The WWS Travers Cup 2024 Wrap-up

Performing better than anyone in the history of sport is typically a rarity, something that so few have the privilege to achieve, yet when waterskiing comes to Jack Travers Sunset Lakes, the chances of witnessing a World Record increase dramatically. Looking back to the 2021 World Championships at Sunset Lakes, Joel Poland, and Dorien Llewellyn were both pushing the boundaries of the Overall World Record during the preliminary round, with Joel taking over the top seed and setting a new World Record in the process. Fast forward 3 years and throughout the WWS Travers Cup, 3 World Records were broken again here at Sunset Lakes, yet this time both in the Open and U17 category within the Pro event.

With the most competitive Overall field to date, the WWS Travers Cup preliminary round was immediately action-packed. The slalom round started off the fireworks with 3 skiers, namely Joel Poland (GBR), Edoardo “Edo” Marenzi (ITA), and Dorien Llewellyn (CAN), running through the 10.75m line length and many personal bests, all the competitors knew that they would need to bring their top form to make it through to the next round. Moving into the trick event, there were many top scores, with Joel, Dorien, Louis Duplan-Fribourg (FRA), and Martin Kolman (CZE), skiing strong enough scores to separate themselves from the rest of the field, but the battle for the last 2 spots in the final would be hotly contested between young guns Jake Abelson (USA), Martin Labra (CHI), and Edo. With Martin and Edo having a lower-than-expected trick score, they knew their jump scores would need to far surpass Jake’s, as the current World Trick Record holder put out a superb score of 12220. In the end, Jake would miss out on the spots in the finals, but jumping at a slower speed and lower ramp height typically designated for the U17 division, he instead set a new Pending U17 Overall World Record. In addition, Joel would join Jake in the World Record endeavor, as he set another Pending Open Overall World record as well.

As the skiers reset for final day, many of the skiers had aspirations of undoing Joel’s current dominance on the Overall crown, seeing the perfect conditions of Sunset Lakes as a chance to put their own mark in the history of waterskiing. Beginning once again with the slalom event, many of the previous days’ personal best were seemingly hard to come by. Among the biggest upsets of the final round of slalom were Dorien Llewellyn falling at the first buoy at 10.75m, which would prove a massive hole to climb out of for the Canadian, Louis Duplan-Fribourg missing the 11.25m line length, and Martin Kolman finishing with a score of 3@10.75m. With Edo Merenzi midway through the 10.75m line length and Martin Labra missing his 11m line length pass, the field was understandably frustrated with their slalom performances, knowing the monster that was about to come. Joel Poland smelt blood in the water and powered his way through 10.75m, as he often does, to give himself a commanding lead straight out of the gate, finishing with 2@10.25m. Now it was up to the field to catch up through tricks.

Overall is often considered to “live or die” by the trick event, with the potential swing of scores anywhere from 0 to over 12000 points. One mistake can completely upend an overall round. Thus, standing up both trick passes was critical for all the finalists, which almost every skier was able to do. Outside of a frustrating fall for Marenzi, all of the finalists finished with a trick score between 11520 and 12030, which created a dramatic podium race with only one problem, Joel’s score was the 12030-point lead. On another World Record pace, Joel would have to make a large mistake in the jump event to relinquish his hold on the Travers Cup title, yet, the battle between Dorien, Louis, and Martin was increasingly tightening and would come down to whoever won in jump, with Dorien and Martin virtually deadlocked and Louis just behind, needing to make up about 2m in distance to surpass them for 2nd place.

Once again, Sunset Lakes proved to be one of the premier jump sites on the planet, with beautiful conditions allowing the skiers to push themselves to the limit. Young superstar Martin Labra found the stronger wind challenging, looking frustrated with a personal best 207ft jump, knowing there was much more to be found on such a great jump lake. Martin would finish 5th off the podium, but for a 2024 debut from the 18-year-old, it was certainly a mighty strong showing for the future to come along with Jake Abelson. Martin Kolman would be the first to take the water of the podium hopefuls, looking his strongest on tour and finishing with another personal best of 213ft, signaling to the rest of the field that he would not go down without a fight. Next, Dorien Llewellyn, who has struggled to find his form in jump so far this year, showed a glimpse of his old self on jump number 1, flying 219ft through the air a given a small fist bump, which looked to be equal to parts of relief that he had finally found a rhythm or the excitement that he landed himself ahead of Martin Kolman.

