Diary of a Tournament... Day 6: We're Getting to the Real Shiznit

Yours truly, this time NOT falling on the hand pass.

Today is where it gets serious. Down to the nitty gritty. No messing around now. It's down to what we've got for today and tomorrow. Our morning starts off fairly early as some of our crew will be skiing right after the start of the tournament at 8.

Mariak, sticking the landing and looking good while she
does it.

Mariak is the first one off the dock. I don't envy her the position; she'll be jumping. Did I mention the time? The sun has just barely peeked out from behind the mountain range on the horizon, it's rough but it doesn't seem to faze her. She's looking confident on the starting dock, especial for not having jumped in many years. She gets ready and jumps in. If she's not quite awake yet she will be as soon as she hits the ramp, it's quite the wake up call. Fortunately, she gets two extra jumps at the beginning as the judges found that the cameras had fogged up and they couldn't get a reading on her distance. There's quite a break before she goes back out but she doesn't disappoint.

I head over to the house on the lake to connect to the internet and get some work done. Finals don't officially start until noon today as they're running behind so it'll be a long time before I ski. Time to get ahead on some homework. I have a quick break about halfway through as Henrik Larsen stops by to say hi. He's just visiting for the day but it's good to see a familiar face from back home and to know that they'll be supporting me throughout the day. He walks off and I bury myself back into the work.

Early morning birds right on the starting dock. They've
invaded the bamboo infrastructure and claimed it as
their own.

Javier Julio turning hard at one ball at 41' off.

Just out of the water and feeling good about his new personal best!

At about noon I take a break to see what's going on with the events. Tricks is starting off on the other lake and I start carting over my gear to the dock. I grab something quick to eat, keeping it light but I need the energy. I make sure I'm stretched and warmed up and I run over to the main lake to watch Santiago slalom in the Open men's prelims. He puts out an awesome performance (he finished slaloming and went right over to the trick dock to ski soon after me) and I run back to the dock to finish preparing. It's almost time to start. Tricks is the only event which I'm missing for my overall score. The overall score is taken from the top performance in each of the events, whether those scores were in the semi-finals or finals. My slalom and jump scores were both satisfactory for overall but my trick score needs considerable improvement. This puts extra pressure to stand up my passes but I know that the only way I'll get through them the quickest will be to stay calm and relaxed. Stay calm and carry on.

The tournament officials are serious about
keeping their drinks... wet. That's an inside-out
tire that they're in.

I'm up. I jump in the water and take off. Toes is my first pass and I nail it. Had a couple wobbles but I managed not to panic and I kept it steady. Hand is next and I swallow the anticipation rising up in my throat and in my head. We stop to switch skis and I'm back in the water in no time. I start my pass with the same flip from prelims and I cut hard for the second one. I manage to keep my arms relaxed this time, not frantically pulling on the rope. I land without too much slack and I keep it under control. The next flip is not too unstable and after that it's effortless. I finish, this time with my ski still underneath me, the handle still in my hand and a grin on my face. I'm done tricking. It seems surreal as I put my ski away but I realize that that was all. Not more than five minutes later and I'm done. Forty seconds of tricking. Maybe a minute on the water. People back home maybe were reading a book, tanning by the pool, washing a car but in most cases not much changed. Nothing much changes in five minutes but for me those five minutes were the culmination of my effort over the past few weeks. And as quickly as it took someone to read through two pages of their book, for me, it's over.

Juan Carlos looks very menacing after his impressive win. 

I scarf down some lunch and grab my camera, getting ready to watch Santi and Mariak go out and trick. The Rasta does spectacularly, standing up on both his passes. I'm ready by the shoreline as Mariak comes down the lake, starting her passes. She doesn't do nearly as well as she did in the prelims and goes down early. I go back to the main dock to check the order; I've still got another thirty people before I slalom. Time to go watch my dad slalom the finals. Juan Carlos Cuglievan set the bar for gold pretty high with a score of 2@39' off. Juan runs his 35 without any glitches and comes back in for 38, turning too hard at the gates and falling after one. We're happy with that score though, he ran 35' off and that's what he needed.

Juan, kicking up some spray at 32' off.

Delfina adds a new sticker to her slalom. We sorta improvised on the "A".

The day ends on the lake as the boat keeps
pulling slalom. They kept going until it was
too dark to ski.

The rest of the day goes by slowly, the entire time spent waiting for my turn in slalom but it seems like it won't get here. It's already four and there's still another twenty people to go before me. Not half an hour later and the announcement is made: my division is being pushed to tomorrow morning, seven am. I'm almost relieved, after spending the entire day at the lake without much physical movement I'm feeling tired and rundown. I'm hoping to feel more energized and pumped tomorrow morning.

We stay to watch the last few slalom skiers before we ditch the place and head back home. On our way we do a drive-by at the beach as twilight falls and fog starts to form in the distance. People are actually camped out in tents on the beach and I've already counted out at least five bonfires. I'm feeling relaxed and calm as I watch this scene play out before me from the back of the truck bed. The feeling sticks with me as we head back home.

We throw together some dinner and settle down to relax before heading to bed. The schedule tomorrow is going to be crazy. Call time of 6:00am to get to the lake way before 7 and before I ski. I'm second on the water. I'll be jumping too, much later and most likely after noon. And by 6 we need to be packed up and ready to make the drive back to Lima, back to the airport, back to reality. I need to get some rest for the early day tomorrow and the lack of sleep I'll have on the plane. Oh, and I'll be skiing too.

Finals tomorrow and the finale of the tournament. Are you with me?