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WATERSKI MagazineFor the better part of the last two decades, Jaret Llewellyn has been climbing a mountain one diminutive step at a time. He has jumped crevasses, traversed steep verticals and spent months – even years – stuck on plateaus. Now, he's so near the top he simply needs one more stride to reach the summit. Alas, there is one more obstacle in his way. His name is Patrice Martin.
In a twisted sort of way, Martin is the mountain, the seemingly invincible rock that impedes Llewellyn's path to overall greatness. In any other era, Llewellyn would be considered the man to beat. His trick scores consistently top 10,000 points, he slaloms well into 38 off, and his jump resume knows few equals. (His mark of 218 feet is tied for the third-best ever in a professional tournament.) Yet it is Martin (recently voted by WaterSki as one of the 10 greatest skiers of all time) who consistently takes the gold – through no fault of Llewellyn's.
Llewelyn's overall history is not without impressive victories. Along with a host of Canadian national championships and international victories, he has topped the Frenchman twice at the world's toughest place to win overall: the U.S. Masters. His victories over Martin in 1992 and '93 were sweet indeed. Yet the Canadian's third triumph in 1996 might as well have an asterisk attached – Martin did not compete in that tournament. In fact, each year fewer skiers enter the overall race. While it's nice to win, Llewellyn says, it's nothing like beating the best the world has to offer.
“I think more overall skiers would ski for more money,” he says of the recent trends of less prize money and fewer overall entrants. “To me, you don't have a true event without at least five skiers. Overall isn't considered a full event anymore; water skiing is a specialists' sport.
“If it doesn't change, I will hang up the trick ski and pick up a wakeboard,” he says with a trace of apprehension. He could also limit his events to jumping, an area where he remains one of the top five in the world.
It is hard to believe he will carry this through, however. Llewellyn has spent so many years perfecting toe turns, exploding off the ramp and scrapping through 35 off that to let those years fritter away seems so, well, wasted.
Still, there remains one last step he is committed to taking: September's World Championships in Colombia. While Martin will be gunning for his fifth overall title in a row, Llewellyn is looking to take his first. If persistence plays a role, he will reach the summit.
“It is why I ski,” he says.
This, you can believe. – Rob May