Coming down to our final 2 competitors, everything would still be on the line for Louis Duplan-Fribourg. Thriving in strong headwind conditions due to his physical strength, Louis rounded the 600ft buoy and charged into the ramp with ample speed, letting the strong boat pull him to another personal best score of 227ft, a new French National Record and also the lead ahead of Dorien. Finally, it was Joel’s event to lose. Coming into his turn a bit slower than Louis, Joel turned extremely patiently for the ramp, making his approach to the ramp increasingly later with each passing millisecond until the boat roared him through the top of the ramp and a solid opening jump of 222ft. The win was his, but he would need to find a little bit more for a second consecutive Overall Record. With Dorien Llewellyn as the only person to ever break an Overall Record twice in the same tournament, Joel pushed himself to the limit on each jump to join Dorien on that list. Building speed and float on each jump, Joel would finish jumps 2 and 3 with scores of 225ft and 228ft, giving him his second World Record of the weekend and capping a run of sheer dominance this year with only one WWS Overall Tour Stop left to go.

With his 3rd consecutive WWS Overall Tour title secured, Joel’s dominance in the sport continues. But the battle for the remaining podium spots is far from over, as Dorien, Louis, and Martin are all in contention for year-end bonus money and bragging rights, with only 20 points separating them.

All water ski fans are invited to be part of this electric atmosphere at the next stop—WWS Fluid on October 18-19. Get ready to witness more world-class performances and record-breaking moments! Check the WWS Fluid Event page for all the details and come out to support these incredible athletes as they push the sport to new heights.

A special thanks goes out to the incredible team that made this event possible! Huge shoutout to the Travers Crew: Lelani, Jack, Chris, Jon & Nati Travers, Mary & Ron Koenig, Shannon & Branden Waters, Becky Lathrop, Martin Bartalsky, Dan Abrascia & Deb Gradick, Kerry & Mike Morgan, Emily Dammeyer, Christina Delka Rocca, Cole McCormick, Kyle Eade, Cyndi Benzel, Jaimee Bull, Rob Hazelwood, Lauren Morgan, Jenna Morgan, Giannina & Dane Mechler, Felipe & Rodrigo Miranda, and Stevie Collins—what a team!

Also, a big thank you to our WWS team: Tom & David Grey, Alastair Byrd, Steven Farley, Johnny Hayward, Curtis William, Britta & Jaret, who work tirelessly behind the scenes to build a platform that strengthens the foundation of the sport we all love!

 

WATCH THE LIVE-STREAM AGAIN and HIGHLIGHT SHOW

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Records Fall & Champions Crowned At WWS Flordia Cup

 

Here it is; 4 countries, 4 stops, 7 winners, 16 records, 2 Tour Champions, and 1 unbelievable year. The Florida Cup was the perfect cap to an unreal year. After an action-packed tour season, the Overall skiers pulled up to the record-setting shores of Ski Fluid, where most recently Jacinta Carroll became the first woman to jump 200ft, and Joel Poland and Dorien Llewellyn traded World Overall Records in 2021. Needless to say, expectations were high and the event did not disappoint.

Boasting the largest and most competitive female field a WWS event has seen, the Florida Cup was a staple as to how amazing the women’s event can be with the likes of Regina Jaquess, Anna Gay, Hanna Stratslova, and Valentina Gonzalez making their debuts. After having three different event winners this year, namely Paige Rini, Brooke Baldwin, and Kennedy Hansen, the question was if one of these three girls could become the first to win 2 titles in the same year. Unfortunately, Brooke, the tour leader heading into the event, sustained a back injury at the 3rd stop in Austria and was unable to compete. Nevertheless, the women put on a fierce battle from the onset of the preliminary round, with Regina breaking the WWS slalom record, finishing with a score of 1@10.25m, and Hanna breaking the WWS jump record, with a distance of 55.1m. Their performances were so strong in fact, that Kennedy would be knocked out of the event in the first round, thus, securing the Tour points lead and the WWS Overall Tour Title for Brooke Baldwin.

