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VICTORIAN waterskier Bailey Christie set a new under-14 boys slalom record at Stoney Park on Sunday as other records also fell.
Older brother Jack had previously held the record, but now younger brother Bailey holds the bragging rights after he amassed a total overall score of 2830.33.
It was made up of a score of 1000 in both the tricks and slalom while he compiled a score of 830.83 in the jump division.
Park owner Jason Stone said the Stoney Park facility lived up to its billing as world-class and over the last 15 years most, if not all, records have been set there.
“It’s a feather in our cap to see another record broken on our site,” he said.
“We now have had the most amount of national records in the country that have been set on our site across all divisions.
“It’s renowned as one of the best ski lakes in the world and it’s becoming more surprising if there isn’t a record set then if there is.”
When the facility was first built, Stone said they took into consideration what needed to be done to make it into a top of the range facility.
It required doing research into the direction of the wind and the sun.
Lack of backwash and glassy water conditions have also contributed.
“We dug the lake to a specific depth in the middle so that the skis would sit deeper in the water,” Stone said.
“We have near-perfect conditions 95 per cent of the time and the skiers know if they perform to the best of their ability they are a good chance of setting a new record.
It’s now a matter of when a record will be set, not if. You could say Stoney Park is the Pipeline of the waterskiing world.
- Stoney Park owner Jason Stone
“It’s now a matter of when a record will be set, not if. You could say Stoney Park is the Pipeline of the waterskiing world.”
Highly fancied under-21 men’s world team and open team member Archie Davis might have been disappointed at his overall scores, but they were still enough to win the under-21 division.
Other highlights of the weekend included 12-year-old Riley Stone landing her first jump ever, while Ben and Regan McGrady unexpectedly finished in the top three.
Ben finished second in the under 14 boys trick division, while Regan finished third.
“Ben and Regan are always on a podium,” Stone said.
“And Riley only learnt to jump off the ramps a week before the titles so as a dad and a coach it was really exciting to see her land it on the weekend.”
Attention now turns to the NSW State titles and the final round of the Malibu series at Stoney Park in March.
