What are the boundries of water skiing?

Answer 1

Do you mean just slalom or all 3 events (slalom, trick, and jump). You can find the rules for all 3 events here http://www.usawaterski.org/pages/divisions/3event/2009AWSARuleBook.pdf In general, slalom is scored in points. It works a lot like track and field high jump in that you can select your starting point and if you make it you get credit for all the previous passes even though you didn't complete them, so you want to make sure the speed and line length you select to start you can complete. You will usually start out at 15 feet of a 75 foot rope at a given speed. Once you make it at that speed the boat will increase in speed until you hit the maximum (36 MPH for pros). Once you complete that the line length gets shorter. When you see something like "ran 28 off @ 36" that means you completed a pass at 36 MPH with 28 feet off of the rope. Completing a pass consists of entering the course through two buoys (called a gate). rounding 6 buoys (3 on each side of the boat). a point is awared for each buoy. 1/2 points are given by judges depending on where you drop after rounding a buoy if you don't complete the pass. You also must exit the course by passing through two buoys just like at the beginning.