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WATERSKI MagazineOff exit 67 along Interstate 75 near Ocala, Florida, road-weary travelers walk into the Pilot Travel Plaza, pay for their gas and walk out. Hundreds of them, every day, and rarely does anyone recognize one of the greatest water skiers ever hustling from the walk-in cooler to the counter.
“Some skiers have come in and been surprised to see me,” says two-time world overall champion (1977 and '79) Mike Hazelwood.
Anyone who remembers Hazelwood simply doesn't expect to see the guy who made the WaterSki cover in 1985 after being voted the world's top jumper, away from the water – or managing a truck stop for that matter.
Hazelwood, who turned 40 in April, initially stayed with water skiing after his retirement in 1988. He ran a ski school in Winter Haven, Florida, until 1996, when he moved with his wife Rene, son Daniel and daughter Roxanne to Ocala.
“We moved away from the ski site, which was too bad because Daniel finished second at Nationals two years ago,” says Hazelwood. “But it was time to move on and earn a living.”
Hazelwood still contends with the bad back that forced him to retire even though he was still arguably among the top five jumpers in the world at that time. He was diagnosed with two stress fractures in his lower back when he was 16.
“That actually helped my career because I had to get into weights and physical fitness,” says Hazelwood. But 15 years later it became too much. “If I had continued skiing I might be in a wheelchair now.”
Instead of skiing, Hazelwood bikes about 100 miles a week for exercise. And he appreciates the past. “It was a great life to be paid to ski and see the world. I wish I could have done it forever. But your body gives out, so you have to go out and learn something else.”
