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NSL Guidelines for Slalom and Trick Tournaments

 The NSL Program provides an avenue for skiers of all levels to get involved in competitive water skiing. The goal for the NSL program is to make tournaments exciting, fun, flexible, educational, innovative, and spontaneous. This encourages new water skiers to participate in friendly competition and then advance into higher levels such as "C" class tournaments. The goal of the NSL program is to bring recreational skiers into competitive water skiing. NSL tournaments can be held in conjunction with class "C" tournaments or can be stand alone events. The following guidelines are suggested as a framework for consistency.

General Rules

The American Water Ski Association's "Official Tournament Rules" have many portions that can be helpful to the NSL organizer. This document should be a reference for frequent use. Skiers can earn a 2nd and 1st Class Ratings at NSL tournaments. Expert Ratings and above must be earned at Class "C" and above tournaments.

It is suggested that all rules be communicated to participants. Interpretations can be made as needed. Sportsmanship and safety are the overriding principals.

Slalom Divisions

> Suggested ability based on divisions for NSL slalom tournamnets

• Rookie- skiers attempting the mini course (this can also include those learning to slalom, credit can be given for wake crossing and/or skiing around the boat guides).

• Challenger- skiers attempting he full course at slower speeds, gates optional.

• Champion - skiers attempting the full course at max speed with gates.

>Suggested ability based divisions grouped by age and sex (can be further subdivided and/or combined.

• Youth- 16 yrs and under

• Adult Female- 17 and older

• Adult MAle- 17 or older

> NSL Tournaments can be divided into divisions in a manner similar to Class C (age and sex)

> The sponsering club may establish their own criteria for the gouping of skiers.

Slalom

See Official Tournament Rules for full-course slalom course description (see diagram below). The mini-course is encouraged for use in NSL Tournaments. Mini-Course bouys are anchored 10 feetinside the skier turn bouy.

Slalom speeds are measured in kilometers per hour. Skiers may start at any speed from 25K(15.5mph) up to 58k (36mph) , in 3 k incremants.

A buoy is scored when the skier passes outside and around the buoy. The skier scores two points for each mini-course turn buoy and three points for each full course turn buoy. No points are scored for entrance and exit gates. Any skier not able to reach a mini-course buoy may score one point by skiing outside the boat guide buoys ( or crossing the wake). If on two skis only one ski needs to go around the buoy. Skiers can accumulate points on any passes attempted.

It is recommended that skiers attempt a minimum of 4 passes through the course. A pass is defined as entering the course. Skiing a pass means a skier has started a pass. If they fall or miss after they have attempted the minimum number of passes, they are  done for that round. For example, the skier is done if they fall or miss during the 4th pass, even if that is their first fall or miss during that round. On the other hand, if they make their 4th pass successfully, they can continue to ski until they miss or fall. After two consecutive successful passes through the course, the skier must increase speed or shorten the rope.

Tricks

Tricks are scored using USA / AWSA trick rules and point values (see AWSA rulebook for details). Extra credit points and mulligans (no count falls or misses) are optional to increase participation. Suggested divisions for tricks are Rookie, Challenger, and Champion. Challenger adn Champion divisions will use the standard tricks and the associated point values.

> Suggested ability based divisions for NSL trick tournaments:

• Champion- skier can complete intermediate tricks (up to 1000 points)

• Challenger- Skier can complete basic tricks ( up to 500 points )

• Rookie- suggested tricks are as follows:

Conclusion, we want each skier to have fun and have a strong desire to do the next stop. We would like all skiers to walk away from each site feeling like they accomplished something new and learned the proper fundamentals to make them a better and safer skier. A side note to the scoring. We are not using a Grand Prix scoring system so it will not matter if you do miss a stop.