INTERNATIONAL WATER SKI FEDERATION

Region Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME)

FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE SKI NAUTIQUE

Région Europe, Afrique et Moyen Orient

 

 

 

 

Minutes of the 42nd meeting of the Region EAME Cableski Council

Held in Paris on 17th/18th March at the Offices of the French Federation

 

 

Present:                  Marie-Anne Persoons                         President

                                Nicky Caine                                           Secretary

                                Maoz Tal                                              

                                Anne Browaeys

                                Juergen Pitz

                                Juergen Pauen

 

Apologies             Ladislav Nemes

 

 

 

1.      Approval of Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting  held in Tenerife on 28th January, 2001 were approved unanimously and were duly signed by Marie- Anne and Nicky.

 

 

2.      Site Surveys

It was noted that both France and Great Britain had still  not submitted all their surveys and Anne and Nicky to chase accordingly.

 

 

3.      Olympics

The Israeli IOC had invited Water-skiing to be present at their meeting for “Non-Olympic and Disabled” members which was very important for funding purposes and the Council were aware of the World Games.

 

 

4.      Standings List

It was confirmed that the final version of the Standings List was now on the Website.

 

 

5.      International competitions 2001

EAME “Open” European Championships

Romana was in charge of organising the above Championships and was asking Marie-Anne for advice. The Organisers were aware that there would be Drug Testing at the Championships.

The organisation seems to be running fine so far.

 

 

 

 

EAME Junior Championships

It was confirmed that Israel could not hold the above competition due to the political situation in their country at the moment but they hoped to be able to hold it in 2002. Israel would duly put in a bid for next year competition  to be held in Tiberia where there are many hotels. The Teams would fly into Tel Aviv and a special bus would be arranged to the site which is about 150km away.

Marie-Anne had received an e-mail for Laco confirming that Piestany would now hold the competition on 7th – 9th September, 2001.

ECT

Slovakia confirmed that now they were hosting the Juniors they would not be holding an ECT Stop.

There has been nothing heard from Austria regarding holding a stop.

Germany has a problem as at the moment the sites only want wakeboard.

No bids have been received from France or Great Britain.

The only country that has shown an interest is Poland who have advised that they wish to hold a competition in Lublin on 15th-17th June, 2001.  However Lublin will be notified that their event should be named as an “International” and not an ECT stop and that they should maybe use the money it would have cost them to hold an ECT as prize money. They would also be told that the competition could not be Record Capability.

Laco had informed the committee that the Slovak Federation would give Poland as much assistance as possible with technical advice and providing some of the officials.

Alternative competitions

It was again agreed that for 2001 season ECT tour would be suspended but it was hoped that when the sites are aware that they can hold more flexible events such as evening , mid-week, slalom with jump and wakeboard and  “body-over” and flip trick events.

Belorussia have made suggestions as to how competitions should be made more interesting and the organisers given as much freedom as possible and that the competitions do not need to be three event.

ECT stops should also be possible to be just one event or two events.

If these competitions would become ECT stops, the ECT rules have to be modified to include these competitions.

Maybe short competitions on Sunday with the preliminary on Saturday and only allow a restricted entry of competitors.

Maybe only 2 rounds of Tricks with only 12 best tricks allowed, 3 passes at Slalom whereby the skier could miss out  lengths completely but there would be a bonus pass if the skier is attempting  to better either a World or European Record., and two jumps.

To try and  keep the competition going skiers should ski on  one carrier later than the previous skier (sites to be asked if it is possible to have all carriers homologatable). This is most advisable in slalom events, where empty rounds make the competition loses interest from the public.

It was agreed that a “trial” competition would be held at Twistee with the German squad to try and find out if these ideas could work. Juergen Pauen would come back to committee with results and it was agreed that it would be helpful to have International skiers together with Julia Meier-Gromkyo there for their input.

We also need to encourage sites to hold Junior and Dauphin competitions.

It was agreed to talk to Schloss Dankern who held the “Juniors” last year which both the officials and skiers thoroughly enjoyed to see if it is possible for them to hold another Youth event open to European skiers. The site will be hosting German Juniors on 14th- 15th July.

It is not known whether shorter competitions would actually encourage both TV and sponsors.

 

 

6.      New Sites

It was believed that the new Cable Site due to be built at the Idroscalar in Italy had still not be completed.

 

 

 

 

7.      2001 Calendar

The confirmed events for the season are as follows;

International

Poland

15/17 June (for information: this is a holiday in Germany)

“Open” Championships

Havirov

24/26 August

“Junior” Championships

Piestany

7/9 September

 

 

8.      Officials panels 2001

Officials need to attend competitions to keep their qualifications but as at the moment as there are so few major competitions the committee will review it more flexibly.

