2014 World Finals Pro Ski Open

The Pro Ski Open Class at the 2014 IJSBA World Finals can be summed up thusly

: Three motos of "hero-to-zero" engine failures, crashes, extreme conditions and magnificent racing. Why three motos? For that answer, we have to look back over two decades for the answer.

Back in the '70s, '80s and early '90s a world championship was crowned by virtue of a single race win, kind of NFL/Superbowl/winner-take-all style. That format had a tolerance for error by either the racer or mechanic of almost zero. The thinking was that "the best" would be up for the challenge. In practice, there were many, MANY times that "the best" would break, miss a single buoy or otherwise have a very simple screw up and a world championship would be kissed into oblivion. A win was almost a super-human accomplishment.

Pleas arose from the top camps to change to a format that allowed an actual human to have a fighting chance. The powers that be listened and the moto format was adopted. Interestingly, the Pro Ski Open Class is the only class at the world Finals to have three motos, all other Pro classes are two. Was there mayhem, confusion and controversy? Plenty. But, in the end it was a simple fact that Austrian Kevin Reiterer deserved the title of Pro Ski Open World Champion for 2014.