Fun Fact: Believe it or not WI has more waterski teams than any other State.
My daughters will be 18 on Sat and I'm sure will go to a school that has a collegient ski team.
Sea World and teams like that are professionals in so much they get paid to perform. These kids/adults are amateurs who do it for the love of the sport. They all go to school and/or have jobs. Practice is 2-3 hr a night 3x a week (May-Sept) with two shows a week. They also do "land" practice a few times a month in the winter.
The other two evenings they do instructional sessions and even have a program that skis with mentally and physically disabled kids which is just amazing. You will never see more electricity in the air than on those nights. Without getting too deep, anyone familiar will know that being in water or even flying is an environment that puts your soul on a different plane. As human beings that is not where we belong. When these disabled kids come back to shore there is a look of peace, strength, or something in their eye that if even for a few minutes, they were removed from the problems they deal with daily. I don't or will ever understand but I get chills thinking about it.
My son followed the conventional baseball route with "coach rz", the girls stepped outside the box and went here on their own. Until the summer going into their Freshman year in HS they had never skied or even swam in a "yucky" lake. 3 years later they can jump, barefoot, swivel, and are part of 5 acts on a National Championship team, and I don't even own a boat.
My initial point hear was to boast a little but also add a thread during some "quiet" HSBBW time outside baseball which we sometimes find our world revolving around. As a couple of responses to this ski thread came through I realized that the point that we all make on this site that talent may be natural, but hard work, and perseverance, is the key to success to anything our kids do. As parents our jobs is to provide opportunities, and it's up to the kids to take advantage of those opportunities but it has to be on their terms. I feel sometimes we lose touch of that level of parental responsibility and live our lives within the dreams we want our kids pursue.
My wife was always concerned that I was not as involved with my daughters outside activities. However, I always told them that I would be just as involved if they wanted to be committed to an activity. Their response was "and not have any life except baseball like Ryan". This thread has made me realize that I am living proof that mom/dad do not have to push and prod in order to have their kid realize a dream, they can just sit back, provide the opportunities, and enjoy the ride. But, I constantly ask them now if they have any life outside skiing
As rz1 steps off his soapbox.