Heading into the women’s final were, in descending order of placement, Hanna, Regina, Paige, and Anna. Beginning with trick, Paige and Anna were considered to be the strongest competitors, but due to a couple miscues, Paige fell early in her toe pass, leaving her in a sizable hole right out of the gate. Anna, on the other hand, showed her World Champion stature, setting a new WWS trick record with a score of 10350 points. Moving into slalom, with Hanna sitting on 8410 and Regina back a bit more at 7130 they both need to step up going into there strong events. Regina, largely considered one of, if not the best slalom skiers of all time, once again put on a clinic in the course, tying her record from the first round with 1@10.25m. Vaulting her into 1st place of the Overall race. Still, the fight raged on, as Hanna powered her way to a personal best in slalom of 0.5@10.75, knowing her strongest event was yet to come. 

Thus, moving into jump, Regina led, Hanna was close behind, and Anna rounded out the podium. All four women jumped exceptionally well, with Paige Rini putting on a spirited performance in an attempt to retake a podium place, and Regina’s grit was on display with her solid jumping having only recently begun to truly recover from her ACL tear last year. But, it was Hanna who would not be denied, setting yet another WWS jump record, soaring 56.5m through the air, and thereby breaking Giannina Bonneman’s 2 year withstanding Overall record. With all the action this year and the return of Giannina next year, the stage has been set for what could be the most exciting season of Overall skiing in history.

 

On the Men’s side of the action, Dorien Llewellyn and Joel Poland once again looked to square off in their seemingly never-ending, heavyweight slugfest. With each of the Men having been to three stops, all 5 were guaranteed to make the finals, allowing for Dorien and Joel to push for high scores in the first round, which they absolutely did. Dorien, being ranked an equal 2nd with Louie Duplan-Fribourg heading into the event, was the first of the two to complete a WWS Overall record-breaking round of 5@10.75m, 11060 points, and a 67.8m jump, which also happened to be a new WWS Jump record. Only 1 minute later, Joel would improve upon Dorien’s score by a mere 5 overall points, with 5.5@10.75m, 11200 points, and a 67.1m jump! Thus, Joel would be the top seed in the finals, followed by Dorien, Martin Kolman, Edoardo Marenzi, and Tanguy Dialland, in that order.

 

Also beginning with the trick event, Martin Kolman reminded everyone why he is the 2019 Overall World Champion with a blistering trick score of 11730. Still, Dorien kept himself well within striking distance with his own score of 11360 with Joel still to trick. After a slightly early fall in toes, the expectation was that Joel would fire back with his impressive flip sequence, but shockingly, Joel fell after his second flip, potentially eliminating him from the title race. Additionally, Edo proved himself to be a future title contender with a personal best of 10790. Then in the slalom event, Martin, who had been seemingly struggling to find his form all year, picked the perfect moment to regain his winning ways, swerving to a solid score of 4@10.75m. Knowing that he was now the favorite to win the event, Dorien showed some nerves on his early passes but pulled himself together at the right time to power through the 10.75m line length, only to frustratingly fall at the final buoy. Yet, his score of 5.5@10.75m put him just 6 Overall points behind Martin and with his strength in jump, was a clear advantage to the Canadian. 

That being said, Martin would not go down without a fight. Despite only performing a 3/4 cut, Martin finished with the second-highest jump score of the round, an impressive 206ft jump, which Dorien would not beat after a 205ft first jump. Still, confident in his jumping, Dorien brought his cut later down the lake and boosted 219 and 220ft jumps to secure himself his first win of the 2022 season, finally able to stand atop the podium to spray the champagne. With these results, Dorien took sole ownership of the runner-up position in the tour standings and Martin found himself rounding out the podium in 3rd place, with Joel Poland’s year-long success leading to his first WWS Overall Tour Title and the golden champions bib for the 2023 season.

