Day 5 - Trick Prelims and Coach Jeff's Birthday

With day 1 of skiing in the books, it was time to move on to the slippery ski, tricks.

TEAM USA has the capability of producing top level scores in all three events. Tricks is no exception. First were the men. We had two men in series 2 - Cale and Ryan, and then two more in Series 1 - Storm and Tomlin.

First out was Ryan. Ryan stood up most of his first pass. A little shaky, but hey who isn't. Then for the second pass, all trickers worst nightmare happened, as he completed his second toe turn, the heal strap on his rope slipped off and Ryan was standing there, above the water in skiing position, watching the rope travel down the lake behind the boat he is supposed to be skiing behind. While this was very unfortunate, it did not spell doomsday for Team USA.

Next on the water was Cale. Cale of course is known for his slalom skiing, but his tricks are quite the spectacle as well. Cale stood up his both of his passes with amazing grace. Standing next to the chinese watchers, he received a plethora of "Oooohhhss" and "Aaahhhhsss" with each of his flips on the second pass. He stood it up with a terrific score of 5000 points. We were hoping that this would be good enough to get him to the final. Not only did it get him to the finals, he is the 6th seed! Way to go Cale.

Our top two trickers were up next, Storm and Tomlin. Storm went out and may have made the smartest decision of the day by having Regina be his pinner. His first pass was a little shaky with a couple bobbles here and there that may have warranted a release from your average pinner. But Regina held on to that rope like it meant something, and Storm finished his first pass unscathed with just a few trick missing due to running out of time. Coming in to his hand pass - Storm's higher point pass, he was ready to go and shake off that first one. Well on his third trick - a ski over, he got himself tangled in the rope and went down early. This did not bode well for the team. But someone or something is looking out for him, because due to some other falls as well, Storm snagged the last spot into the finals with a score of 3820. This is tremendously good news, because we all know Storm is capable of so much more.

So after watching Storm go down early, Tomlin knew that he had to put a solid pass together, now knowing whether Storm would make the finals or not. Lots of pressure added to a world championships atmosphere. Well Tomlin came through as we all hoped he would. His toe pass was very clean. Coming back on his hand pass, he started with his signature "Lots of air" flips. Definitely a crowd favorite. Tomlin made it almost all the way through his second pass as well, and put up a huge 8550 to put himself in 2nd.

So Team USA moves 3 men into the trick finals.

On the ladies side, we knew we had two of the top trickers at the tournament wearing the red white and blue.

First was Alex Lauretano. Alex stood up her toe pass very well. A couple close calls, but when performing the type of toe 5s, toe wake b2bs and toe line tricks this athletes are, there are going to be close calls. Alex came in for her hand pass and stood it up beautifully. Wowing everyone with her tight flips and line tricks. Alex came to the dock with a whooping 6,870 points. That score got her second place!

Second place to whom you may ask? Well next on the water was Regina Jaquess. Regina is the current WUC World Trick Record Holder with a score of 7,260 . Regina attacked her toe pass and ran it cleanly. Coming back in for her hand pass, she knew if she stood it up she would have #1 seed. Stand it up she did, with a myriad of flips. After the scores came in, she stood in first with a score of 7,550 points. Indeed that is a pending new WUC Women's Tricks World Record!

So after trick, the team standings look like this:

1. USA - 5,584.13

2. Czech Republic - 5,158.49

3. France - 4,215.26

Skiing was done for Team USA in the early afternoon so we took a team trip to down Tianjin to see what we could find. There was a big shopping area and center square. Everyone was looking for authentic chinese souveniers and such, but this was not the area to find it. Most of us are pretty amazed that with all of these people everywhere the streets and such are suprisingly very clean. The air on the other hand, as Borat would say, "not as much".

We came back home for dinner and to suprise Coach Jeff on his birthday. Jerri, Melinda, and Cyndi did an awesome job coordinating this whole thing. They took a taxi to Tianjin on Wednesday and got a beautiful Dragon cake made for Jeff. We bought a t-shirt from the event and had the whole team sign it. We also got the organizing committee to get us a banner from the event so that we could give it to him. Everyone was hiding in my room, with the cake candles lit, and then I had him walk in the room to a suprise party with us and the Czech team. It was wonderful.

We topped off the evening with some bowling of course, and this time some swimming. All sorts of games were played in the water until none of us could swim anymore. Then to the sack.

Tomorrow is a big day - Jump prelims for everyone. And then - the slalom finals.

Thanks for checking us out! Leave a comment if you wish and I will pass the message along to the team.