"I'd like to think I was more stronger as a jumper. I didn't jump as well as I have at the nationals but it was still good enough to me through," says Schaw, who made his biggest jump in the final to clinch the trophy but felt he could have done better based on his personal bests going into the nationals.
"I was actually a bit disappointed with how I had gone in my jumps."
It was Schaw's maiden open crown after he settled for third place last year. He acknowledges competing at the world championship at the Blue Moo Lake, Wisconsin, in the United States, in August last year was an ideal platform.
"Coming back from America I was more than capable of taking out the nationals with everything that I had learned over there. I just had to perform on the day, which was awesome and came right with the win."
In jump, the skier travels over a small, fibreglass ramp. The longest successfully landed one counts from three attempts.
In tricks, the athlete has two passes of 15 seconds to complete as many different manoeuvres as possible. They have specific point values depending on the degree of difficulty. The waterskier also collects points for the start trick to become airborne.
In slalom, the skiers have two passes of 15 seconds to cross the wake as many times as possible. They can cross the wake forwards or backwards and on two feet or one.
Schaw dedicates most of his achievements to his coach, Ron Groen, of Lake Inspiration.
"He's coached me for my entire barefooting career, apart from my little stint overseas, and I credit him for where I am today," he says.
The Schaw family has a rural livestock farming community of Central Hawke's Bay.
The fun aspect of standing up on water without any skis found traction with a younger Hugo Schaw who used to relish spending holidays with his family to Kinlock on Lake Taupo during Christmas and New Year.
His childhood preference for aquatic pursuits came more as a pleasant surprise than a shock to his parents, Colin and Jenny Schaw, whose other two older sons, Scott and Angus, played cricket at representative level in the footsteps of several accomplished uncles, father and cousins.
The vision of CHB farmer George Williams saw Hugo Schaw garnering skills off the barefoot skiing enthusiast at the newly built Backpaddock Lake in Takapau.
In 2011, the former Lindisfarne College pupil took a plunge at the nationals at Lake Inspiration and never looked back.
Schaw's prowess in the code is undeniable. He returned with a swag of medals from the Asia-Oceania Championship in Perth in 2014 on the heels of a world championship bronze medal with the Kiwi team in Melbourne earlier that year.
Not satisfied with how he performed at the world champs last year, he is now lifting his game at the next world championship at Dream Lake, Napanee, in Canada in August next year.
