Fletcher Ball won the open men’s national championship in Cohuna last week.
It wasn’t his most dominant performance, but Echuca Moama barefoot waterskier Fletcher Ball is once again atop the national pile after the recent Australian Barefoot Waterski Championships.
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Ball and fellow locals Brett Sands and Brad Shearer didn’t have too far to travel for the nationals this year, with the event hosted at Gunbower Creek at Cohuna from April 12 to 18.
Top skiers from across the country flocked to the area to take part and, when all was said and done, Ball was once again leading the open men’s leaderboard.
Fletcher Ball (centre) won a second senior barefoot waterskiing national championship last week. Photo: Kym Bond
“It was good fun,” Ball said.
“A few of the boys skied pretty well in our group, but some of us had a little bit of an ordinary run.
“I had a good first round, but didn't really clean up in the second round.”
Brett Sands kicks up a spray in the slalom.
Ball had to dig into his bag of tricks, both literally and figuratively, to take home the title as Queenslander Luke van den Heuvel provided stiff competition, topping both the slalom and jumps events.
The local’s hopes were rekindled by an impressive first tricks run that scored 9330 with the judges, van den Heuvel managing just 5630 as Ball’s nearest rival.
Elaina McClung gets moving in reverse. Photos: Jordan Townrow
It meant on the overall scorecard, Ball logged 2704.51 points to van den Heuvel’s 2603.43, with each of the three disciplines awarded a maximum of 1000.
“Slalom's usually my event, I'm holding the best score this year so far in the world, but it didn't work out for me” Ball said.
“I had a couple of falls in slalom, and trick just seemed to come around for me.
“I got a good first round result in that, which saved me.”
Aaliyah, Harvey, Millie and Ben Greenwell.
Fellow local and legend of the sport Brett Sands competed only in the slalom discipline, finishing second, while the third Echuca Moama competitor, and event organiser Brad Shearer came ninth in the Masters men, which featured only slalom and tricks.
All three will be featured in the World Championships squad, with Ball and Sands headed over as competitors and Shearer named team manager.
Rhys Driscoll gets aerial
The competition will be held in Auburndale, Florida, the same venue as the 2024 worlds event, which was cut short by Hurricane Milton.
Ball finished second overall in that truncated event.
Jemayne Centenera, Joel Legg, John Centenera, Peter Franks and (front) Abbie Foster and Jasmine Centenera.
“Hopefully, they can come through with good weather this time, turn on a good one again and have a full comp,” Ball said.
“Hopefully, a bit of training over winter and we can get over the line this time.”
Luke Grigoropolous flies feet first.
The nationals was the culmination of the barefoot season, but Ball and Sands have plenty of preparation to do ahead of the world titles.
“It gets a bit quiet over winter, but it will be pretty loud for me and Sandy,” Ball said.
“We'll probably be skiing a bit over the winter, trying to be in mint form before we go over to America.
“(I'll) put on a bit of muscle before then, hopefully, but it'll be a flat out winter.”
The world titles will be held between October 17 and 24.
