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