Ski Club Of The Palm Beaches To Host 2019, 2020 Water Ski National Championships

USA Water Ski and the American Water Ski Association are pleased to announce that the 2019 and 2020 Water Ski National Championships will be hosted by the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches at Okeeheelee Park in West Palm Beach, Fla. Exact dates are to be determined. The AWSA board of directors approved the bids from the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches during its summer board meeting in Martindale, Texas.

The Ski Club of The Palm Beaches has hosted 13 Water Ski National Championships, five Southern Regional Water Ski Championships, three Florida State Water Ski Championships and the 1989 Water Ski World Championships - in addition to a handful of professional cash-prize tournaments and hundreds of other amateur water ski tournaments - over the past 30 years. It most recently hosted the 2015 GOODE Water Ski National Championships.

The 2017 GOODE Water Ski National Championships is being held this week (Wednesday through Saturday) at the San Marcos River Ranch in Martindale, Texas. Visit www.waterskinationals.com for information and results.

The 2018 Water Ski National Championships will be held Aug. 8-11, 2018, at Mystic Lakes in Maize, Kan. The bid from the Mystic Lakes Ski Club was approved by the AWSA board of directors at its mid-winter meeting on Jan. 28. The Mystic Lakes Ski Club, which includes two world-record capability water ski lakes, has previously hosted the Midwest Regional Water Ski Championships, Junior U.S. Open Water Ski Championships and Barefoot Water Ski National Championships. It will mark the first time that the state of Kansas has hosted the Water Ski National Championships.

More than 600 of the nation's top water ski athletes from across the United States compete for national titles in slalom, tricks, jumping and overall in respective age divisions and two Open divisions at the Nationals, the world's largest three-event water ski tournament. Advancement to the Nationals is primarily earned through placement on the national rankings list. Athletes also can qualify for the Nationals by placing in the top-five at Regionals or by placing in the top-five at the previous year's Nationals.  

The first national championships was held in 1939 at Jones Beach in Long Island, N.Y. Except for three years during World War II (1942-1944), the Nationals has been held every year since 1939.

The American Water Ski Association is one of nine sport discipline organizations of USA Water Ski, which is a non-profit organization promoting water skiing and wakeboarding in the United States. USA Water Ski is affiliated with the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (world governing body) and is recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and Pan-American Sports Organization as the national governing body of organized water skiing and wakeboarding in the United States.