3 Event Tournaments:

Our team is a member of the Great Plains Conference which is apart of the Midwest Collegiate Water-ski Association and further apart of the National Collegiate Water-ski Association.  In the Midwest alone there are about 40 teams that compete.  The competitions are three event tournaments that consist of Slalom, Trick, and Jump events. Each team is allotted five men and five women A team positions for each event.  Often there is also B team available in which additional spots are allowed but the scores do not count for the team.

The competitions are usually held at private water-ski lakes in which you arrive Friday night and practice if you wish. Then everyone camps out at the lakes and there is a chance to meet many other people from anywhere from 15 to 30 schools.  Saturday morning the competition starts bright and early and continues until Sunday until all events have been pulled. 

Fall tournaments usually consist of Dual Conference in which Great Plains teams join up with the Great lakes conference for one large tournament.  Then the conference tournament is the following weekend and the top teams from conference then compete the following week at regionals.  From there the top three teams advance to nationals to take on the top schools from all over the nation.  Spring season usually consists of two three event tournaments one hosted by UW Lacrosse and the other by Iowa State.

Many people who are new to the team are afraid to compete.  Tournaments have talent at all different levels from first time jumpers and those who have never gone through a slalom course to those that are great skiers.  It is your choice to come to compete in the tournaments but it is a great time to meet new people, learn more about your teammates, and just have a good time.

To be eligible for our tournament team, a skier must be a full time student at the University of Minnesota and must be in good terms with the university.  This usually requires a 2.0 or better gpa.  Each student is allowed 4 years of eligibility which is 4 spring seasons and 4 fall seasons which must be completed within 6 years.  If you are a transfer student who was a member of another ski team, you must take the fall season off following the transfer.  The event positions and ranking of our skiers for tournaments are determined by our practice captains and discipline captains.