The concept of cable

Chief Judge at the 2000 World Cable Championships explains this popular way of skiing & boarding

By Vern Oberg

In 2000 before I headed to the World Junior Championships in Agrinio, Greece, I managed to take a side trip to the World Cable Championships in - Pæstany, Slovakia? Yeah, well, you land in Vienna, Austria and drive for 2 hours to a laid back little town of 25,000 people whose claim to fame is an internationally renowned health spa and a cable ski park! And, some great taverns!

I had never seen a cable competition, so I was totally over-qualified to be the chief judge - which I was! Nonetheless, it was a tremendous experience I shall not soon forget. Cable skiing is a hoot, yet the athletes that compete are no less qualified than yer behind-the-boat skiers - the stuff they can do behind cable is mind boggling to say the least.

Imagine a mountain t-bar lift mounted on a flat surface at the edge of the water. Instead of the t-bar, you of course have your rope. The circuit is usually in the form of a pentagon, not unlike home plate shape in baseball, although I have been told that some courses are rectangular. The cable is mounted about 4 metres above the water, pulleys are used for directional changes, and the whole thing is powered by a 60 horsepower electric engine. Through a series of mechanical devices, your rope is brought up to the starter pulley and connected or disconnected from "carriers".

While tricks and jumping are somewhat similar to behind the boat (BTB), slalom is a totally different event. You are out there fighting not only the first turn to the course, but a stretchy cable that, if you miss-time the whip, you are done like dinner. "I fought the cable and the cable won!"

Tricks are difficult to call because you have no wake - what appears to be a surface turn, may be a wake turn (tic tacs I called them). The best tricker did over 9600 points - a Belarus skier who trains in a swimming pool!

In jumping, they go like, really late - late, late, late. Remember, the cable stretches! Athletes go so far that they are reaching behind themselves as they pass the carrier. Then, they land. Since they land so far downstream, the next pulley in the course is right above them - they have to wait until the rope passes the pulley (in skiing position) and they can release the handle as they absolutely cannot make the next turn. More on that later.

Britta Llewellyn was there skiing in tricks and jump. In jump, she broke the world cable record and became the World Champion for the strong Austrian Team. However, their accomplishments could not upset the strong Belarus team who train year round - in swimming pools no less!

When you have been a BTB skier for as long as I have, cable skiing is a new and fresh experience. First of all, there is no noise but the steady hum of the cable and pure power of the skiers as they slice their way from buoy to buoy or make that final cut to the ramp. My senses took a beating as I watched the jump event. Imagine this event with no noise from the 320 hp Ski Nautique roaring past you as the skier edges hard to the ramp! I really got messed up when a jumper fell and started swimming back to shore. I saw the next skier coming and panicked as I knew there was a skier in the boat path - like duh? There isn't a boat, Vern!!!

Basically, a tournament is run like this. For each event, you do a single pass and then go back to the start and back in line. The next person may already be skiing by then. For tricks, it's two passes but not consecutive, and for jumping three passes. Slalom however, is slightly different in that it is a continuous elimination of the entire seed until you are left with only a winner. At this event, we had a tie in slalom for 3rd place. While the main event was run in somewhat rough water conditions, for the tie run-off, the water calmed. It took 5 passes before a winner was declared. I watched from the starting dock as the next in line watched the other on the water. It was fascinating as each man made the course, the other had to go out and do one better.

Imagine a tournament where you actually knew the exact time that it would be done! Three minutes each for jumpers - like clockwork - one after the other with a jumper hitting the ramp every 60 seconds! That, my friends, is excitement. A trick skier every 40 seconds - it takes its toll on the judges, but they seemed to cope quite nicely.

Unlike BTB, a cable skiing tournament is akin to a well-rehearsed play with continuous action once the event has started.

However, we were in Eastern Europe and sometimes things can happen that you don't expect. On the last day, during the finals, we had just completed one round of slalom and were on to the next rope length when I watched the cable slow and stop. It appeared that we ran out of electricity! Well, it's not like you can go out and buy a can of electricity and fill her up again! This was not a localized problem but a major power disruption! And, of course, it had never happened before - except, of course, to me on my first time as chief judge at a World Championships no less!

Needless to say, it was perplexing and we really didn't know how to handle the situation except try and find and/or abscond with an emergency generator. However, with a few well placed phone calls, we were able to get the power company to divert power to our site and the Championships were completed - and in fine form I might add.

As they were preparing for the medal ceremonies, I doffed my duds and grabbed my suit and borrowed a ski. I'd seen it all, so I must now be an expert! With much hooting and hollering from the partisan crowd, I picked my carrier and whoosh, away I went down the course - no sweat! A couple of warm-up turns to test out the ski and prepare for the first pulley - no sweat ha ha ha - made it! Now I started to look for the slalom course - ah yes, just around that next turn… Unfortunately, I was looking at the third pulley and forgot the second. I was in the wrong place and in the wrong position. The direction change was so fast, I was literally launched through the air and smacked on my face! I instantly gained a new nickname to the cable skiing community as "Two Corner Vern". Eventually, I picked myself up and went back to the start dock, a bit sorer but wiser, and made it all the way around!!! I actually enjoyed it and wanted more but, I will leave that for another time.

While cable skiing is very popular in land- and lake-starved Europe, it has not really caught on in this continent. This is unfortunate because I could think of nothing more pleasurable after a hard day's work than to take a couple of rides every evening. For wakeboarders, it is also a hoot as you have the ultimate four-metre tower and you can use the pulleys to get BIG Air!

In Canada, there is one cable system located just outside of Montreal - lucky for those folks! In the USA, there are a few, with the best known installation in Orlando, Florida. Next time you are in any one of those locations, heh, check it out for a whole new water ski experience AND, let's get some Canadian riders and skiers at the next Cable World Championships!!!