Day 3 - Registration and Practice

Everyone woke up around 7 and headed downstairs for breakfast. Some thought about eating the poached quail eggs, but no one did. As for the fried pig's feet, everyone decided to steer clear of those. And for some reason, the orange juice over here is piping hot. Not too bad, but very shocking when you pick up a glass of OJ that almost burns your hand.

After breakfast we had time to practice. First Alex tricked, then Regina tricked, and Tomlin tricked. Then Cale slalomed, and then Ryan slalomed. It was good to get used to the water, but the site is definitely not tournament ready today. So it was just to get used to the conditions and such. This is the first time that I got to look at the site in the daylight, it is magnificent. Flags from every represented country line the shores. There were banners and signs welcoming you to the world championships about every 15 steps. There was practice for the opening ceremonies while we were there. Let me tell you, if the practice is anything like the real deal tomorrow, we are in for a treat. There were about 300 chinese children, with drums, singing and chanting in the practice. I will let you know the whole thing tomorrow when we see it for real. There is a media pavillion on the south end of the lake. It kinda looks like E.T. very cool. There are also a lot of platforms that stick out into the lake, which make for great viewing. This is going to be a terrific event.

After practice everyone came in to get some lunch. Again no one touched the pig's feet. Shucks. The team is out practicing trick right now. And that's where we stand.

Unfortunately the internet connection is quite slow here. So posting news is easy, but getting pictures up doesn't seem to be working. If I can, I surely will.

After trick practice, the team relaxed and saw a little bit of Tianjin. Cris and Jeff went to the official meeting and everything appears ready to go. Team dinner at 7:00 and then a meeting to go over the rules. The way that the tournament is seeded, is that all skiers are divided into 3 groups: series 1, series 2, and series 3. Series 1 is for the top 15 men, and top 9 women. All of our skiers are either series 1 or series 2. There is going to be some great skiing here.

After the meeting, a group of us went down for some more bowling. Russ, Cyndi, Cale, Tomlin, Jenna, Alex, Storm, Cris, Jeff, and Ryan squared off in a lane vs. lane competition. Ended up 1-1, rubber match will probably be tomorrow. :-) After bowling, there was some heated pop-a-shot competition as well.

In the morning there are the Opening Ceremonies. After that, it is all slalom preliminaries tomorrow. This is the order in which the US skiers will hit the water:
Tomlin
Storm
Ryan
Cale
Alex
Regina

I will try my best to give you as many updates as possible. Be sure to check here for US information and www.ncwsa.com/wuc for the most up to date general tournament information.

Thanks for supporting TEAM USA. Feel free to leave any comments for the skiers on this page. I will be sure to pass along your support to the team. They will love to hear it. GO USA!

Day 2 - Touring Beijing & Travel to Tianjin

Team USA had one day to tour Beijing, so we are going to try and cram in as much as we can. One group wanted to see the Great Wall. So Terry, Russ, Melinda, Jerri, Ryan and Michael all went there.

The rest of the group went to go see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, from the Olympics. Our cab driver was trying to tell us about how much he liked watching Michael FURLIPS swimming. After about 10 minutes, we finally figured out he meant Michael Phelps. Thank you Mandarin - English translation for the comedy.

Then the olympic group decided to split. Half (Jeff, Regina, Storm, Cale, and Kevin (Cananda))went into the Bird's Nest to check that out. They actually got to go onto the track and view the stadium from the inside.

The other half (Cindy, Jenna, Alex, Tomlin and Cris) went to go see the Forbidden City and Emperial Gardens. While there, they got to dress in authentic Chinese Emperial garb, and let's just say, we looked like royalty. Everyone met back at the hotel at 3, and now we are grabbing the ski bags at the airport, and taking transportation to the site, in Tianjin China.

We all headed to the airport, grabbed our bags, and met the TEAM USA host. Her name is Li Chow and she is very helpful. We jumped on a huge coach bus which took all 15 of us to Tianjin. We are staying at the Dongli Lake Hotel. We checked in, and ate some dinner together.

We heard that there was bowling and some other activities in the hotel so the boys decided to check it out. Little did we know we were stepping into wonderland. This place looked like an 80s video game arcade, that had not been touched since around 1984. There were all sorts of flourescent goodies inside like: Whack-a-mole, skeeball, pop-a-shot, air hockey, rad racer, motocross, and that-one-game-where-you-shoot-water-out-of-a-gun-into-the-little-target-which-makes-the-car-go-up-a-pole. I described it as being like the video arcade on the boardwalk from the movie "Big". In this same building there is a bowling alley, Olympic sized swimming pool, sauna, dance hall, and massage parlor. So we bowled a few games, and then had a blast with all of the arcade games. It was a great evening.

Everyone is resting now. Tomorrow we have registration and practice for the athletes. Thanks for checking out the site. GO USA!!

Day 1 - TEAM USA Travels to Beijing, China

Ni Hao - Hello in Mandarin. TEAM USA is here in China!

If you didn't know, we are here for the World University Championships of water skiing. We have a team of college skiers that are going to compete to defend their title as World University Water Ski Team Champions.

The USA is bringing a solid team of 7 skiers. Regina Jaquess, Alex Lauretano, Cale Burdick, Storm Selsor, Tomlin Wilson, Ryan Selsor, and Jenna Sligar (Alt.) make up the competitors that will proudly be wearing the stars and stripes. Jeff Surdej is the Coach and Cris Kodiak is the Manager. Cheering contingent will be made up of family and friends: Mike Lauretano (Alex's dad), Terry Selsor (Storm's dad), Russ Selsor (Ryan's dad), Cyndi Burdick (Cale's mom), Melinda Wilson (Tomlin's mom) and Jerri dePingre (Tomlin's family friend).

Everyone met in Chicago on Friday night with no problems. Set the alarms for 3:30am (that was a little more of a problem) and headed to the airport. Continental Airlines flew us to Newark/New Jersey and then on to Beijing. The airplane was awesome. Everyone had their own TV screen with 350 movies, hundreds of TV shows and games all on demand at your fingertips. This combined with sleep helped make the 13 hours fly right by.

Team USA landed in the airport at 1:50pm (Sunday) and there were WUC (World University Championships) representatives there to guide us.

We stored the skis at the airport, and then took shuttles to the Beijing hotel. Instead of sleeping, we decided to push through the night so that we can get ourselves on Chinese time as soon as possible.

We had a team dinner at We Wan in Beijing. Awesome stuff. Dumplings, Roast Duck, Spicy Pork, Chicken, Tofu soup. You name it, the team tried it. After that, did a little shopping and then took cabs back to the hotel and hit the sack. Tomorrow will be a day of sightseeing for the team, Great Wall, Olympic Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and then travel to Tianjin (the site of the tournament).

Tune in here for all TEAM USA updates.