Diary of a Tournament... Day 5

Welcome to the thirtieth Latinamericans. This IS your parents'
tournament. My dad skied in the very first one.

Second day of preliminaries, last day of holding back, and one that was consistent and on task, just what was called for. We've got an early start tomorrow so stay with me for a few minutes if you can 'cause I'm about to lay it on pretty thick.

9:00am Wake up call. Scarf down some breakfast and head towards the site.

9:30am At the lake and ready to hit it. I'm up first and I'll be slaloming in fifteen. I'm not too worried because I know the chances of me making the finals are minimal. My goal is to go out and enjoy myself. I'll get a decent score for my overall score and be done with it. I nail my first two passes and screw up my third. But my third pass is 32' off and I'll take the score of 2 buoys with a grin. It works for me. 

10:00am I finish skiing and in an ironic turn of events I have to race over to the other lake to catch my dad's trick set. Turns out Juan decided to throw some passes together and give it a shot. I jump in the boat and he goes out, purely to enjoy himself. He hasn't had a trick set in months because he's been fine-tuning his slaloming for this very tournament and it already paid off. He runs through a quick hand pass, only missing his last trick. He's down early on his second pass but it's not a big deal; he didn't come out to win tricks. Maybe next year.

11:00am-2:00pm I shift gears and grab my computer, smashing another batch of homework out of the way. I'm keeping an eye on the running order and the skiers to make sure I have plenty of time to get ready before I jump. Meanwhile, the slalom scores come in and I realize that I made the cutoff. I made it to finals and I hadn't given it a second thought beforehand. I think that's why.

2:30pm First Juan, then Mariak come remind me that it's time to go eat. I'm starting to feel the lack of calories in my head and in my stomach. Today's lunch item is pasta and we go sit down at a table to enjoy our quick meal and discuss the next event. Jump.

3:00pm I'll be up fairly soon and I'm starting to get my stuff down to the dock. I'm hardly suited up yet when a judge comes down and says that one of the divisions before mine is being moved forward. i.e., this means that I'm up next. I throw on my equipment and jump in the water. Luckily, I had already mentally prepared and I was close enough to the dock that I had just enough time to get ready without being completely rushed. I take my first jump and the ramp is feeling good, there's some nice kick out of it. There's a technical difficulty with the jump measurement system and I've got to stop at the end of the lake. We wait for five minutes or so before I ask if I can get in the boat, no sense letting my feet cramp up before I've hardly started. It's just a small hiccup and soon enough we're back in the water. I've got to repeat the first jump because they've lost the distance but after making some adjustments and booting out another keeper the technology isn't having it. We have to stop again, this time for a while longer. I chat with the boat crew in the meantime, making sure to keep everyone's spirits lifted, especially my own. HQ gives a few more false alarms before they finally give the green light to put on my skis and keep jumping. I've still got another three jumps to take since they've lost the first two. I have the slight advantage that I'm almost at that sweet spot and I've had some "practice" to get there but the bigger worry is that my legs are starting to lose steam. Three jumps later and I'm satisfied with my score of 138 feet, only a foot of my PB. I know I could've gone farther right now but I qualified for finals and that's all that matters. 

Santiago Robledo, our Colombian "Lion", ranked in the top ten in the
world, cutting hard into the ramp.

4:00pm Results are announced and I'm ranked second going into finals, giving me a nice seeding placement for the order in finals later on. I hang around for a while to watch my fellow skiers hit the ramp. It seems that just about everyone had trouble NOT being early but some people dealt with it better than others. Santiago was one of those as he booted out a beautiful jump putting him first into finals. 

I take the chance to add another saweet-ass sticker to my ski.

5:00pm We stay a little while longer to watch the Open Men prelims and to pack up the rest of the skis for tomorrow. Finals start tomorrow and with it, a complete change in the style of skiing for all of us. We'll make sure to get home and to bed fairly early tonight to be prepared. It's all mental from here on out. 

6:00pm We're out of the lake and on the way to dinner. Tonight is pizza, quick enough to get us home early but loaded up with enough calories and carbs to keep us going for tomorrow. Felipe and I finish off a large.

8:00pm Back home to wrap up a couple last minute things. We set out a few details for tomorrow's schedule and I get back to my room to finish off some pixel-pushing and date-wrangling. By eleven I'm done and ready for what tomorrow brings. Again, I'm out before my head even hits the pillow. I'll be tricking after noon and slaloming near the end of the day and Juan also has his performance to complete. This is it. This is all. This is what the tournament is about, what it all comes down to and everything I've been working towards. Plenty of people have helped me immeasurably along the way but it's now up to me and what I know I can do. It's time to pull out all the stops and push as high as I can. Just do it.

Hope you join me tomorrow as I put in the final effort. Out.