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WATERSKI Magazinethe morning Regina Jaquess was supposed to meet the rest of this crew at Bill Peterson's dock, she walked out of her hotel lobby into darkness. Stricken with the realization she had missed basketball practice while on the road from Georgia the night before, she grabbed a ball and ran through some ball-handling drills in the hotel parking lot.
“You try to get on top and stay on top,” she said. “Someone could be close behind.”
Regina's water-skiing peers are hardly pushing. They pretty much concede that she's in another league. The world beater from Lawrenceville, Georgia, who until two years ago could come out of the reeds and beat girls whose boots she could practically use as playhouses, can no longer hide inside a sub-five-foot body or behind a pixie laugh. She turns 15 in June, has grown six inches since Christmas 1997 and is staring down expectations that are growing in sync with her frame.
“I want to break the world slalom record,” Regina says confidently. “I'd like to break the world tricks record before I'm 20. And I'd love to be in the Olympics.”
From the time Regina was 7 years old, she has disappeared from Lawrenceville every summer. While her friends are playing softball or taking the family station wagon on the road, Regina spends those two or three months training with the world's best skiers at Jack Travers' site in Okahumpka, Florida.
“I don't see it as sacrifice,” she says. “Everyone falls in love with something. For me it's skiing. So to me it's like a fantasy, going to a different state and competing against friends. Staying home all summer seems boring.”
Regina says it doesn't matter if she wins or even skis well. But the sound of a basketball pounding on asphalt before sun-up is a good indication that she isn't easily satisfied. Jim Jaquess, Regina's dad, updates her skiing resumi so often that he practically has the PC growing off his fingers. The most recent count showed 12 national titles, 18 national records, 4 straight awards as the top female skier at the U.S. Nationals, and a page-full of “firsts” and “youngests.”
“Sometimes I stop and look at all that in amazement and think, 'Gee, I didn't dream all this stuff up,'” says Jim.
Regina chews the side of her lip as she starts to explain what she expects this summer and the next. There's the trick record, qualifying for the worlds and, as she looks toward a figure even smaller than her own at the opposite end of the dock, half serious, Regina says, “To go as far as Susie.”
Born: June 7, 1984 Hometown: Lawrenceville, Georgia In practice I'm: Tricking 6,500 points, jumping 127 feet, slaloming 3 at 38 Most memorable moment: Winning tricks and finishing second overall at the Junior Masters (1997) at age 12
Water-skiing heroes: Jennifer Leachman, Rhoni Barton When I'm not skiing I: Play basketball
Favorite Olympic moment: Tara
Lipinski winning the gold medal in ice skating in Nagano (1998)
Favorite movie: Dumbo Favorite music: Garth Brooks I could live on: Fried ice cream Most awesome place I've seen: Dijon, France On Friday nights I usually: Go to a movie The person I'd most like to spend one day with: Michael Jordan
