More than 100 children, women and men from all over the UK have signed up to compete at the 2023 British National Waterski Championships which take place at Oxford Wakeboard & Ski Club from Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th August.

The ages of the competitors range from 9 to 77.

It’s the third successive year that the Nationals have been held at Oxford and, once again, the event will be fully inclusive. There is an adaptive category for disabled skiers and a military category which will be contested by representatives of the RAF.

This year also sees the return of the spectacular Night Slalom competition to be held under floodlights on Saturday 26th. The cash-prize event is for the top five scorers in the Men’s Open Slalom and the first five in the Women’s Open Slalom and had its debut at the Nationals in 2022.

New for 2023 is a National Youth Festival* on Friday 25th August which will run alongside the Championships. Youngsters under the age of 18 who have competed in grassroots competitions and/or attended one of this season’s Development Days aimed at coaching and preparing them for the world of competition, have been invited. They will compete in a grassroots slalom event to be run on a handicapped basis to accommodate the different levels of the skiers and give everyone a chance of picking up a prize. It’s hoped that some of these budding athletes will return to compete at National Championships in the future.

The main Nationals competitors include some skiers who have attended Development Days in previous years and who are now competing internationally.

Five have just returned from representing GB at the European Youth Waterski Championships in Spain where the Squad picked up two medals. Charlie Fearn (13) from Sheffield won an individual bronze medal in the Under-14 Boys Jump. The GB Under-14 team - made up of Charlie, Raphael Dautigny (13) from London, Harley Coster (13) from Mytchett in Surrey and Isabel Cosgrove (11) from Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire - also won Team bronze in Spain. All will compete in the three waterski disciplines of slalom, tricks and jump at the Nationals.

The Championships are very much a family affair with brothers, sisters, parents and spouses getting involved.

Isabel Cosgrove’s older brother James (13) and younger sister Lara (9) will be competing as will Harley Coster’s older sister, Lexie, who is in the Under-17 age category.

Husband and wife, Martin and Hilary Winter, from Wandsworth in London compete in slalom. Hilary is the reigning European Over 55 Women’s Slalom Champion.

Brothers Ben (22) and Seb (15) Turp from Gosfield in Essex, who are GB Squad skiers, will compete in slalom, tricks and jump. Ben will be in the Open category and Seb in the Under 17s. They are not the only Turps who will be in Oxford. Dad Vince Turp is one of the boat drivers for the competition.

Among other family members are the reigning British Open Women’s Champion, Kelly Atkins (45) and her son Noah Pollard (17) from Kings Lynn in Norfolk. Kelly won the bronze medal in slalom at the 2022 World Over-35 Championships in France last September. Noah is currently in France competing at the European Under-21 Championships, which take place from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th August.

The adaptive category includes visually impaired skier Jill Williams (49) from Aughton in Lancashire. The RAF skiers include Lucy Carter (26) from Penn in Buckinghamshire, and David Jenkins (28) from Shrewsbury in Shropshire, who are both based at RAF High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

Steve Glanfield, who runs Oxford Wakeboard & Ski Club and is organising the Nationals, said:

“I am delighted to be hosting a fully inclusive Nationals at Oxford for the third consecutive year. Each time we’ve made it bigger and better,” he said.

“The night slalom was a big hit in 2022 and improved lighting this year should make it even more exciting for the spectators.

“I’m pleased that this year we’re able to run a Youth Festival alongside the Nationals which will be a great experience for those with no or little experience of how much fun waterski competitions can be.

“It’s free entry for the public for all four days and there will be food and drink on site so why not come along and enjoy the competition.”

The 2022 British National Waterski Championships will take place at Oxford Wakeboard & Ski Club, Queenford Lakes, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, from Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th August.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

For further information or, if you would like to come along to the Nationals, please contact: Jane Peel, BWSW Head of Communications on jane@bwsf.co.uk or 07802 496927

A selection of photos can be found in the dropbox link below. Please credit the copyright owner where shown. If you require any more, please contact Jane, as above.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/suwq3wo566tr3esqzofh4/h?rlkey=bpyt9q4zjn5pomu4z6tti0pvi&dl=0

*The National Youth Festival and Development Days are organised by Friends of Tournament (FoT) - a fund-raising committee set up to support waterskiing in the UK by helping to fund training and travel for GB Squad waterskiers and develop young talent to prepare them for three-event competition waterskiing. The main initiative is ‘The 200 Club’, a small lottery. The details of this can be found on the website: http://www.tournamentwater-skiing.org.uk/200-club

WATER SKIING EXPLAINED

Competitions have a winner in each of the three events and an overall winner where the points scored for each event contribute to the overall result.

Jumping

This dramatic spectator event involves skiing over a ramp at speeds of up to 70mph (for the top skiers), taking off and landing on the water to ski away. Each skier has three attempts at the ramp. There are no style points. All that matters is the distance achieved.

Slalom

The boat travels at a constant speed in a straight line down the middle of the slalom course. The top speed is 58kph (36mph) for men and 55kph (34mph) for women. The skier, on a single ski, must go through the entrance gates - a pair of buoys in the middle of the course - then virage from side to side across the boat wakes, successfully rounding six turn buoys before going through the exit gates.

Each successful pass results in the rope being shortened, making it increasingly difficult to reach the turn buoys. Eventually, the rope length becomes less than the distance from the boat to the turn buoys so the skier has to use body length and reach to round the buoys. The winner is the skier who completes the most turn buoys at the shortest rope length.

Tricks

The skier is given two 20-second passes to complete as many different tricks as possible. These can vary from a simple 180 turn to a somersault with a twist. There are also ‘toehold’ tricks where the skier holds the rope with one foot. Each trick is worth a given number of points according to difficulty. Points are awarded only if the tricks are deemed to have been successfully performed.

British Water Ski & Wakeboard is the sport’s governing body and a non-profit making membership organisation. All its income is invested in developing and protecting water skiing and wakeboarding across the UK from the grassroots to our top athletes.

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