Membership Information
Spring 2000

The Basics

We practice up to seven days a week behind our 2000 Mastercraft Pro Star 205 at Anderson Lake, about 35 minutes away.  Some of us have our own equipment but there's team equipment for anyone who needs it.  We accept anyone who wants to join (beginners, grad students, and Stanford faculty).  We coach each other:  Some of us are ski instructors during the summer or have trained with pros.  We also are planning periodic clinics with accomplished skiers to help all of us to improve.

The team is a member of the western region of the National Collegiate Water Ski Association.  Other teams in the region include UCLA, USC, USD, UCSD, SDSU, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Chico, Cal Poly SLO, Oregon, UNLV, Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara, Sac State, Western Washington, UW, and ASU.  Tournaments are hosted by various schools during the spring and fall, regionals and nationals are held in the fall, and a National All-Star Tournament is held each spring.  All undergraduates are eligible and encouraged to participate in tournaments.

But, the vast majority of our members are recreational skiers who ski for fun or just to get better!

Membership Info

Before you join the team understand that a skiing shift is a 4-5 hour commitment—but well worth it.  By joining the club, you have access to our practice schedule that means you can sign up for any available practices.  Check the schedule often for times when you can ski.  Everyone has just as much opportunity to ski – but you must take the initiative and sign up!

Here's what you need in order to ski with the team:

  1. $20 per quarter membership fee
  2. a USA Water Ski membership ($50 per calendar year.  We have membership forms.)  This is for liability insurance.
  3. A signed waiver and team application
  4. Prepaid gas ($3 per ride)
  5. Pay-as-you-go fee of $10, charged only up until your 10th trip

As a team member, you are REQUIRED to participate in at least one boat cleaning per quarter.   These cleanings occur approximately every month.  Also, you are REQUIRED help us with The Stanford Fund fund raising.  Failure to fulfill these requirements may result in forfeiture of your membership and a partial refund of dues.

Practice

Signing up for practice: please visit the scheduling system linked from the team's home page.

If you can't be there for a full practice and you have a car, just write on the schedule when you'll have to arrive or leave so that the others know.  (The schedule is more of a suggestion than a set schedule, although during the first three weeks or so it will work best to stick to the schedule posted.)  At every practice there must be two team boat drivers, if the drivers want to ski.

You may not leave early from the last shift.

Only four people at a time may sign up for a given time slot.  You can sign up as an alternate, though, so that if someone flakes the other skiers know who to call.

Paying for practice

Ski rides cost $3 per ride.  You get two rides free when you sign up.  You can (and should) also buy additional rides when you sign up.  To buy gas later in the quarter, give money to one of the officers and add the right number of rides to the gas chart (on the honor system).  Pay before you ski.  Gas paid for is not refunded if you're lazy and don't ski all quarter.

Each time you go to the lake and ski at least once, you are charged $10.  This only applies for the first 10 practices, after that the $10 fee does not apply.  Note that the $3 gas charge is per ride and is separate from the $10 practice charge.

When you work the Stanford Fund (see below), you get 1 free ride for every 1 hour worth of work completed!

Flaking on Practice

The official flake policy is the following:

You may drop out of a practice for which you have already signed up if:

a) it is still 24 hours before the practice time.
b) it is less than 24 hours before practice time and you find someone to take your place.
c) there are still two drivers signed up after you flake.

If you illegally flake on a practice and cause the cancellation of that time shift:

a) you "contribute" one ski ride to each person you flaked on
b) the people you were going to ski with will hate you.

**If the last shift of the day is cancelled, shifts beforehand must be notified, or else someone MUST go to the site to take the boat out of the water.**

Summary:

If you have to cancel on a practice, you better make sure that your cancellation doesn't mean that the practice is cancelled.  You might cause a practice cancellation under the following circumstances:
*  You are one of the two drivers
*  You are one of three people signed up to go, and the other two don't want to risk a ticket for skiing without an observer.

Guest Policy

Guests are allowed only with prior approval from the team President, and are only very rarely approved.  We also cannot allow for trial memberships.  Time behind the boat is too valuable for those of us who are practicing.  If there are extenuating circumstances please contact the team president.

Tournaments

There are several tournaments which we may be attending this fall (See upcoming events schedule).  Up to five men and five women per event may compete for the team.  The team pays for both team and individual entry fees.  Tournaments are two days long, with slalom and trick on Saturday and jump on Sunday morning.  You can learn to compete very quickly, so don't worry if you've never seen a slalom course or a pair of trick skis.

If you carpool to tournaments, the team will cover half of the gas.  If you drive alone, you're stuck paying for your irresponsible, antisocial, environmentally harmful actions.

Babying our Boat and Equipment

Take good care of the boat and equipment.  Don't bang the skis around, don't eat messy food in the boat, don't track mud or sand on the carpet, watch out for the upholstery and fiberglass.  The boat is not ours to keep; it goes back to our sponsor after a year, and they have to sell it.  The team returned our last boat in very good condition, but we might lose sponsorship next year if the boat is not taken care of.

We will distribute information regarding handling of the boat.

Our Sponsor, Cope & McPhetres Marine

All of our equipment has been graciously donated by Cope & McPhetres Marine in Santa Clara.  If you need to buy any equipment, talk to a team captain to learn about a generous discount through Cope and McPhetres..

As a promotional team of Cope & McPhetres, our responsibility is to give them positive publicity as often as possible.  This means, for example, being courteous on the lake with the other skiers, going to boat shows.

Anderson Lake

Remember, noise travels over water a long distance.  You have the privilege of skiing in people's back yards, so do not swear or yell.  Do not yell from boat to boat; pull boats together to talk.

Be considerate of the lake homeowners' privacy and don't do anything that a homeowner or their children may find offensive.  (i.e. change clothes without using a towel.)

Unsafe boating and disrespect for the homeowners will not be tolerated under any circumstances.  You may be subject to civil and criminal penalties for your actions.

The Stanford Fund

The only source of university funding which we receive comes through the Stanford Fund Student Group Partnership.  Every team member is required to write up to 32 Stanford fund letters each quarter.  Those members who do not wish to participate in the Stanford Fund can instead contribute $100 per 8 letters that they do not complete.  We must continue to be successful with this program if the team is to remain affordable.  The team makes $30 per hour of work performed.  As stated before, you can earn 1 FREE ride each 4 letters written.  Thus you can save on gas too!  We are the only organization which rewards its members directly for helping through this program.
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