WWS Florida Cup The Final Stop 

• Friday, Oct 28th – Preliminary Rounds – Top 5 men and 4 women will advance to the Saturday finals
• Saturday, Oct 29th at 1 pm Finals – Will be 3 hrs of action-packed skiing in all 3 disciplines

 WWS Florida Cup Champions will be taking home $25 thousand USD 

but also the Year End Overall Tour Champions will take home another $14 thousand in bonuses, marking history as the 1st legitimate World Tour Bonus payout in 24 years. “World Water Skiers is super proud of putting together this 4-stop World Tour + year-end bonuses that give credence to the Tour Title.” “All incredible athletes deserve a stage to perform on.”

Please see the “Scheduling Tab” for a complete order of events. Finals will be Live Streamed, so please set a reminder on the WWS YouTube Page

Our Event and Tour Sponsors love our sport and they genuinely want to help build the sport. Please check them all out by doing a little research on them. Maybe even send them a note and thank them for us! Also, don’t forget to hit the share button right on the TOURNAMENT PAGE, below, so all your friends and family can take part.

@WWSOverallTour   or   #WWSOverallTour

“That was awesome,

I never saw skiing like that!”

That is what we kept hearing from fans leaving the site!

WOW

This heavyweight overall battles just keep getting better! The WWS Overall Pro Tour is now two stops into the season and the results continue to keep everyone on the edge of their seats for what is next to come. Following the incredible finish at Lacanau, which saw Louis Duplan-Friburg claim the tour ranking lead heading into the WWS Calgary Cup, Joel Poland, and Dorien Llewellyn lit the lakes of Predator Bay on fire with what can only be described as their World Champion Battle 2.0. Beginning with the slalom event, the men all improved upon their first-round scores, with Conley Pinette, first off the dock, running 4.5@11.25m, followed by Poland, who put the rest of the field on notice with a stellar 2@10.25m. Moving into the top three seeded skiers, Martin Kolman put down a solid 3.25@10.75m, with Louis ending up with a bit of ground to make up with his 3@11.25m, and Dorien rounding out the event in dramatic fashion with a seemingly solid full 10.75m pass, only to wind up late out of 5 ball and with too much slack to handle out of the gates, resulting in his final score of 6@10.75m with no continuation to 10.25m. Point – Poland.

The men then moved into the trick event with stronger winds starting to set in. Conley sparked the Canadian fan base with the first two stand-up passes of the day, clearly excited to be on his way to a great overall score in his home country. Following Conley, Joel looked to take another step towards securing the WWS Calgary Cup, standing up two solid, but slightly altered runs, still finishing with a great score of 11190.

Louis, looking to make up for his deficit in slalom, did just that by smoothly moving through both of his trick runs, only losing his final trick, TWL5B (600 pt trick), to a judge’s decision, giving him a score of 11420 points. Finally, Dorien saw his chance to respond to Joel and looked locked in as he nailed both of his runs, securing himself the top score in trick with a 11610 point total. Point – Llewellyn, tie game.

Heading into jump, the Overall race could not have been any simpler for Dorien and Joel, the name of the game was win Jump, win Overall. Their scores being almost exactly the same after slalom and trick, whoever managed to outjump the other would beat the other in Overall. As the headwind continued to increase in strength, the jumpers struggled to keep up their speed before the turn for the ramp. Conley, who was impressed with a 64m jump in the prelims, couldn’t find his timing in the wind and finished with a 60.7m score. Joel, who has been in fine form in jump this year, adapted from his mistakes in Lacanau to secure a tournament-high 65.2m distance on jump two.

Dorien, the hometown favorite, left the dock as the final skier to strong applause from the Calgary crowd, knowing if he jumped 65.3m, he would win the title. After solid opening jumps of 62.6 and 62.7m, Dorien knew he had to push the limits on jump 3 and launched a visibly bigger jump on the final jump of the tournament. As the crowd quieted to wait for the score, Dorien sunk into the water and Joel raised his arms in triumph. Point – Poland, game, set, match. Dorien finished with a distance of 64.2m, just a meter shy of Joel.

