CLOSE
Sign up to get news on contests, pro events, new products and special offers.
WATERSKI MagazineMaybe you're not the big-body type. Big-body water, that is. Too bad, because in midsummer when you carve across the clear waters of Kerr Lake and inhale a lung's worth of pure woodsy air, you'll be left with only one thought: God must be here on vacation.
For skiers who enjoy variety, there's nothing like the 50,000 acres of calm water, secluded coves and human solitude that straddle the border of North Carolina and Virginia.
“It's a classic recreational lake,” says Bob Jones, a longtime local skier. “It's so pristine. Just a natural beauty with very little development and no boat traffic at all.”
Activity on Kerr seems lighter than you'd expect because the Army Corps of Engineers strictly guards the 800 miles of shoreline. Of course, that also means there aren't any jump ramps or slalom courses. But with the homes and boats spread far and wide, finding perfect conditions for open-water slalom, barefooting and boarding is never a problem, even on the summer's busiest weekends.
There must be small-lake conditions to attract skiers like Chuck Harkness, who regularly hauls his family three hours to the lake from Virginia Beach. He's even staked out a secret spot, somewhere just northeast of Longwood Campground and Park in Clarksville.
“I've stayed at four different places on the lake, and this is the best,” Harkness says, being intentionally vague about the exact locale of his barefooting and Air Chair exploits.
If you drive to the lake and hear someone refer to it as Buggs Island Lake, don't panic. People in North Carolina call it John H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir. But Virginians refer to it as Buggs Island Lake. Don't bother searching for Buggs Island on a map, though; Rand McNally seems to agree with the North Carolinians.
