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The
Morrisons Visit South Africa
 by Chris and Al
Morrison |
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When:
Where:
Why:
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April
2 - 16, 2004
Pretoria, South Africa
To visit the South African Juniors & ski at the Jr Worlds Site |
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Last week we were in Pretoria, South Africa, skiing with some of the best junior skiers in the world. We competed in the South African National tournament, April 15 -17. The tournament was also an international competition.
The South African team included Andre De Villiers, Heinrich Sam, Zane De Villers, Ferdi Engelbrecht, Leandrie Dittmar, and Ryan Bernstrom. Andre set a new junior world record with a trick score of 9230.
Team International included Al Morrison (USA), Devin Nolen (Holland), Chris Morrison (USA), Ben Harris (Great Britain), Robert Blaauw (Australia), Stefanie Hamblyn (New Zealand), Amy Morrison (USA), and Gene Morrison (USA).
The Federation Team consisted of the remaining South African footers.
The South African people are all very nice. Going to the tournament was a great experience because we got to ski against world competitors, meet new competitors and make new friends.
The South Africans have a boom division, a short line division, a junior division, and a senior division. Chris thinks that the boom and the short line divisions are a good idea because it gets the footers that can’t do as many tricks behind the boat to come to the tournament. There were lots of young kids who are in the boom division and they will be good trickers. Many of the footers in South Africa start in the boom division.
The De Villiers have a great barefoot hangout. They call it “The
Farm”. We had a great time skiing there. Andre, Zane and Nadine have a very nice site to ski at. It’s a river and the waves roll
out very nicely. Zane helped Chris with some of his tricks. Chris made his first long-line jump at their site on the river with Eugene Sam,
Heinrich's dad, helping him. Chris went inverted for the first
time and Eugene was so excited that he took off his clothes and jumped in the river
just to congratulate Chris. Chris followed that up by landing all three
of his jumps in the tournament, and his longest jump was 17.4 meters. Al
also went three for three at the tournament, and his longest jump was 21.8 meters.
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Chris with Eugene Sam
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Al jumping with his new helmet.
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Amy
Morrison
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Nadine De Villiers helped Amy Morrison (Al & Chris'
sister) and Gene (their dad). In one day Nadine had Amy jumping shortline for the first time, and then Amy jumped long line that same day. Amy landed her first two jumps! Nadine
also helped Amy with a toe up and she did it easily on a short line. Look out girls!
We stayed at the Sams’ house while in South Africa. Eugene, Heinrich, and Elisca were very nice to help us with food and things to do. Elisca is a great cook and she is very nice
helping us with everything. Heinrich was very nice and we skied with him a lot.
Off the water, he’s really good on the trampoline. He practices barefooting a lot. Eugene
Sams hand built a new boat called The Sensation and we were the first people to ski behind it. It’s a great boat and it will be the boat used at the Junior Worlds in 2005. The boat is similar to a Flight Craft outboard, but a little smaller. Chris got used to the wake and bumped his wake score up by a whole point. He scored 12.1 in the tournament. Al also improved his wake score with a 16.8 in the tournament. Thanks to Eugene for his tips on wake crossings.
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Andre De Villiers
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Chris Morrison
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The tournament site was at a lake with a dam. Unfortunately the last two days of the tournament we had very strong winds,
so one day they moved the tournament to the river where Heinrich trains.
The water on the river was nice no matter what. We were supposed to ski three rounds, but because we lost time changing sites, we only skied two rounds in wakes and tricks and only one round in jump.
During the first round of tricks, the water was rough, and Al had a tough time. But the water conditions were better in the second round, and he tricked pretty well. He made his toe turn feet to feet and skied out both passes, ending with a score of 4630.
Andre had moved out of the junior boys division into the open men’s division. That meant Al’s toughest competition was Heinrich and Zane DeVilliers. Heinrich fell in tricks and Zane scored close to 4,000. Al ended up first in tricks, and with his jump score Al had enough points to win overall.
With Andre’s scores and Heinrich’s great slalom score, the South African team took
1st place. The International team finished second.
During our trip we also went to a safari lodge called Jaci’s. We saw all sorts of animals including elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, cheetahs, wildebeests, rhinos, warthogs, and much more,
There are over 11 different languages in South African. Most South Africans speak Africaan and English. This was our best trip ever.
Chris and Al Morrison
April 20, 2004
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