WaterSki Magazine

WATERSKI Magazine
2001-06-14 15:00:00 | 28 views | 0 Comments

It is the eighth wonder of the water-skiing world. Why is it, when you cross from the north Chicago suburbs and land in southern Wisconsin, that every township, village and hamlet is turned upside down over show skiing? The bank teller in Kenosha spends her evenings in a swivel line. The short-order cook at Denny's in Waukesha helps anchor a nightly barefoot pyramid. Homes in Whitewater are empty after dinner as entire families practice their routines.

“That's just what you do in the summer around the smaller Wisconsin communities, ski in a show,” says Hall of Fame show skier Skip Gilkerson.

In no swath of America is there such a commitment to show skiing as there is in southern Wisconsin. Some clubs number 200 skiers. They practice four nights a week, three to four hours at a time. High school football teams don't put as many hours into learning the playbook.

Where the first seed was planted is hard to say. But Tommy Bartlett's Ski and Thrill Show in Wisconsin Dells certainly had something to do with the germination of show skiing throughout the state. Bartlett's used to let show teams in for free and send performers around the area for clinics.

The bottom line is show skiing took to southern Wisconsin like rice to China. Every year the Wisconsin State Show Tournament in Wisconsin Rapids draws roughly 2,000 competitors. When the nationals are held in Janesville, there are normally 20,000 people in the grandstand. A southern Wisconsin team has won the national title 21 out of 24 years.

“If they had a competition today,” says Gilkerson, who skied at Bartlett's from 1960-83 and who has judged every Show Ski Nationals, “Cypress Gardens or Sea World would not win at Nationals. But you know, most of their skiers come from Wisconsin anyway.”

For show skiers, if Dairyland isn't the place to be, it's at least the place to be from.