UCSC Pumpkin Head ski 2020 = a smashing success!

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped to ensure soft starts and happy landings again this year. Luke, Zach Mclauflin, and Vicky - thank you for being first on site to get the site organized. Scott - thank you for the expert driving. Randy - thank you for the expert spotting (pulling up the loose ends at full speed is not an easy task!). Zach Tarum - thank you for being on site with the Grady-white for rapid pick-ups. Frank - thank you for being on standby with your stars and stripes in case the Yamaha decided to act up in the cold weather. Next year, maybe we can get up a 6+ person megaski with that V8 (which is a little too much for a 200V6). Kathy - thank you for your eye on safety. .. and thank you to all the photographers, including those taking pictures from the boat and working the dock to keep safety top of mind - Sydney, MaryEllen, Alan.

MANY UCSC FIRSTS

We had many firsts this year, and no blood (just lots of pumpkin guts). One of the most notable this was a barefoot "pumpkin" using a rubber mask (because the inside of a pumpkin ruins your sense of smell worse than Covid-19 when your face crashes into it at 37mph!). Congratulations Brent for keeping your nose in one piece! Way to go George and Robin this year keeping up the tradition of unbroken string of skiing on Halloween. The secret of the comfortable foam inside your pumpkin is starting to catch on. Luke - congratulations on doubling up this year; once to kick off the event in the quad-ski style with Jacob, Zane, and Rich, and second with Frank. The entire Tarum family skied flawlessly with very impressive and confident starts by all. BethAnne's skeleton costume was a great hit, and has inspired some great ideas for next year (costumes). Speedo-man made a repeat appearance this year, and almost made it out of the water the second try - and made girls on the boat blush (awesome job, Cameron!). Vicky Asher came out of show-ski retirement and pulled off an amazing dock start (didn't even get her hair wet). The dock landing was close to perfect, but ultimately missed sitting back down on the dock by a butt cheek. I think that only Jackie Tarum made it back to the dock completely dry from the waist up with a little help from friends. Noah 2E made it fully around the lake to demonstrate a perfect "yard sale" on final return to the dock to show off some cold-water swimming skills and get back to the boat quickly before the cold set in. Matt Dippold again took to the water like a fish, and probably could have kept going circles all day long. Kayla made a creative attempt to ski right up onto the dock this year to avoid going into the river all together (LOL). However, not intentional! - next year the eye-holes will need to be a bit bigger! Thank you all for recruiting all the talent. Next year, Frank - we will have to get more of the bohemia slalom crew involved.

GREAT FOOD

The cook-off was a huge hit and we had over 9 amazing entries (something hot that you can eat with a spoon"). The favorite dessert on the table had apples and carmel, but since it wasn't hot, the russian judge disqualified it from the voting. Our third place dish-to pass winner this year was the chicken-curry-chilly brought by Marissa Clark. Second place was the numero-uno chilli by Robin and George Vernon. The winner this year, taking ultimate bragging rights, with a narrow lead of a couple of spoon-votes was the seafood crab soup by Bethanne and Zach Tarum. Congratulations to all - it was hard judging, and thank you to everyone who made for a great meal to end the fantastic day!!!!

Many hands make for light work -

Thank you to all who helped take-down, in the same fashion as the set-up.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2020. Pumpkin heads Rule!

--

The purpose of the UCSC is to promote the sport of water skiing through group participation, sponsoring exhibitions, shows, tournaments and associated recreational activities for the mutual benefit of the members; to develop and maintain facilities for water skiing; to stimulate interest in water skiing-among non-skiers in the community; to make available water ski instruction, and practice facilities, and to work for greater safety in water skiing.