The 73rd annual Goode Water Ski National Championships, drawing skiers from as far away as Alaska, is taking place at Okeeheelee Park now through Saturday, Aug. 15.
Just one week ago, a tornado touched down in the park, with high winds causing damage to the judge’s towers and starting docks put up by the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches.
“I was driving home from work, and I got phone calls and pictures. Everybody was in a panic,” recalled Charlotte Melchers, a member of the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches and tournament chair of the 2015 National Water Ski Championships.
The height of the towers and their relation to the course is important to seeing what the skiers are doing, she explained.
But Palm Beach County Parks & Recreation Department officials assured Melchers that they would do whatever is necessary to make the big event happen as planned.
“Within about an hour of me leaving for work Tuesday, the crew was out here cleaning up, taking away the roofs that had blown off and standing trees back up that they could save,” she said. “If you came out here by noon that day, you wouldn’t have known that anything had happened, except the roofs were missing.”
The county put up temporary roofs, allowing the judges towers to be used for the championship. “It was astounding to see everyone pull together and make it happen,” Melchers said.
Friends from as far away as California called, offering to help. The water ski community rallied together to help make sure the event happened.
This is the 14th time that the nationals have been hosted by the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches at Okeeheelee Park. Typically, locations have to bid for the championships, with a two-year increment. A site in Texas was originally set to be the host, Melchers said, but that location had to bow out. “The Ski Club of the Palm Beaches decided to host it once more,” she said.
Skiers have to qualify at one of five regional tournaments to compete at the national championships. The regional event this year was held in Kentucky, which affects local skiers, who cannot always take off work for both tournaments.
“Every skier in the United States, they try to achieve the ratings to ski in this tournament,” Melchers said.
To host the championships is important to the local club, as well as the area. It showcases a great facility.
The site was given to the ski club approximately 30 years ago by Palm Beach County.
“There’s no site in the world as good as this, as far as I’m concerned,” Melchers said. “It has five ski lakes, and for a national event, we run four lakes with the fifth lake designated for practice.”
Having a practice lake is a rare commodity. “A lot of national sites can’t offer practice,” Melchers said. “Everyone likes to come here. They like Palm Beach County… They’re always asking us to host it.”
The local club has somewhere between 30 and 35 competitors at this year’s national competition. On Wednesday afternoon, the Town-Crier caught up with the boys trick skiers.
“Tricks is two 20-second passes,” club member Pat Keeler explained. “Each trick has a point value, and the skier who accumulates the most points by doing the trick correctly during the two 20-second passes is the winner.”
The skiers, depending on their level, have to do a hand-pass and a toe-pass. They follow a sequence of tricks based upon what they know, Melchers said.
To learn more about the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches, visit www.okeeski.com. To learn more about the national tournament and a complete schedule, visit www.usawaterski.org.
