WaterSki Magazine

WATERSKI Magazine
2001-06-14 15:00:00 | 113 views | 1 Comments

Finding a ski lake manufactured in the middle of trees and tobacco fields between Fayetteville and Wilmington, North Carolina, could be – to use a local term – bumfuzzling. At Ski Zone Lake you sit there on the porch swing outside a 5,000-square-foot plantation home and feel the hum of Nautiques running through the slalom course, and it's like the hired hands built a tournament-caliber ski site where Granddaddy's barn used to be.

“We want this to be a home for our guests while they're here,” says Ski Plantation owner Mike Smith with a deep southern twang. “We have the house, 40 acres for the ski site and then everything else is woods.”

What was once fertile ground for a tobacco farm is now a deeply rooted ski school and camp on one of the most unassuming private sites in the Carolinas. Folks can check into the plantation for a day of world-class instruction, a week-long vacation or a three-month sabbatical.

It's worth hauling the boat down because over yonder – across the road – is 1,400-acre Bay Tree Lake with two slalom courses. You can't get to her without four-wheel drive, but that's a blessing to anyone with a sport-utility vehicle – boat traffic is minimal. Then across the trees from Bay Tree Lake is Singletary Lake with cottages for rent, and on up the way is White Lake, where one of the oldest Correct Craft dealerships is planted.

After taking in some instruction, Smith's staff will send boat-trailering guests up the road in a hospitable way. “There's lakes all around here,” says Smith. “A lotta times people'll wanna get in a few sets and then go off to do the recreational bit. It's a piece of cake gettin' 'round out here.”

Translation: You won't be fumbuzzled, or whatever, for long. -