How private water ski lakes are good for communities

[ski4xtc]

Yesterday we had a helicopter come in several times to pickup water to fight the Patch Springs Fire in the Stansbury Mountains. The fire is just west of our lakes in Rush Valley, Utah. It was quite the event watching the chopper come in and quickly pickup a load of water. Last night I sent a couple of photos into a Salt Lake news station and they showed them on the morning new. Hopefully this was a positive way to help with the private water ski lake cause and water skiing in general.

[Skoot1123]

At the lake I am a member at one of the members is a Firefighter - he usually brings the FD Dept. in for doing various training events. They also bring in the DNR to do some fish studies. I believe it has worked out pretty well so far.

 

Good post @ski4xtc and @OB!

[The_MS]

Our local Fire Dept uses our lake for water rescue practice and they also come out in the winter to dive under the ice for that type of rescue practice.

[Not_The_Pug]

The copter comes in quite a bit to Bell Acqua to get water for local fires. Pretty cool to see.

[Than_Bogan]

Cool!

 

I'm mildly surprised that a helicopter can carry enough water to make any difference against a wildfire. Shows how little I know about firefighting I guess!

[webbdawg99]

Im mildly surprised that a helicopter can fly while its rotor blades are stationary! :)

[ski4xtc]

@Than_Bogan, I am just trying to find out now how many gallons they hold. One of our biggest concerns is getting a helicopter transmitted disease. Our lake is totally clear of leaches, parasites, zebra muscles, and with really good weed control. Many of the neighboring lakes (not all ski ponds) have problems we have either conquered or never have had.

[Wish]

Local fire and rescued toss a treated car in our lake to do under water car rescues. Kinda bizar to see a car under the water for a few days but very cool to see them using the lake that way.

[ForrestGump]

Local Fire and Rescue will pull up to Lakes At Cypress Hill and abscond with a truck load of water ever so often. Thieves, I tell you! ;)

[ski4xtc]

@Than_Bogan the chopper holds 1,000 gallons a pickup and is the biggest in the fleet here in Utah. He called it a Helitaker Type 1 Sky Crane.

 

@OB and @MS, we would like to promote our lakes more to benefit the community but it is a hard call of how much to stay off the radar. When I first started skiing here in the 1990's, we were struggling to be in peace with the local town. We had a couple of costly long legal fights and are finally at the point were we seem to co-exist without any problems.

 

@skoot1123, I have a great connection with the DNR here. They refer people to me who are interesting in getting information about grass carp and stocking rates. They tell the people that I am the local grass carp expert. Not so sure I am proud to be a carp expert.

[Skoot1123]

@ski4xtc - good call on being under the radar. There is I am sure a balance in that - the hard part is knowing what that balance is.

[Marco]

A few years back we had a KMAX helicopter land at the lake and asked about doing some training. Turned out the pilots were skiers, and over several years we took them skiing whenever they came out. As a repayment, they used the KMAX to fly rock onto our islands for erosion control.

 

The cool thing about the KMAX helicopter is that it has 2 rotors that spin in opposite directions, negating the need for a tail rotor. They have a lot of lifting power. There aren't that many in existence.

[ski4xtc]

@Skoot1123, it is hard to stay off the radar when you have such a passion for something.

 

Deep down I have always wanted to promote water skiing.... mainly getting more women interesting in skiing the course. Unfortunately, I really have not done much to do it. If I had plenty of time, money and owned my own ski lake, hopefully that is one of the first things I would do.

 

As a side note, yesterday I had a skier come out who was in her 50's. She had not tried the course since she was in college. By the end of the set, she was running all the buoys except 3 & 5 which I had her ski the mini course buoys. She is left foot forward and just needed a little improvement in her pull to 1,3,5. One more fresh set and I would bet she could have run all six. The satisfaction from seeing quick improvement like that is incredible. Made me want to take more time to get more women involved in the sport.