mmg.com.au

The 2013 Club Marine Southern 80 is only a week away, with teams and race officials busy preparing for the event, which has 599 entries.

More than 1040 competitors have entered this year from 416 towns across Australia.

A massive 307 boats have been entered, with most from Victoria, followed by NSW, Queensland and South Australia.

One competitor from Tasmania and one from Western Australia have also registered, as well as two New Zealand skiers, behind Gassa in superclass.

Among the entries are David Elliot, Brett Wisemantel and Chris Stevens, who are mixing things up by entering multiple races, where they will be driving, observing and skiing.

Thirteen other competitors have also entered multiple classes, competing in up to four races on the weekend.

Spectators should also look out for Jack Houston, who is the current world junior boys’ champion, skiing behind Stinga in unlimited inboard and Grant Turner, the current world F2 men’s champion, who will be hanging on behind Blazen in superclass.

The three biggest classes this year are the 60mph social class with 47 entries, 60mph expert with 47 entries and unlimited inboard expert with 33 entries.

The class with the smallest number of entries this year is 16 to 19 girls with only three entries.

The weekend is also a family affair for five teams — Argo (superclass), Team Clog (stock 6 litre social, stock 6 litre expert, senior social), Money Muncher (70mph social, 70mph expert), Head Hunter (60mph social) and The Mover (60mph social).

A new concept this year is the Southern 80 app, available from the Apple store and Google Play and provides details on the event information, race teams and start times, twitter feed and a link to results.

As the countdown begins to the world’s biggest water ski race, people can visit www.southern80.com.au, for up-to-date information.