This past weekend Jay Bennett and his Tri-Lakes ski crew hosted the premier waterski jumping event of the year in Zachary, Louisiana. Throughout the weekend, there were slalomers, freestyle jumpers, and of course our Waterski Pro Tour tournament the LA Night Jam presented by Tides Medical. After three rounds of distance jumping, the winners of the tour stop were Jack Critchley who leaped 222ft (67.8m) in the men’s finals and Hanna Straltsova who jumped 175ft (53.4m) in the women’s finals.
The men’s field of the tournament started with thirteen athletes who were narrowed down to the top six for the finals. This weekend, the cutoff score to make it out of the preliminaries was 212ft (64.7m)! The field was so strong that two skiers jumped over 200ft (61m) and were sent home early.
On the women’s side of the event, six skiers competed in preliminary rounds where just one would be eliminated before the finals. During the elimination rounds, top seed Hanna Straltsova had the furthest jumps of the women’s tournament jumping over 180ft (55m) in both rounds!
After a long day of skiing, the tournament finished off with the coveted night jump event. The women’s division was controlled by Hanna Straltsova who’s 175ft (53.4m) jump beat her nearest competitor by nearly 20ft. The men’s competition was much closer. Jack Critchley won the event with a score of 222ft (67.8m), but the next four closest skiers all tied with a score of 220ft (67.1m).
Our spotlight skiers of the weekend were Dominique “Dodo” Allard, and Brandon Schipper. Neither of our skiers made it to the final round, but they put up some big scores in the preliminaries. Allard’s best score of the weekend came in the first round where she jumped 164ft (50m), and Schipper jumped 202ft (61.5m) in the first round as well.
After LA Night Jam Waterski Pro Tour jump leaderboards have shifted. On the men’s side, the top three skiers are currently: Freddy Krueger (100pts), Taylor Garcia (96pts), and Jack Critchley (86pts). The top three women are currently Hanna Straltsova (68pts), Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya (60pts), and Regina Jaquess (45pts). If you are excited for more jumping on the Waterski Pro Tour, be sure to tune in on August 27th and 28th for the California Pro Am. Our next tournament stop will be overseas for the Monaco Slalom Cup on June 28th.