SHORT LINES Canada Summer Games Update Although the next Summer Games don't take place until August 1997 in Brandon, Manitoba (just a week before the World Championships in Toronto), we're gearing up for team selection and preparation. This year the OWSA will select a pool of potential team athletes (the 4 males and 4 females on the final team must be under 20 years old in '97) and hold a 5-day-long training camp for them July 24-28th. We've circulated letters calling for bids on the camp site, and are also looking for people interested in helping out with coaching. Hand in hand with the Canada Games effort is our Talent Identification Program. You tournament skiers out there will have noticed we have a shortage of young skiers, especially in the Girls categories. We need more! That's why we'll be using our summer camp Skills Awards program and Pro Clinic instructors to spot talented young skiers and relay the names to our office. But why stop there? If you know (or are) a competition-minded under-18 year old, especially a girl, send us the name! This year we'll be holding a Talent I.D. Clinic on June 28 (site TBA) to provide coaching to last years' crop of promising skiers. We need names of participants for a late-summer or June '96 Clinic. Help Ontario keep its traditional place at the top of the Canada Summer games podium! Women's Clinic World Champion National Team member Judy Messer will lead the OWSA's first Women's Competition Clinic Thursday July 13, 1995 at McClintock's Ski School in Cambridge. The clinic, which marks a renewed effort on the part of the OWSA to interest women in competitive water skiing, will begin at 4 pm for a maximum of 12 women. Instruction in slalom, trick or jump will be available. You don't need to compete, you just need to want to learn more about the three events and have a desire to develop your personal skill level. The "by women, for women" format should assure an ideal learning environment. If demand warrants, a second clinic may be scheduled later in the summer. Remember, space for this unique coaching opportunity is limited. If you would like to register, contact the OWSA office! MICA Supports OWSIC... The Ontario Water Ski Instructors' Course (OWSIC) will be using HD ski handles for instruction this year, courtesy of Mica Canada who are distributing the high-end HD line. Mica joins O'Brien, MasterCraft, and Mercury Marine as confirmed supporters of the June 17-22 Instructors' Course, which certifies the instructors who go on to work with about 10,000 skiers each summer at summer camps and schools. The Slalom Buoys Support Pro Clinics The Slalom Buoys portable slalom course will be on hand for 1995 Water Ski Pro Clinics this summer. This year Pro Clinic hosts may request the slalom option: the clinic instructors will set up the course and get participants up and slaloming on their own lakes. Slalom Buoys, which has recently started assembling portable slalom courses in Canada, joins Mercury Marine, MasterCraft, O'Brien and Summit Ford as sponsors of the Pro Clinic program. Another Year, Another Boat...For Sale! Once again this year, we're offering the Water Ski Pro Clinic boat for sale. This is a 1995 MasterCraft Barefoot 200 with Mercury 2.5 Xri (200 hp) power, trailer, cover, boom - everything. We'll lovingly run everything in over the summer to make sure when you pick it up in September you'll have the hottest boat on your lake - at the lowest price! A deposit now holds the boat for early September delivery. Don't make the mistake some people made last year, calling in September when the boat was already gone! Contact Paul Jurbala at the OWSA office. Logo Flap Well, it's not exactly a flap, but we're trying to get your attention here. In the Spring issue we printed two contenders for a new OWSA logo. Although we received a dozen calls supporting the "skier" logo (and none for the "trillium"), the board of directors isn't ready to go ahead just yet...so the question is, do you like the skier logo? Do you want it to be the OWSA's new design? Have you got a better idea you'd like to put forward? Please let us know by June 15th...we need to print new envelopes! Cottage Life Show For the second year, the OWSA had a booth at the Cottage Life Show, March 31 to April 2 at Mississauga's International Centre. Although you had to hike a bit - our booth was in the far reaches of the hall - it was an excellent opportunity to talk water skiing with cottagers. Interest in our Water Ski Pro Clinics ran especially high. It was also an excellent educational opportunity for show-goers: each day we were up on stage giving "how to" tips to the crowd. Thanks go to volunteers Nicole Maurer, Bill Reeves, Mike Spence, and Matt Gryniewski for helping Paul Jurbala at the booth; to Instructors' Course examiners Allegra Calder, Stacey Nichols, Andy Gardner and Peter Harasti, who along with Nicole and Matt did turns on stage; to Craig Rutherford for help with set up and tear down; to McClintock's for loan of stage demo equipment, and of course to Cottage Life. Thanks and see you next year! By The Numbers: Water Ski Canada Gets a Funding Reprieve Water skiers breathed a sigh of relief March 31st when it was announced that Water Ski Canada, the national organization for Canadian water skiers, had been on the right side of the budget axe. Ranked 33rd of the 36 sports which Sport Canada will continue to fully fund in 1995, Water Ski Canada is actually in line for a small grant increase this year. That can't be said for most of the other 35 "winners", who will see decreases of up to 30%, not to mention the 18 "losers", sports such as weightlifting, squash and football, who will see 60% decreases in their '95 funding and 100% decreases in 1996. The assessment represents Sport Canada's effort to concentrate funding on sports where Canada has achieved excellence. Water skiing, of course, is something Canadians do as well as (better than?) anybody in the world, based on our World Championships and Pan-Am Games results. But there's probably a hidden agenda, according to Water Ski Canada Executive Director Hugh Mitchener, who says, "The criteria were heavily slanted to Olympic sports." In fact, only water ski, rugby and softball made the cut from the non-Olympic sports, and next year the whole process revs up again - another opportunity for the feds to cut support? Meeting Sport Canada's requirements has eaten up a major slice of WSC and provincial association time. In order to justify its existence, WSC had to submit a lengthy evaluation document listing not only competition results, but details of its management, grassroots development programs, membership, and so on. This in turn was passed down to the provinces, who provided the information for much of the WSC report. In general, the prognosis for continued government funding of sport is poor. Not only is each level of government trying to cut its own budget, but the lower levels must manage cuts passed down from above. For example, the cuts announced in the federal budget impact on Ontario programs, and Ontario may feel the need to cut sport funding to make up some of the difference. The public, deluged by cuts, may not have the energy to scream about the loss of sport programs. But election time is coming...consider asking those candidates who will soon be knocking on your door where they stand on the issue of support to sport and recreation! New HO Rep High Output Sports (HO and Jobe skis, HO boards) has announced Paul Windover as the new Ontario sales representative. In addition to supporting HO dealers, Paul will be organizing on-water demos. HO is also continuing their competitive skier discount program. You can reach Paul at (705) 657-9635.