Monaco Waterski Cup

RoFor the first time ever, TWBC made an appearance at the Monaco Waterski Cup in Roquebrune Sur Argens, France. The event was hosted by the Monaco Water Ski Federation and organized by Greg Desfond and Alexis Keusseoglou. These two absolutely killed it with a wonderful skiing setup, engaging format, top tier food, and homages to Monaco’s racing heritage. Greg and Alexis were so committed to the overall experience that they even arranged to have a retired F1 car displayed near the spectator seating. Additionally, they partnered with Fast Lane Drive to have a wide array of exotic vehicles displayed along the shoreline. How’s that for yard decoration?

As cool as the theme was, that’s not the real reason people showed up. The skiing was easily the main event with some incredibly competitive moments, a fair share of drama, unpredictable conditions, and even a pending world record. This year's event featured both slalom and trick, with a special twist implemented in the trick division. It’s been a running theory that trick is the only of the three skiing events where men and women are on an even playing field. Well the Monaco Waterski Cup decided to put that to the test and formed one combined division for all of the interested trick competitors. In total, 8 trickers opted in to try the fused division, including some first time Waterski Pro Tour participants. The most interesting part… if placements lined up with seeding, we would have a mixed gender podium.

The highest score of each skier, out of 2 rounds,  would count towards placements. The event organizers opted to use real time scoring so each competitor would know the previous skiers scores before the start their set. This added excitement and last minute run changes when skiers realized their original planned run wouldn’t be enough to overtake that previous skier's score. Skiers were absolutely pushing the limits of their bodies and their equipment. Francisco Girogis even went as far as to land an over-rotated front flip and ride away with his binding detached from the ski. He then proceeded to wrap his whole release system in duct tape, in round 2, to eradicate the risk of pre-releasing a second time.

Charlie Ross - Skier of the Day

Amongst all the excitement, two skiers stood themselves out from the crowd by breaking the 10,000 point barrier. Matias Gonzales did so with 10,980 before quickly being overtaken by Pato Font with 12,340. Pato remained in the top spot and was the only skier of the weekend to exceed 12,00 points. Unfortunately, an uncharacteristic fall kept Neilly Ross off the podium and well below her 3rd place seeding. Neilly wasn’t the only woman to join the men in the trick competition, Ines Anguenot made her Waterski Pro Tour debut and even placed higher than her seeding. What a way to kick off her career!

            As enjoyable as trick was, the slalom definitely stole the show. Just in the women’s portion, there was a 3 way tie on the podium, scores into 10.25m, and some gnarly wind conditions to overcome. Vanessa Vieke flew through 38 in finals to keep her hot streak going and secure a silver medal. We don’t know what’s in the water down under, but this girl is on fire. Just beneath Venessa on the podium was a three way tie for third place between Brooke Baldwin, Neilly Ross, and Ali Garcia. In the result of a tie, backup scores are factored in. That doesn’t do a whole lot when Brooke and Neilly have an exact tie even with backup scores factored in.

            An intense review of the rules and impromptu judges meeting resulted in a shared podium placement and evenly split prize money between the two. Ali Garcia had an inferior backup score and got bumped down to 5th place. Now you may be wondering: “Who won then?” Well let’s just say the bull was seeing red. Jaimee Bull made 11.25m look like an opener before leaving 10.75m in the dust. She already had the title but her eyes were locked on three ball. Jaimee has been trying intensely to steal the Canadian national record, 2.25 at 10.25, from Whitney Rini for years. Would today finally be the day? Sadly, not. A fall around 2 ball in round 1 left her wishing for more and a rowdy start in finals put her centimeters inside of 2, for a winning score of 1 at 10.25m. We’ll be watching closely for Jaimee to make another attempt on the record soon. For now, she’ll just have to settle for being the back to back Monaco Waterski Cup champion!

            The men didn’t wait until finals to heat things up. The seeding was determined by the Waterski Pro Tour ranking list and then the world ranking list comes into play for any skiers that haven’t participated in a Pro Tour event. There were a few big name skiers that were unable to make an appearance at the season opener last weekend. This caused a real shake up in the seeding at Monaco and set the stage for some true Rookie vs Veteran stories. In addition, the wind featured extreme gusts that caused an extremely wide variety of scores. This may be the first ever pro event to feature multiple skiers falling on their opener and a finals cut of 3 at 10.25m in the same day!

The conditions may have been tough but we can all agree that the skiers were tougher. A 7 way tie for the last finals spot finished Aaron Davies’ and Will Asher’s weekend early despite them both scoring 3 at 10.25m. This is undoubtedly one of the highest final cuts we’ve ever seen. Of the skiers that went through, there were three to really pay attention to: Nate Smith, Freddie Winter, and Charlie Ross. Nate snagged the top seed position going into finals with 4.5 at 10.25m, an unbelievable score given the conditions. Charlie and Freddie were the only other  skiers to get a piece of 4, each scoring 3.25.

All eyes were on Freddie Winter. For those who may not be aware, Freddie has spent the last year recovering from a high impact injury he sustained at this exact event in 2024. Despite that setback, he had a very strong start to the season and claimed his third Masters title. He made his plan for Monaco very clear from the start: he wanted to get 4 at 10.25m in all 3 rounds. Freddie followed through and scored 3.25, 4, and 4 in that order. But wait… the 4 in finals didn’t count. A deviation in the boat path invalidated the score and presented the opportunity for a re-ride with a protected score of 3 at 10.25m. Freddie came off the dock at 10.75m before returning at 10.25m and securing yet another score of 4. He executed his plan nearly flawlessly.

Only one other skier matched this level of consistency and it scored them the bronze medal. Adam Sedlmajer ran 3 at 10.25m every single set. It didn’t matter how much the wind gusted, he was getting to that 3 ball. Rob Hazelwood and Nate Smith, on the other hand, weren’t quite as fortunate and both fell as they came around 3. Rob scored 2.5 and Nate got 2.25. All of these scores are extremely impressive, but there's still a skier left to talk about. Charlie Ross is making his name known as one of the most promising junior skiers in the world. This year, he doubled down.

Charlie started his season off strong at Moomba securing his first ever title at the event. Fresh off of that success, he came to a record tournament at Swiss Waterski Resort where he set a pending world record and became the youngest skier to score into 9.75m. The thing with pending records is that there is always the small possibility they don’t get approved, whatever the reason may be. Charlie decided he didn’t want to take that chance and figured he would just run that score again to ensure the record gets approved. Well that’s exactly what he did in Monaco. Charlie took his first ever Waterski Pro Tour win, the Monaco Waterski Cup title,  and reinforced his pending world record with 1 at 9.75m. It’s pretty hard to have a better day than that.

All in all, it was a very successful event. A huge thank you to all of the sponsors, the event organizers, the skiers, the judges, the broadcast crew, the viewers, and everyone else who made this event a possibility. Stay tuned for the next Waterski Pro Tour stop in the heart of Rabat, Morocco.

Watch the 2025 Monaco Waterski Cup

Pre Show

Highlights Video

Webcast Replay - Day 1

Webcast Replay - Day 2

Scores of the Monaco Waterski Cup