WaterSki Magazine

Risto
2007-08-28 15:00:00 | 17 views | 0 Comments

4 Reasons Why Freddy Krueger Is His Competition's Worst Nightmare

If they weren't already afraid of him, odds are that after the Beaver Lake Record Round Up on June 16-17, many skiers on the professional men's jump circuit started losing sleep over Freddy Krueger. The world record holder literally flew past the competition, jumping 238 feet at the Gates County, North Carolina, tournament to claim his third decisive victory of the season. And as if that alone weren't enough, here are four more reasons to fear Freddy. 

1. He knows when the vibe is right for big jumps.
“The Beaver Lake Record Round Up is such a cool little tournament because Jeff Mitchell does a tremendous job of getting the entire local community involved. It's such a laid-back tournament. You really get the feeling they're going to do whatever they can to make sure everything's right. To me, it really gave everybody the chance to go out and really go hard.”

2. He won't be lured in by familiarity with a site.
“Personally, I'm not a big fan of [skiing at a tournament site beforehand]. I don't like to practice on the site before a tournament because to me it kind of lulls me into mediocrity. I get comfortable, and for me personally that's never a good thing. If I'd had my choice, I wouldn't have been there to practice, but I needed time on a good lake, so we went up to Beaver Lake early.”

3. He doesn't settle for anything less than perfection.
“I decided a couple of years ago that I don't ever want to be sitting on an airplane or driving back in a car and feel that I didn't go hard enough. It may bite me in the butt, but I'm going to go as hard as I can and do the things I need to do to go as far as I can. To have to swallow that pill of 'I just wasn't aggressive enough' — I've been there, and I don't ever want to go there again.”

4. He's going big at every tournament — whether the competition does or not.
“I don't have the answers as to why I went 238 feet, and second place was 216. I know those guys didn't jump up to their potential. I'm not really going farther than I went last year. Maybe part of it is they're expecting me to jump far, and maybe they're going harder than they normally would, and it's putting them off of their rhythm. The guys are going to have to realize they have to put out big jumps. When conditions are really good, I don't think 220- or 225-foot jumps are going to win tournaments anymore.”