The list requesting officials for their availability for events had not been sent out until after this meeting so that all confirmed competitions could be included. (Has now been done and official panels named)

Marie-Anne will send out form next week and request a reply by Easter, she will then put her proposed names forward and send them to all Council members for their comments.

However, Michael Podoliak had requested that he be a Judge at an ECT and the “Open” Championships and Georgi Mashkovtsev had also requested to be a Judge at an ECT and his qualifications would be checked.

Marie-Anne will probably go to Poland to give a new country her support but she does not want to be named as Chief Judge so that she can concentrate on helping them with the site and not judging.

 

 

9.      Exams

Exams will be run by Juergen Pitz at both Havirov and Piestany.

 

 

10.    Additional Rules

Marie-Anne would send out amendments to Additional Rules so that they can be included in the Vademecum.

Extra Gold for the Technical Officers at Europeans and now Dauphin is a Championships Medals are due. The number of skiers in the Finals now includes Non-Team skiers so skiers in the relevant position in preliminary round results ski in Finals.

It was agreed that at the Skiers meeting due to be held at Havirov skiers should be asked for their proposals to improve the rules. Proposals for additional rules and for technical rules can be discussed on this occasion.

 

 

11.    Seminar

The Seminar next year will be held in Loisinord where they have a Cable but do not have either a Slalom or Jump course. It is possible to get to Loisinord either by train to Lille  which is 40km from site or Bethune on Eurostar which is 4km away.

This location has been agreed as it is cheaper than Paris and should still be easy for people to reach.

Loisinord has sailing, artificial snow ski-ing open both summer and winter together with two night-clubs as well as meeting rooms.

The rooms on site are basic and there are 20 available who room 3 – 4 persons the cost of this should be 100FF per person per night and this includes breakfast. There are 10 rooms with a bathroom and the other 10 share communal bathrooms. There is a hotel  1km away for those who do not wish to stay on site, the cost of which would be 300FF per night.

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch can be purchased at the Congress centre at a cost of 50FF – 250FF. It is hoped that the lunch on Saturday and Sunday should be about 100FF for both food and wine.

At night it is possible to eat at the Hotel which has a Michelin Star at a cost of 250FF – 300FF and if people wish to before dinner they can go on the dry ski slope there is a choice of eating at Conference Centre.

The council meeting will be held on Friday 22nd March, 2002 for the full day before the Seminar commences on 23rd/24th March.

Thought to be given to whether a skier should be invited to Seminar as a “guest speaker”.

Thanks was given to Anne for all the hard work she had carried out to organise the Seminar. She will further work this out so that a good Cableski seminar can be held early season 2002.

 

 

12.    Computer Programme

Juergen Pitz has not yet talked to Manu but he has written to him regarding the computer programme recognising the “cut-off” point and also advising him that the length of the ramp had changed.

 

 

13.    Website

The web site with Philip Turchet assistance is linked with world web page as proposed by EB

We must try and use the  IWSF Web site more, with the disciplines all having separate pages.

 

 

14.    Worlds 2002

Juergen Pitz has heard nothing from South Africa

 

 

15.    World Rules

Number of Specialists

The reason for the number of Specialist rules being amended  was that they was concern expressed that it was possible to have a Final with skiers all from the same country. However it was noted that in some countries all titles won were rewarded by funding and that people who were in the Army received special deals. The problem was recognised that at present there was no “Worlds” ranking list from which Specialists could qualify and therefore it was agreed that we would attempt to compile a World list before the World Championships scheduled for 2002 with the cut-off date of April, 2002 for rest of World and taken off EAME list drawn up until 31st October, 2001.

It was agreed that some countries treated Team medals important where other countries Specialist medals were just (if not more) important.

It was agreed that the Top 4 from Worlds Ranking List would be entitled to ski as a Specialist at the World Championships. However, it was agreed that this rule might change as the Sport gets bigger.  Juergen Pitz will make sure there is a World Ranking List for Cableski to be used.

Tricks

It was agreed that 8 tricks could be scored on both two skis and one ski.

Water tricks. Air tricks, toehold surface and toehold air tricks are all to be treated separately.

Limiting tricks needs to be looked at.

If there is only one round in preliminary round then the skiers would have to practise three different runs.

It was noted that the Althete’s Commission Representative was Julia Meier-Gromyko.