Already being talked about around the world as having the greatest Overall battle of all time, Dorien and Joel found a way to create an even more exciting show at the Calgary Cup. Furthermore, Louis showed that even on a less than perfect day, he cemented his place in the ever-growing 3-way overall battle that will continue to rage this year and into the future. Finally, Martin Kolman continues to prove his consistency and will always be ready to strike at any mistakes made by the top 3 tour-ranking leaders. With the WWS Austrian Cup on tap next, there is no telling what is in store next, so make sure you don’t miss any of the action!

For all the fans that came out and were stunned by what these amazing athletes can do on the water, mark your calendars for next year, the WWS Tour, WILL be back! We look forward to seeing you down at the most beautiful site in the world, The Lakes Of Cast And Stone!

Full WWS Tour Points Standings

Full Photo Gallary Of the WWS Calgary Cup – Johnny Hayward

THE WOMENS’ OVERALL RECAP STORY

Lacanau Always delivers Insane Scores!

As the sun set on the pristine beaches of Lacanau last Sunday, the lakes of (Lacanau Ski Club) finally settled from the excitement of the Lacanau Overall Cup and the Malibu Open. Both of these professional events brought about incredible skiing and hard-fought victories, with the Malibu Open representing some of, if not the highest scores ever seen in a professional slalom event. In order to move on to the finals on the men’s side of the competition, skiers had to finish with a score of 3@10.25m or higher. Continuing on the high-scoring trend, the finals displayed a three-way tie for the lead between Dane Mechler, Jon Travers, and Brando Caruso at 4@10.25m with only one skier remaining on the dock, namely top-seeded skier Nate Smith. Nate, who has been in incredible form this entire year, turned the first 3 buoys expertly at 10.25m and did not hesitate to turn the 4th buoy, seemingly never considering the possibility of skiing for a tie, and comfortably swinging out around the 5th and 6th buoys to run through yet another 10.25m pass.

In the women’s slalom event of the Malibu Open, there was a tough three-way North American battle between Canadian Paige Rini and Brooke Baldwin and Ali Garcia from the United States. Sandra Bottas was the only skier from another
continent to qualify for the four women final. Despite skiing quite well, Sandra wasn’t able to overtake the other three, who had each finished with a score on the 10.75m in at least one round. With the requirement to start at 13m, leading to a tailwind 11m pass, both Ali and Sandra were unable to clear the rope length, finishing with a score of 3.5 and 2 buoys respectively. Next up, Brooke Baldwin, who had been increasing her scores at 10.75 each round of the competition, styled her way through the 11m tailwind pass and finished with 3@10.75m, the highest score of any woman in the event. Coming off the dock as the top seed, Paige Rini handle the pressure well and also made fine work of the 11m line length. Yet, the prospect of needing 3 buoys proved challenging, as Paige turned the 1st buoy too hard for her to be able to hold the angle through the wakes, leaving Paige short inside 2 ball and on the second step of the podium.

As the skiers move on to the next stop of the European circuit, the skiers look back on their time in Lacanau and reminisce on a truly unforgettable experience. The site, the people, the city, the beach, all in all, the memories will last a lifetime and we are already looking forward to next year. If you have not been to Lacanau this city and ski club need to be on your bucket list, they are truly one of the best on the planet. Lacanau is not just an incredible ski site, but with private villas available for rent, a pool, and an incredible restaurant right at the dock   with the friendliest staff you can imagine, it is truly a special place. If you want to get a moment outside of the resort the ocean is 10 minutes away with endless restaurant options right on the beach where you can watch some of the best sunsets imaginable. But as the sun sets on Lacanau, WWS is off to Calgary, Canada, for the second stop of the WWS Overall Tour. On July 29-31 the battle continues to see who will take out the Overall Tour Title.

