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WATERSKI MagazineWhy some skiers are going the extra mile or two hundred.
For Bill Gray, conditions on Lake Champlain were ideal: whitecaps, ferry boats, a low railroad bridge and burning legs.
“There wasn't any fog,” Gray says in reverence to that day late last season when he skied from the Quebec side of Champlain to White Hall, New York. Never mind the armada of houseboats and bone-chilling water. Gray covered the 120-mile length of Champlain in three hours and one minute,
refueling once on the fly at 20 mph.
“It was a personal goal,” explains Gray, sounding something like Forrest Gump recounting the cross-continent jog he took “for no particular reason.” But Gray is not so unusual. He shares Gump-tion genes with Sean McGrath, Tim Flynn, Greg Sample and untold others who want to ski from here to there as long as “there” can't be seen from “here.”
“We love a great adventure,” says McGrath, who hopes to ski the length of the Mississippi River with three fellow Australians over seven days this summer. Facing floating logs, whirlpools and sleep deprivation is all part of “the dream,” according to McGrath.
Must be that Flynn has some of that fantasy bug too. Either that or he's hallucinating while discussing the summer quest waiting for his group of three Michigan skiers: longboarding from Chicago to Detroit via the Great Lakes route that will cover some 700 miles. For the better part of a year Flynn's crew has taken to an off-water training program developed by the Navy SEALS. They've also logged 200 miles a week in waves up to 4 feet high, all while finding a new passion.
“It isn't drudgery by any means,” says Flynn. “We've enjoyed preparing for this. It's totally different because you get all kinds of terrain. You never know from one mile to the next if you're going to have glass-calm water or massive waves. It's out in the wilderness as opposed to the controlled conditions of a slalom course. I'd equate it to skiing the big mountains out West, where you can see it all.”
Flynn was thinking about a Great Lakes trip two years ago when he read about the 1,400-mile Columbia River ski run of Terry Clark and friends (“The Long Way Home,” July 1997).
“It confirmed our idea,” says Flynn. “I get real excited to hear about other people planning these trips. That Mississippi River trip sounds like a ball.”
Another path infrequently taken was the one Sample and his buddies took last summer. They barefooted across the state of Florida, scraping 140 miles off the St. Lucie Canal from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf coast.
“We hope to do it on an annual basis,” says Sample, sounding not at all relieved to have the barefoot run behind him.
It should be noted that charity funds have been a byproduct of each enduro-run. Every mile has been, or will be, worth several thousand dollars to the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and the Leukemia Foundation. Flynn even secured Pepsi as a title sponsor for his journey. But most of the goodwill is being deposited directly into the enthusiasm of the skiers.
“I found out I love this,” says Flynn. “It's kind of a new thing to make skiing fun.”
