The Splash and X-Games are very similar. However, the Splash threw in one more jump with a head to head format. As seen in the pictures, one jump faces North with the other jump 200 feet apart facing South. Much more interesting for the spectators along with the skiers having more jumps and a longer run in, for more tricks to be done for extra bonus points.

The format was somewhat unique. There were two jumps and you had two runs that started from a 16 ½ foot tower. You must start from the tower, but there weren’t any bonus points for the start. You tricked for points before and after the jump. I won’t bore you with details on the rules, but there was plenty of incentive to trick hard and jump big.

There were anywhere from 1000-1500 spectators throughout the event.

The coverage was great. There were TV camera’s in the boat, on the shore and on the tower. There were photographers from several magazines and local newspapers doing interviews.

This event was televised by: Water Sports, World for Sky Sports.

Does this event have the capability to become a tour?

This event is the future of our sport and will become a tour in the next couple years. There has already been talk about having these events as a pro tour for the elite skiers. The format will run in four to five locations, have cash prizes for the skiers and each skier will have a combined total points from each of the events. This will attract the skiers to ski all events with a purse at the end of the year at the final location.

How does this event compare to a televised wakeboard tournament?

I think this tournament is very similar to a wakeboard tournament. We have two jumps set up like there kickers, perform tricks before the jump ramps and ski from one side of the lake and back with the highest counting run being used for your top score. We now have double the air time as we used to for the crowd which makes it that more extreme!