There were impressive back-to-back wins for both Freddie Winter and Joel Poland at The Masters Waterski & Wakeboard Tournament in Georgia, USA.

The Masters, held annually on the long Memorial Day weekend, is one of the most difficult competitions to ski. It takes place on Robin Lake in Callaway Gardens where the rollers can catch out the best of athletes.

Both Freddie and Joel went into the event as defending champions (in Men's Slalom and Men's Jump, respectively) and they dominated from the start, scoring highest in the elimination rounds to go into their finals as top seeds.

Last off the dock in the final, Freddie had to beat the 1.5 buoys @ 10.25 metres scored by Canada's Cole McCormick, a former Masters Champion. He did it, winning with 2 @ 10.25m.  Canada's Charlie Ross was third with 3.5 @ 10.75m.

After his victory, Freddie dedicated the win to Dimitri Kourounis, an influential waterski coach who died earlier this year.

“I was thinking of him all the time and thinking about doing it for him,” he said.

“Back-to-back is really nice. It was a big field, everybody was here and it’s very difficult to ski here. I felt good and I won in both rounds. I hope this will set me up for a good season because I’ve been skiing really well and, hopefully, this is the start of some really good stuff.”

Joel came into the competition in exceptional form.  He was undefeated in all competitions over the jump in 2025 during which he became the World Champion and set a European record.  He was also defending Masters Men’s Jump Champion.

Once again, he proved his dominance, needing only one attempt to take Masters Men’s Jump title for the fourth time and the third year in a row. Just for fun - and the crowds - he took a second jump to go even further. His longest distance was 68.7 metres. Austria’s Luca Rauchenwald (67m) and Ryan Dodd of Canada (65.3m) completed the podium.

Earlier in the day Joel had also competed in the Men’s Tricks final where he won bronze for the second successive year.

It may be early in the season but 2026 is looking like it could be another exceptional one for Joel.  In April he broke the overall waterski world record - which involves skiing in the three events of slalom, tricks and jump - for the ninth time, though that is still awaiting official ratification by the world governing body, the IWWF.

Congratulations also go to the three other British skiers who qualified for the Masters: Will Asher (Men's Slalom), Jack Critchley (Men's Jump) and Seb Turp (Junior Men's Tricks).  It's a great achievement simply to get there.

You can find the full results of the elimination and final rounds on The Masters website.