Live WebShow Tonight with Terry Winter, Featuring Tipsy T

Check in tonight over at ProSkiCoach.com  (http://www.pskic.com/chat) at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern for our weekly Show and get involved....hit us up on the chat board!!

This week, we have Pro Skier, Coach and Graphics extraordinaire Terry Winter, along with his bud and old Neighbor Tipsy T....should be a heck of a show!

Tune in now!

http://www.pskic.com/chat

Free TV : Ustream

MarcusBrown.tv

Hey Folks,

Tonight will be Live WebShow #11 for us, and it should be the best one yet!

We'll be live from Clermont, FL and the home of World Champion Will Asher, where we've been for the past 3 days testing product.

The Line Up:

5 time World Champion, master shaper and water ski legend Bob LaPoint

2 time World Champion Will Asher

Team Syndicate rider Breanne Dodd

Dave Wingerter (HO/Syndicate brand manager)

US Open Champion Marcus Brown

New product & fresh ideas.

Tune in and send us a message at   http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cox-and-brown    or  sign up and participate at http://www.proskicoach.com/forum/chatbox.php

MB

Eastbound and Down

It is absolutely unbelievable to be able to type this on a computer, from the seat of a plane skimming across the surface of the Earth at 880 feet per second,…and look out the window to catch glimpses of the "rat race" about 6 miles below….so artificial up here, yet so real and simple. Things look a lot different. Just with you're eye alone, you can travel hundreds of miles in less than a second! Freedom! Early settlers, moving west & anxious to stamp out a piece of freedom (land) for themselves, had to do it on foot….with animals, and a wagon, and dust, dirt, mud, rain, snow, freezing mtns, boiling deserts, crying babies, homemade shoes and wooden false teeth!…it took months to make it across the United States,….many died! Damn!!

I turn a key, swerve thru traffic, crank Pandora for a bit, make some calls, Tweet, park, swipe a card, take my shoes off, put'em back on, get patted down by some stranger, wait in line for a few minutes, sit on this plane a few hours and end up on the other coast!

I just landed here, in Orlando, for a HO/Syndicate Team testing session….riding an emotional "high", why? Maybe its because I get to spend time on the water with the best R&D team in the industry….some of the biggest legends in the sport…and they just happen to be the folks with the most experience, wisdom and knowledge relating to anything water skiing. I'm all geeked out, and can't wait for whats to come in 2010!

Fingers are crossed that Delta pulls thru with the luggage tonight

To be continued…..

mb

Moomba 50 Year Storm!!

It would be my luck.

The millisecond I start bragging about how good this tournament in Melbourne Australia is, and how great the city is and this, that & the other…..what happens??!!!

The biggest one day storm in 50+ years!!

Un-believable!

Regardless, us Men Slalom skiers got lucky today, with a crystal clear sky and hot burning sun with its mind set on taunting the weather men with their "doom and gloom" forecasts for Today and Moomba Monday.  

The Yarra River, a bloated, brown, glutonous Python of mythical proportions this morning….somehow managed to digest everything the impossible storm threw at it over the past 24 hours.  By the time we hit the water for the 15 man semi-finals….the river once more resembled the sheet of glass we know and love, with the water level back to normal.  AMAZING!

This semi-final round saw people crushing the buoys like never before.  One ripper, Zane Nicholson a 15 yr. old Phenom from the States, tied his all-time Personal Best of 2 @ 39 off (10.75) to take the lead!  Unreal.  I was worried…..everyone was running the 11.25m line, which two days before only 3 of us had: Willy, Parish, and myself.  How was it that much better??

Well, it wasn't necessarily all that much better….I think people were just digging deeper today…for the most part.  One thing that might have played a hand, was the cleanliness of the river today….in that it was mostly freshwater from the extreme runoff, whereas friday it was extremely salty.  Salt water tends to keep the water dense, hard, and fast…..like newly poured concrete.  Today, the freshwater was a definite bonus….soft and forgiving.

In the end, the top three seeds into the finals remained the same.  Parish maintained his lead, with an impressive "Pete Rose" to cap off a pretty impressive 39 pass….he swam in…and most of us are hoping he blew his "stuff" on this round…he's looking too good to believe he'll fall short on Moomba Monday.  Willy looked unreal today as well….crushing 39 and tried to grab the whole river and carry it with him around 4…..he'll be second seed for the finals.  I felt ok today…but felt the best at 39.  Good 1 ball, then blew my wad and forgot my own name approaching buoy 2….managed 3 and feel pretty good with my 3rd seed into the finals.