 

 

 

 

Juergen Pitz was always happy to receive feedback from interested people. Letters had been received from skiers, Federations and Martin Suehs regarding the new rules and these were discussed by the Council  who agreed that it was helpful to receive written comments on any rule changes so that everybody was aware of the reaction to any amendments. These letters were to be forwarded to World Council for their discussion. The Region EAME Cableski Council advises based on the feed back received, is the following :

It was noted that the computer programme needed to amended to take into account the new rule changes but we must in future not be dependant on Manu’s programme.

It was agreed that the best score would receive 1000 points.

5.5.  the time allowed to see trick sheets has not changed

5.7. It should be put into rule that an Assistant Homologator is only mandatory for RC competitions.  The Organiser is responsible for providing the Assistant Homologator who should be familiar with the installation and technical aspects of the competition.

9.1. If there is a problem with mandatory “direct drive” by 2004 we will look at the rule again and in connection with this we must keep in touch with cableway owners.

11.2. It was not in rule regarding Tumble Turns after exit gates. In Tricks Tumble Turns will be allowed but in Slalom it will make it very difficult to Judge if allowed but not allowed in Jump as agreed as dangerous.

11.5. The decision is to be made by Chief Judge before start of competition regarding Forerunner but would be reviewed during competition. It was agreed that a forerunner would probably not be needed for Jump but could be in Slalom if there is a backwash problem.

12.1. All skiers had requested three jumps and this would not create any problems at Worlds and Europeans but at other competitions the organisers were to decide. It was agreed that the jump ramp decision was a good one.

12.4.. Increase in possible ramp length and whether markings for the new length  should be changed. It was agreed that we would probably ask for 6.80 to be marked next season.

12.5..Jump speeds were agreed.

12.9. We only used four judges because we had to.

13.13. Nothing has changed – rule is now in Overall

14.11. It was agreed that video timing was a good idea as it would be very useful.

14.15. It is skier’s responsibility to put “R” on submitted trick sheets for posting onto computer programme.

14.17. Skiers are not allowed to list “Non 180” tricks more than once. Only first one will count and further cannot be listed.

It was acknowledged that the rules this year had changed a lot and this was a start to make the sport more attractive. Try out competitions as the one in Twistesee should help to make the sport even more attractive.

 

 

16.    World Matters

There is a worry about Cable’s World Council status as to keep this Regional Committees are needed and be seen to be working. Juergen Pitz will represent Cable World Council at EB meeting to be held in Barcelona (Tournament Worlds). The IWSF Congress with be held on Thursday in Barcelona where Andres would resign as Chairman and therefore there would be elections held and it was believed that Kuno may stand to be next World Chairman.

 

 

17.    Insurance

Alan Goggin has been requested by Admin Com to investigate insurance for officials

 

 

 

 

 

 

18     Promotional Video

More competition starts need to be shown so that it can be seen how fast the sport can be. The “atmosphere” section could be shortened. There was a misunderstanding regarding World Budget as monies were to be used for travel expenses and not promotion but Juergen Pitz would see if he could find monies from elsewhere. The video is to be shown at Europeans and in Barcelona. Also CD’s would be distributed.

 

 

19.    Cable Wakeboard

Concern expressed regarding new rules that have been published in respect of first Worlds to be held in Germany in August, 2001. It was agreed that we would give as much assistance as possible.

 

 

20.    E-Mail

Juergen Pitz kindly offered that in future e-mails could be if wished routed via Cableski.org so that there was uniformity and if wanted privacy for all members of the committee. Most members were happy with their e-mail providers and did not have a problem with people having direct access to them.

 

 

21.    Records

Thomas Bauer is querying his jump record. It is believed that both Thomas and Manfred jumped their records in first round and it was agreed that only one record can be awarded at each competition. We do not have the video of Kiefersfelden but Juergen Pauen would check the paperwork and we will try and ratify as soon as possible in future. However, if there is no video the record cannot be ratified.

 

 

22.    US Open

Unfortunately the US Open had been recently cancelled which had caused ill feeling as several skiers had already booked “non-refundable” tickets as they had been assured the competition would go ahead.

Renee to be asked to consider rearranging the competition at the end of the season as it was agreed that it was very important for the sport for a recognised event to be held in PANAM region.

 

 

Marie-Anne thanked everybody for attending and duly closed the meeting at 1.10pm Sunday.

Marie-Anne also thanked the French federation for letting us meet in their offices.

Next meeting will be 9-10 November either in Nice or Montreux (still to be decided).

 

 

Original text in English.

 

 

 

 

 

Nicky Caine                                                                                                                           Marie-Anne Persoons

Secretary                                                                                                                               President