 

See full WWS Lacanau Cup Overall Story

A Special thank you for all the long hours it takes to put on an event of this level. Hats off to Geraldine, Christophe, the Jamin family, the staff, judges, volunteers, and especially to the sponsors, which are special friends of the water ski community that wants to give back. So please check out the names at the bottom or on the Event Page and drop a personal thank you for their support, it is what builds a stronger foundation for our sport!

Thanks to Eudes M-Tivier for the great shots all weekend –

Friday – Saturday – Slalom

Sunday – Overall finals 

This club is the real deal, not just world-class coaching – a full pro shop, marine sale and repair, Villa Rental, and dockside Restaurant (Lèau à la bouche), and a world-class beach 10 mins away.

Lacanau Ski Club

This coming weekend, the Lacanau Ski Club will bring together the world’s best slalom and overall skiers. Slalom superstars such as World Champion and World Record Holder Nate Smith, Dane Mechler, Jon Travers, and Moomba Master’s Champion Vennessa Vieke. On the Overall end, the event will feature current World Champion and World Overall Record Holder Joel Poland, the Former World Record Holder and World trick Champion Dorien Llewellyn, as well as Brooke Baldwin and Paige Rini, who will both be looking to make their mark in the Overall World Tour over the weekend. The Lacanau ski club, one of the premier sites in the world, has put on countless international events, and the site claims the 1st 230-foot jump by Jaret Llewellyn (CAN), 1st run over 12,000pt by Nicolas Le Forestier (FR), and 1st full 10.25m by Jamie Beauchesne (USA) performed in a pro event.

The Lacanau Ski club is a world-renowned ski school run by European superstars, Geraldine Jamin and Christoff Duverger. The club facilities include a full pro shop, on-site villas for rentals, and a high-end restaurant with fresh food and ingredients provided daily. In fact, you may never want to leave this oasis of a ski club. Yet, if you want to venture outside of the ski compound, the beach is 10 minutes away and the town of Lacanau has bursting nightlife energy. In the water ski world, this is a bucket list item that will leave you wanting to come back time and time again!

 

The Lacanau Cup is the launch of the 2022 season for the overall skiers. WorldWaterSkiers (WWS) is proud to have partnered with the Lacanau Water Ski Club and the professional slalom event being held in conjunction with the first Overall Tour Stop. Combining the two events will be one of the biggest payouts the sport has seen in a decade, Totaling $62,500 – with $37,000,- for Slalom on the PRO-AM side + $25,500 going to the Overall skiers, plus points towards the tour rankings and Year-End TOUR BONUSES.  Lacanau Ski Club partnered with World Water Skiers to utilize the EMS hub built by WWS, giving clubs and federations novel technology to promote better the sport we all love. The unity on display over the course of the weekend will be a beacon of the potential for the sport to reach larger fan bases together. Moreover, the prospects of the congregation between the world’s best slalom skiers, along with the reintroduction of the Overall World Tour is something that no water ski enthusiast is going to want to miss. So be sure to check the schedule to see when each round is and what the cut is, who makes the finals and when it goes live. 

This coming weekend, the Lacanau Ski Club will bring together the world’s best slalom and overall skiers. Slalom superstars such as World Champion and World Record Holder Nate Smith, Dane Mechler, Jon Travers, and Moomba Master’s Champion Vennessa Vieke. On the Overall end, the event will feature current World Champion and World Overall Record Holder Joel Poland, the Former World Record Holder and World trick Champion Dorien Llewellyn, as well as Brooke Baldwin and Paige Rini, who will both be looking to make their mark in the Overall World Tour over the weekend. The Lacanau ski club, one of the premier sites in the world, has put on countless international events, and the site claims the 1st 230-foot jump by Jaret Llewellyn (CAN), 1st run over 12,000pt by Nicolas Le Forestier (FR), and 1st full 10.25m by Jamie Beauchesne (USA) performed in a pro event.

