The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is home to 24 sport clubs, including the UWL Waterski and Wakeboard Team. The waterski team competes in around five tournaments throughout the fall with the chance to compete in nationals at the end of the tournament season. The tournaments consist of three main competitions including slalom, trick and jump.
Fifth-year Brett Anderson explained the events, “It’s called three event waterskiing, jump is a long-distance score, slalom is through a course of buoys with a set scoring mark and trick is every trick is scored differently with 20 seconds to do as many tricks as possible.”
The UWL Waterski team has had a considerable amount of success when it comes to tournament competitions. They placed second in the Hawkeye Ski Fest in Waterloo, Iowa and in the Midwest Shred Fest in Center City, Minnesota. The cherry on top of the 2024 season came when they placed first in Division two national championship in San Marcos, Texas. Coming off their previous tournament, the team secured a place to compete for nationals again this year.
When asked about what needs to go right to take a team to nationals, second-year team Vice President Daniel Roberts said, “Consistency.”
“This past week has been a great example of how all this year we’ve been getting consistent seconds, to go far everyone has to do the best that they can. This weekend we had some iffiness with some regulars falling during their easy passes, and we were like, ‘holy crap,’ and everyone else stepped up, and thankfully, we did fine and ended up qualifying for nationals,” continued Roberts.
Tournaments are often about more than just competing. These tournaments are used as a chance to mingle with other schools and students who are passionate about water skiing, becoming not only a place to compete, but also a place for community.
Third-year skier Cailee Kravick said, “We just make friends with everyone. I mean you go against each other, but everyone is friends and every time you see each other you just get so excited.”
The UWL Waterski Team also focuses on providing meaningful waterski experiences for everyone. When not competing in tournaments you can find the team practicing on Airport Lake with music blasting and smiles from ear to ear.
Roberts had this to say about why he skis, “Even if you have a bad day, being able to be out on the water and enjoy nature with all it’s sights is just so unique. I feel like with other sports during practice you just kind of want to get to the game, but with water skiing, you’re as excited for practice as you are for the tournament.”
For people less experienced with waterskiing, the club embraces being able to teach newcomers the ways of the water. Team tryouts and separate A and B teams for tournaments keeps people competing at their level. If members wish to, they don’t need to compete in tournaments and can just enjoy practice.
Anderson said about supporting new members, “I know everyone can find their own enjoyment in skiing, but for a lot of us who ski life long, we find a lot of enjoyment by teaching somebody new.”
Teamwork and camaraderie are extremely important to the ski team and is one of the things that helps them stand out from other ski teams they find themselves competing against.
Anderson said about the team camaraderie, “Other kids will walk out to the dock ready to ski with headphones on and nobody cheering, but thats not what we’re about. We’re about doing it as a team, we got a big speaker, and everyone is cheering and screaming in their face right before they hit the water.”
The bond also extends off the water as The Racquet asked Kravick what keeps her on the water, “The people 100%, they’re all my best friends now and I even live with all of them.”
The team now has its goals set on winning nationals yet again as they will be travelling to compete in Imperial, California from Oct. 16-17.
