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WATERSKI MagazineHere is the roster of world-class skiers and support personnel (none of whom is sponsored by a boat company) that made up our 1998 ski boat test team. If you can' t trust their opinion of a boats performance with credentials like these, than who can you trust?
Peter Chase earned his stripes as our slalom captain by running 39-off at a Class-C tournament in Austin, Texas, last summer. At 27, Chase holds the Men I, Men II and Open division records in the South Central Region. He's skied on the pro tour for the past four years.
Matt Dance came to our boat tests from Sea World San Diego, via Sea World Texas and Sea World Australia. In 1996, while performing in San Antonio, Dance and fellow show skier Leza Bugden were named winners of the inaugural Nova Award.
Dave Freygang brought to the test sites the skiing talent of a national slalom qualifier, the numerical thoroughness of a financial chief and the boating knowledge of a lifelong water rat.
Pierce Hoover has run the dry-land tests for the Boat Buyer's Guide since the mid-1980s. This year he came to the tests as our editor. You might recognize him as the guy who gutted his way through the Catalina Ski Race in 1996.
Billy Nichols has never shed his identity as the kid who barefooted for more than 2.5 hours 20 years ago. Probably because nobody has come close to his world-record mark. Nichols owns a pro shop in Ocala, Florida. Endurance is still his calling card, as evidenced by a dominating performance at the Blairfoot Bonanza in Winter Haven, Florida, just days after our tests ended.
Tom Oka has become a mainstay with the boat tests for a reason. Make that about 50 reasons. He can do anything at any time. It isn't uncommon to see him drive for handling tests, ski for performance scores and barefoot for subjective comments – in the span of a couple hours. Oka is also a longtime Sea World performer.
Randy Myers can analyze slalom wakes all day and all night. That's exactly what he did for us at this, his fourth WaterSki Magazine Boat Tests. Not only does Myers provide cerebral input for the slalom team, he can also walk the walk. He's made four trips to the U.S. Nationals and is a top-10 slalom skier in Men III. Myers and his wife, Sharon, have four kids, so he knows how to rate boats for the family.
Shannon Starling of Lakeland, Florida, would own a basement full of wakeboarding and kneeboarding trophies if there were such a thing as a basement in Florida.
He even won a world championship in wakeboarding a few years back.
Starling is still involved in wakeboard competition, both as competitor and judge.
Daniel Watkins is the guy you'll see hanging upside down with his feet in wakeboard boots throughout this issue. An Australian native, Watkins was the marquee performer at Sea World San Diego in 1997. His versatility on boards, skis, chairs and feet is so complete that he was named the men's winner of the 1997 Nova Award, which goes annually to the top male and female show skiers employed by World Entertainment Services.
Mike Weddington is one of the more familiar names inside and outside wakeboarding circles. The 22-year-old North Carolinian exploded onto the scene in 1995 when he won the world wakeboarding title. He's one of the most popular riders on the pro circuit. Weddington is a frequent contributor to Wake Boarding magazine; this issue of WaterSki is Weddington's first as a contributing editor.