The Lacanau Ski club is a world-renowned ski school run by European superstars, Geraldine Jamin and Christoff Duverger. The club facilities include a full pro shop, on-site villas for rentals, and a high-end restaurant with fresh food and ingredients provided daily. In fact, you may never want to leave this oasis of a ski club. Yet, if you want to venture outside of the ski compound, the beach is 10 minutes away and the town of Lacanau has bursting nightlife energy. In the water ski world, this is a bucket list item that will leave you wanting to come back time and time again!

 

The Lacanau Cup is the launch of the 2022 season for the overall skiers. WorldWaterSkiers (WWS) is proud to have partnered with the Lacanau Water Ski Club and the professional slalom event being held in conjunction with the first Overall Tour Stop. Combining the two events will be one of the biggest payouts the sport has seen in a decade, Totaling $62,500 – with $37,000,- for Slalom on the PRO-AM side + $25,500 going to the Overall skiers, plus points towards the tour rankings and Year-End TOUR BONUSES.  Lacanau Ski Club partnered with World Water Skiers to utilize the EMS hub built by WWS, giving clubs and federations novel technology to promote better the sport we all love. The unity on display over the course of the weekend will be a beacon of the potential for the sport to reach larger fan bases together. Moreover, the prospects of the congregation between the world’s best slalom skiers, along with the reintroduction of the Overall World Tour is something that no water ski enthusiast is going to want to miss. So be sure to check the schedule on the Lacanau Cup event page for all the details like Live streaming or scores. 

The WWS Austrian Open Did Not Disappoint!

With the World Waterski Open, Austria’s most successful water skier, Britta Grebe-Llewellyn, once again brought the international elite of the action-packed water sport to Upper Austria. On August 7 and 8, some of the best of their guild competed in Fischlham in the disciplines slalom, trick and jump. The event was organized for the second time by Britta Grebe and her husband, the multiple world champion and world record holder Jaret Llewellyn. Their son Dorien took part again, who is currently the world’s number two in the Overall. He also showed the strongest nerves and reclaimed the WWS Austrian Open title back to back. In the women’s event, the defending champion from 2020, Giannina Bonnemann, also took the victory.

 

With her ten European Championship titles (in a row) two World Championship titles and four world records, Britta Grebe-Llewellyn was one of the most successful water skiers in the world. Although the native of Gmunden, who has now lived in Florida for 36 years, no longer actively participates in competitions herself, she now shares her experience in athlete management and event organization.

 

The athletes had to prove their skills in the disciplines slalom, trick, and jump. The winner of these three water ski disciplines combined is considered the absolute “King/Queen” of waterskiing. Besides Britta Grebe’s son, the 26-year-old Dorien Llewellyn (skis for Canada), Carlo Basic from Austria, Robert Hazelwood from Great Britain, Pol Duplan-Fribourg from France, as well as the German sisters Giannina and Carlotta Bonnemann and the Italian Alice Bagnoli fought for prize money and the podium.

 

Right from the start, the high quality of the small, but fine starting field was evident. Already on the first day of
competition both the women and men showed world-class form and delivered top performances, although the jump competition could not be held on Saturday due to the strong winds. Dorien Llewellyn came out showing he was not here to play, scoring the highest points of all in both trick and slalom. In tough conditions, the big upset was Robert going down on the 11.25m line. This is Robert’s strongest event of the three, so he would have to regroup for Sunday’s finals. In the trick discipline, Dorien was able to live up to his role in being the favorite, posting a 10500 ahead of Robert’s 9090,  Pol’s 8080, and Carlo’s 6800.

In womens’ slalom the older of the Bonnemann sisters, Giannina, had the better start ahead of the Italian Alice Bagnoli and Carlotta Bonnemann and took this momentum into Sunday.