Results page:  http://moombamasters.com.au/ms-scores.htm

So, out of 4 trips down here to Melbourne in 6 years, I've managed to make the finals every time.  I feel extremely fortunate to have another chance to stand on the dock tomorrow and take a stab at the title of "Moomba Masters Slalom Champion".

Why?

I'll tell ya why:  Standing on the dock today, with all the guys, and looking out over that tired, lumbering river, I could not believe the amount of people lining the banks.  This is the Moomba Masters.  We only have one tournament like it.  No where else on Earth do we get this package.

That's why.

To Be Continued…..

MB

Moomba!!!

Moomba Masters:  [Moom - ber  Maast - ahhs]    Quite possibly the biggest, best, most prestigious Water Ski and Wakeboard event in the world!  Oh sure, most will laugh when I say this….content to lean confidently on the "true" Masters Water Ski & Wakeboard tournament, in Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain Georgia, as the pinnacle…the capstone event in all of Water Sports!!!  REALLY??  Lets do a quick side by side, and I say quick cuz its 2010 and folks these days don't have time for anything other than quick.  Here I go then….

Masters Water Ski & Wakeboard tournament, Callaway Gardens, Georgia (Callaway Golf Clubs anyone????…..)

1. held within the 20 square mile complex that is Callaway Gardens, on the amazing Robin Lake….which boasts the largest man-made, white sand beach in the World!
2. Very expensive to attend
3. Very exclusive to watch - you'll need to procure a "pavilion pass"  (by either selling your soul to the Devil….or being one of the top 10 water skiers in the world) to even come within a football fields distance from the action.  No worries though, right??…I mean, you came to the gardens to bird watch anyway….so not to worry, you've got your binoculars handy for the on-water action….wait a minute…you just had them…what in God's name happened to those things……
4. Very isolated from any sort of civilization or running water (drinking water)
5. Very stuffy, uncomfortable feeling once on the premises despite the beautiful surrounds…..a peculiar paradox, you find yourself thinking…
6. Always on Memorial Day Weekend! - isn't this weekend reserved for something else already?…why are we in this hot, muggy, isolated armpit of the south, dripping sweat like tears??  We ought to be floating down some river with thousands of other people and a cooler full of drinks tied round our ankles??  (Kids out there, NEVER, and I mean NEVER, tie a cooler to any body part and float down a river…..EVER)

Moomba Masters Water Ski And Wakeboard Tournament, Yarra River, Downtown Melbourne, Australia 

1. held smack dab in the middle of one of the coolest major cities in the World:  Melbourne, Australia, in a public setting, on a river
2. Very Cheap to attend…like FREE.  Which is the best opportunity for folks who have never seen water skiing to actually have a chance to see it…best skiers in the world in person!  Gold Star straight away to Moomba Masters for this invaluable exposure and promotion of Water Sports!!
3. Very easy to watch - grab some buddies, some cold drinks and get your ass down to the Yarra ASAP to claim a patch of grass!!  It goes quick by the time the finals roll around on Moomba Monday and there are 35,000 people watching.  But don't worry, even if you miss out on river front privileges you'll still have one of the best views in the house, as the Yarra River couldn't be more perfectly designed for water skiing….with easy viewing from either side of the narrow, flowing sheet of cool smooth glass.
4. Like I said, right in the middle of the 2nd biggest city in all of Australia which is also the 3rd "Most Livable City in the World" , with the world's largest public tram network, and a host of other titles:  Its a national center for the Arts, Entertainment, Australian Film, Australian Rules Footy,….basically its the Cultural Capital of Australia.  Its unreal how much is happening in this city….and thats just on a normal weekend.  
5. Always during Moomba - Australia's largest festival held over the 4 day Labor Day weekend.  With Bands, a Carnival, River Activities, River Floats, Fireworks, a Birdman Rally, and of course, the Moomba Masters Water Sports event…Annually more than 200,000 people attend.
6. Moomba, in Aboriginal, means "Let's get together and have fun"
7. BONUS FACT: no matter where you go, or who you talk to in this city throughout the weekend…most either know of the Moomba Masters Water Ski event, have watched it in the past, or know who the skiers are!

How could the best Water Sports event in the world get any better?????

It can't.

If you're not here…..sorry about your luck….if you could see the smile on my face as I type this, you'd think I was trying my damnedest to make ya'll jealous.

But that's not it.

The smile comes from the simple fact that, even without a shred of "city folk" in me, I'm living proof that this place can strike a chord with anyone….the 80 degree Australian autumn sun in March, loads of restaurants/shops/attractions, unreal sights and generous people….its the living, breathing heart of Melbourne, and it can all be summed up by that smile.

I hope you get the chance.  And if you're really lucky…and you find yourself here on the right weekend, you might just happen upon the greatest show there ever was on water:  the Moomba Masters!