You know, I sure have heard a lot of bitching about the state of this sport. I think I've read at least three threads between this site and the other in which people claim "they are finished." Now, I'm not criticizing those people, or their reasons for leaving. If I was a racer, I'd probably want to quit too.
BUT, I thought I'd offer up this thread as the positive side of things.
Prior to finals, I had grown a bit jaded with the sport and industry. We all know that this isn't a cheap habit, regarding both money AND time. The announcement of the freestyle surf slam provided a fleeting glimmer of hope for a new avenue of competition. It wasn't long before it was realized that it was just another competition to further the reputation of those already in the freeride spotlight.
At finals this year, I had the pleasure of speaking at great lengths with Jimmy Visser about riding, the sport, competing, and everything else jetski related. I met Jimmy breifly last year at the oceanside competition. I was awe struck that I got to ride in a competition with a man who's name I had known for YEARS. But he came off as a bit arogant. That judgement was definitely a bad one.
Jimmy has real passion about our sport, and really seems to have it's best interest at heart. He explained some of the reason why he believes it is in the IFWA, and the competitors best interest to stay away from the man-on-man format of scoring for freeride events. The biggest reason against it being that, this sport can not sustain a model in which competitors travel over seas on their own dime, to possibly have a boat break down a minute into their heat, and be eliminated for the rest of the competition.
We talked about how to make it financially feasable to travel to Europe and compete in the IFWA tour. He offered some amazing advice in a very real world, humanly possible way. He explained that the international competitors and promoters WANT Americans to come compete. They recognize that jetskiing is an American sport, and they don't feel like it's a complete international tour without us.
And one of the most flattering parts of the whole conversation was a bit of validation for what I was trying to do with the blaster when I was actually riding it. I showed him a couple clips of my backflip attempt, and my rolls. He gave me some advice for getting that last little bit of rotation that I need. He told me that I do Barrel Rolls the "Right" way, and that his nose high method is just how he does them, not really the correct method.
All in all, I'm amped, and super stoked. I think competing internationaly might be possible after all, and I want to get my blaster back together more than ever. If you've read this far, I'm impressed....this was a hell of a ramble. But I just wanted to offer some positive talk after World Finals.
