Local 9 Year Old Places 9th At the 2009 National Water Ski Championships

An area 9 year old girl recently placed 9th in both the slalom and overall categories in the 2009 United States National Water Ski Championship held last week in West Palm Beach, Florida. The first �Girls 1� (age 9 and under) skier from the St. Louis metropolitan area ever to qualify for this annual competition, Nellie Roberts of Dow, IL started competing just this year. Qualification for the National Championship event is generally limited to the top 15% of water skiers for each age group. Nearly 800 competitors skied at the 5-day event held at Okeeheelee Park in West Palm Beach, FL from August 11-15..

Competitive 3-event water skiing includes slalom, trick skiing and jumping. In slalom skiing, the boat travels on a straight path and each uniform course has three buoys on each side for a total of six. Once the skier completes the pass by skiing around each buoy and through each set of end buoys, the boat speed is increased or the line length is reduced for the next pass through the course. In trick skiing, points are awarded for each completed trick and are weighted by degree of difficulty. The jump event (not available to Nellie and other girls 9 and under) involves skiing over a floating jump ramp set at various heights and angles to the water based upon the skier�s gender and age. The jump event performances are based upon the distance the skier travels in the air. Skiers are also scored based upon the results tallied for the three events combined, essentially creating a fourth event for skiers. This is called the �Overall� competition.

Local tournaments are held primarily on private, man-made lakes throughout each of the five regions established by USA Water Ski, the national sanctioning body. Performances at these local tournaments can qualify the skiers for the regional and national competitions.

In the slalom event, Nellie placed first in the Illinois State tournament and second in the 13 state Midwest Regional Water Ski Championships. She placed first in the trick event at the State tournament and second at the Regional tournament. In the Overall category, Nellie placed first in the Illinois State tournament and first in Regional tournament.

Nellie skied her personal best performance in slalom at the National competition completing passes at 23mph, 24.9mph, 26.7mph and 28.6mph. She then scored 2 buoys at 30.4mph, the maximum boat speed for her division. Four of the top five competitors in both the slalom and the trick event for Nellie�s division reside in Florida where skiers typically ski 10 months/year.

Nellie is a fifth grade student at Montessori Children�s House in Godfrey. She has skied since age 3 and practices at Lake Richard, her home lake in Dow, Illinois. She slaloms, tricks, jumps and barefoots on the lake with her brothers, Will (7) and Edward (5). Both of these brothers likewise slalom, trick, jump and barefoot water ski. Will competed against boys six years older than he in the Boys 2 jump event winning the state title in July and placing 10th in the Regional tournament. The youngest member of the family, Michael, is just 7 months of age and is not yet skiing.