With cooler temperatures on Sunday, the athletes had to give it their all on the final day. Alice came out in the finals in slalom and prevented Giannina from potentially claiming a clean sweep. Alice posts a 3.5 at 11.25, half a buoy better than Giannina score of 3. Traditionally, the jump event is the last event of the day, but warnings of rain later threaten the jump, so the organizers decided to flip the events because of safety for the athletes. Giannina dominated the jump event with 52m, but a real race for second and third was building. Alice (1,710.98) ahead of Charlotta (1,642.18).  Charlotta stood up both her runs putting pressure on Alice. Alice proved on Saturday that she has a big hand run in her bag, but shocked the crowd when she went down on a flip during the final pass, costing her the second podium spot. Giannina ranked second in the World in Overall was overjoyed about her victory in Fischlham: “The competition was just great again, to have an overall event with all three disciplines is what we train for. For me it went extremely well, I was able to dial up my performances from yesterday. In the trick event, I was able to go one better and set a new course trick record of 10,180 points, which really made it perfect.” Giannina took the Overall Crown with 2978.26 points, Carlotta claimed silver with 2160.85, ahead of Alice’s 2092.12.

 

 

 

In the men’s finals, tables turned on Dorien right out of the gates in the slalom event. Robert Hazelwood posted a huge slalom score of 1 @ 41off, a full pass more than Dorien’s top score from the primary round. This is Robert’s strongest of the 3 disciplines and Dorien’s weaker of the three. Dorien said, “my game plan was to stay as close to Robert’s slalom score as possible.”  Dorien, unfortunately, went down earlier than expected and trailed Robert by 8.5 buoys (4.5@11.25m). Robert claimed the 1000pts for the tops score and Dorien was awarded 845.45. Pol was only 2.5 buoys (2@11.25)  behind Dorien and was awarded 800pts, with Carlo is 4 buoys (4@12m) off Pol with a score of 727.27.

 

Onto the Jump, with the weather conditions holding favorable. Pol posted a 56.1m, next up Carlo with a 59.9m, and Robert tops that with a 60.0m jump. Dorien last out knew he had to gain ground back on Robert after trailing in slalom. Dorien unleashed 65.1 on his final jump and the Two-way battle is underway with Robert 1,872.82 and Dorien 1,845.45 neck and neck, as well as Carlo 1,597.59 and Pol 1,575.56 battling for 3^rd and 4^thspot. Finally, in tricks Carlo stood up his two passes, scoring 7,100 a new personal best. Pol’s prelim run was 8080 so enough to pull farther ahead of Carlo, but unfortunately, Pol went down on his opening trick which ended all hopes of staying ahead of Carlo. Robert stomped his two passes claiming a score of 9880pt putting enormous pressure on Dorien to score a minimum of 10200. Dorien answered back with 11060, just short of the course record he set last year at the Austrian Nationals 11160pt.  “I am so happy with my victory here at Lake Plana. Especially because I really spent a large part of my “water skiing childhood” here and I have such fond memories of this lake. I am very happy with my performance, it was so exciting and then I had to put all my eggs in one basket,” says Grebe’s son, delighted with the successful title defense in his second home.

 

 

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Additional Background- Family business of water skiing

The Llewellyn family is considered to be the most successful family in water skiing because, in addition to Britta, it is also her husband Jaret and their son Dorien who rule the absolute top of the world. Jaret can call himself nine times world champion (in the disciplines combination, trick, and jumping). He also set eleven world records in jumping. He has won 117 pro events in his career (numerous World Cups, PanAm Games, and many more). Thus, Jaret is without a doubt the best water skier in the world so far and was the number one in the Overall for 16 years.

 

In the youth/junior class, 25-year-old Dorien is a European champion (in the overall, slalom and jump). In the U21 class, Dorien moved from Austria to Canada to compete with his famous father on the team at the World Championships, where he also won the silver medal in the U21 Overall, catapulting himself to first place in the world rankings. For three years now, the waterski talent has dominated the general class of the Overall at the PanAm Games (held every four years), and he is number two in the trick, slalom, and jumping disciplines. At the PanAm Championships (held every year and comparable to the European Championships) he is the undisputed dominator Overall. Recently Dorien is also allowed to call himself “King of Tricks”, for winning the King of Darkness, a pro night competition in Orlando.

The dominance of the water ski family was especially evident in 2012 and 2013, as in both years Jaret and Dorien were both number 1 in the World in the Open Division and Juniors, something that has never been seen before in any other sport.