Water ski team glides along

Water ski team glides along

It’s been slowing down over the past few years, but the UCLA
water ski team is still up and competing. The Bruin team, which has
only five or six skiers consistently entered in tournaments, has
maintained their status in the Western Region Conference, which is
made up of schools from Washington, California and Arizona, and has
competed in four tournaments this season, the most recent being
this past weekend at UC Davis.

In the conference tournaments, men’s and women’s A skiers
compete in slalom, trick and jump events. These are the skiers who
will tally the points in a tournament for each school and determine
where a school will place overall. This season has been especially
tough for the Bruin team because, to score points in each event, a
team must have five competitors in each individual event and UCLA
has been unable to put a full squad together, leaving the only
suspense in where each individual will place in their respective
events.

"We haven’t been very strong this year ­ it’s been a
rebuilding year" said captain Pam Perga, who has had to redshirt
this season to preserve her final year of eligibility. "We used to
go to 10 tournaments per year. The team used to be huge, but
practically everyone graduated in one year."

Rebuilding what was once a solid team has been difficult due to
a lack of commitment from some team members.

"We are trying to recruit," Perga said. "We have about 25 people
on the roster but only five or six compete. It’s frustrating
because people come to meetings but not to tournaments. We are
trying to recruit and every year we get new faces."

Limited numbers make it hard to put together a solid practice
schedule but the team is still able to work out once a week at Lake
Castaic. The Van Arsdale father-son duo coaches the team and the
squad rents time on a boat. Several years ago, the team had its own
boat but lost it due to insurance reasons and has been unable to
replace it. However, at tournaments the host team supplies the
boats.

At this weekend’s tournament at Davis, a full slate of
competitions was offered to the Bruin skiers. On Saturday, the
slalom and jump events were held. In slalom, skiers maneuver
through a series of gates and buoys as many times as they can.
After each cycle, the boat speeds up 2 mph. If the skier is still
up when the boat reaches its maximum speed (32 for women, 34 for
men) for each circuit, then the rope is shortened. Scoring is based
on how many buoys are successfully negotiated. The jump event is
based solely on the distance that a skier can achieve coming off of
a five-foot ramp.

On Sunday, the trick event was held wherein a skier is given 20
seconds to pull off the most impressive stunts that they possibly
can, going through everything from flips to spins to toe
tricks.

Bruin skier Brandy Nagle came up huge in this tournament,
winning outright the women’s A slalom and trick events. This was
not a big surprise when considering that she was selected to
represent the Western Region along with the top-five ranked skiers
in each event. After this weekend’s domination, Nagle assumed the
No. 1 ranking in jump and maintained her grip on No. 1 in
trick.

Although the performance of Nagle was one of the few bright
spots at the end of the tournament, Perga emphasized the relaxed
nature of the competitions.

"It’s non-competitive. People try to do better for themselves
but it’s a lax atmosphere and we all have friends on the other
teams. It’s competitive when you are on the water but it is a lot
of fun."

If you are interested in water skiing for UCLA, sign up on the
water ski list at the Wooden Center.