam have a little ditty…or two!
Fellowship and Fun!!!
However, here comes Mad-City’s biggest pyramid ever!!
Our Ending Pyramid – 4-2-4-2-4!
Together at last, Matt and Adam in the “Original” Evolution of Dance
The “Original” Evolution of Dance
Evolution of Dance
Evolution of Dance
But, now its back to business. Welcome the tournament MVP, Paul O’Connor!!
Jaw Dropper – Gainer
Jaw Dropper – Front Flip
Jaw Dropper – 720 Helicopter!!
Stickin it!!
The Skip Gilkerson Award Winner for Best Male Skier – PAUL O’CONNOR!
Not to be left out, a tweak on a Mad-City Original. the Guy/Girl Combo Line!!
The guys on the dock!!
15 guys and 15 girls = 30 person ballet line!!
Combo Ballet on the water – HUGE!
Ladies and Gentleman, YOUR 2007 Mad-City Ski Team!
Sunday Awards Ceremony
After an entire weekend, numerous shows and a amazing amount of nerves…the time has finally come to reveal the winner of the 2007 national championship!
First up, the award for best Ballet Line!
Chris accepting the award for best ballet line of the tournament, our 30 person combo ballet line!!
Next, award for best jump act…no surprise, its….
Paul O’Connor with driver Tony Wang and rider Cyndi Pickney for the Jaw Dropper. A Front Flip, a Gainer and a 720!!
Next award is for best swivel ski act of the tournament…and the winner is?
The Mad-City Star Swivel, Ann Wittenberg, Joey O’Connor, Laura Fick and Kristen Heilman! The best group of swivel skiers in the nation!!
Mad-City doesn’t stop here, next up is the award for best Male skier at Nationals. The Skip Gilkerson Award goes to?
Paul O’Connor!
Turning our attention to the behind the scenes action, the award for best dock crew goes to?
Mad-City! Our ladies behind the scenes get some well deserved recognition!
An important part of every show is the pick-up boat crew, and the award goes to?
Mad-City! Jim and Liz McKenna and Caprice and Lee Vanderkolk take home the award for best pick-up boat crew!
Turning our attention to the tow-boat crew, could it be a sweep of the boat driver awards?
YES!! Tony Wang, Gary Pickney, Don Heilman and Jerry Wesner, the best tow boat drivers in the country!
Bringing the announcers words and the music to your ears, here is the award for best sound crew.
Mad-City Again!! Matt Baumler, Adam Schaller and Eric Wedige claim the award as best sound crew!!
And now…the drum rolls.
The best ski show in the entire country goes to?
MAD-CITY!! Show Director Chris Coupland picks up our award, with show committee in tow!!
and now we celebrate with the traditional dip in the water!!!
Your 2007 National Champion Mad-City Ski Team!!!
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Following our National Championship, and right before, the Mad-City Ski Team has got quite a bit of publicity!! The following are some links to various articles and other media about the Mad-City Ski Team.
Mad-City Team Up – Isthmus The Daily Page (Thursday August, 16 2007)
Mad-City Ski Team Retains Title – Wisconsin State Journal (Tuesday August, 14 2007)
Show Ski Gold – Wisconsin State Journal (Saturday August, 11 2007)
Watch The Ski Team Perform – Wisconsin State Journal Video (Saturday August, 11 2007)
Mad-City Ski Team to Compete – Wisconsin State Journal (Friday August, 10 2007)
Here is what some of our competition had to say following the National Waterski Tournament:
Wonder Lake Ski Team (Wonder Lake, IL) 2nd Place – Northwest Herald (Tuesday August, 14 2007)
Janesville Rock Aqua Jays (Janesville, WI) 3rd Place – Janesville Gazette (Monday August, 13 2007)
Ski Broncs (Rockford, IL) 11th Place – Rockford Register Star (Monday August, 13 2007)
Comments Off coming soon… again.
Note: The following article is taken from The Capital Times, you can view the original article at www.madison.com
The Mad-City Ski Team got all wet Sunday afternoon and they couldn’t be happier.
The team won its third national championship in four years Sunday on the Rock River in Loves Park, Ill., a victory that came with a trophy and a most welcome tradition on a hot summer’s day.
“The winning team goes for a swim,” said Mad-City show director Chris Coupland when contacted by phone Monday morning. “It was a very welcome celebration.”
Mad-City won the national show skiing title in 2004 and again in 2006.
“It was pretty convincing win,” Coupland said. “We swept the box scores and Paul O’Connor was voted the most valuable skier at the event.”
14 teams, mostly from the Midwest, competed in the division 1 championships, with each show ski team getting an hour on the water to perform 13 separate acts of the team’s choosing.
Judges award points for each of the 13 acts, with the winning team amassing the most points based on execution, difficulty, spectator appeal and flow.
Mad-City competed on Saturday, the third of seven teams going that day, with the other half of the teams skiing Sunday.
Coupland said the conditions weren’t the best when the team’s 57 skiers hit the water Saturday morning.
“It was a strong current and a little breezy, but the team did a fantastic job,” he said. “The team really came together the past two weeks.”
The team puts on Sunday evening shows all summer on Lake Monona, skiing off of Law Park next to Monona Terrace. It has three free shows left this year, Aug. 19 and 26 and Sept. 2, all starting at 6 p.m.
About 80 people, including skiers, boat drivers, announcers and support staff, went to the national championships from Mad City. The skiers range in age from eight years old to 52 years old.
The show ski championships also award titles in three events besides the overall team trophy. Mad-City won first in the team jumping competition.
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It wasn’t long after Mad-City won the 2007 Wisconsin State Show Ski Tournament that the focus was shifted from celebration to preparation for the 2007 National Show Ski Tournament, which is August 10-12 in Loves Park, IL.
But now the dust has settled and we can look back a bit at the State Tournament while at the same time spinning around the telescope and peering ahead to the national tournament.
To that end, we asked our show director, Chris Coupland his thoughts and feelings regarding the State Tournament and where Mad-City is and where we need to go to caputre our second straight National Championship.
1) What are your feelings about winning the 2007 state tournament?
Obviously it feels great to win again. I don’t think that will ever get old. I wish we could have skied cleaner though.
2) Comment on the work going into the show and how everything came together
It’s been a long Season. It took us longer to put the show together this off season due to the possibilities that we had to work with. I was very concerned about us pulling all of the pieces together until everybody stepped up the last two weeks and committed to putting in the extra effort. Hopefully we continue to do that and we achieve the holy grail and have “The Perfect” Show in 2 weeks!
3) Thoughts about competition during the tournament and upcoming for nationals?
It’s always tough to compete against Janesville. I’m sure they’re going to fix the problems they had and bring their A game to Nationals. In addition, you’ve got Wonder Lake and Little Crow that are ready to win again as well.
4) Sum up entire experience so far.
It’s been a crazy summer. Getting married on June 1st and then coming back to the thick of things. Fortunately for myself and the team that we have a lot of veteran skiers and support personnel that don’t need to be micro-managed. I just hope that we can stay focused and push strong through Rockford.
Mad-City is proud to be sponsored by:
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