Waterskiing brings generations together

[ROBOT]

 

BUMPASS, Va. (CBS19 SPORTS) -- When many people start waterskiing, they take it up as a hobby to enjoy on a nice summer day.

"We didn't know about any competitiveness," said 12-year-old water skier Caroline Quimper. "We kind of thought you just stand on the skis and you have fun."

But about 40 skiers of all ages and abilities from across the country, traveled to Louisa County on Saturday for one last run of the season.

"It really felt like a big group hug, which was exactly what we wanted," said professional water skier Corey Vaughn

He is currently ranked 10th in the world in men's slalom skiing in the world. Vaughn also holds records at the state and regional level. He's now passing on his knowledge at the Bumpass Water Ski Club and spearheaded his own competition on Saturday.

"It was a cool day, the kids were going off the dock at 8:30 in the morning, but the first one went out there and skied a personal best, so it kind of set the tone for the rest of the day," said Vaughn.

"First, I made my best score, 23, 2 buoys," said 10-year-old skier Sam Stenger.

From the young to the young at heart, the water ski community is all about family.

"My whole family's been doing it for a long time. It's like a tradition. I learned when I was four or five," said Stenger.

"Forty-five, 50 years, something like that. I'm too dumb to give it up," said 80-year-old skier John Powell.

"If you get to know any water skiers, you'll pretty much find out that it all starts as a family sport," said Vaughn.

"I've had my kids ski and it's a good family sport and everybody's together," said Powell.

Parents and kids alike go out on the water while also connecting with others.

"I've made a lot of friends waterskiing actually," said Quimper. "Today I made some and even when you go out of state, you make so many friends and you might not see them but you see them next year at the next tournament."

The skiers each got two runs, counting in the state ranks. However, the standings weren't the main goal for the day.

"People that get addicted to this competition-style skiing, it's not so much about winning prizes. It's about testing yourself and see if you can be better today than you were yesterday," said Vaughn.

And in the final shootout round, where the top 10 skiers across all groups duked it out one last time, the oldest competitor, Powell, edged out the 22-year-old favorite to win.

"I told them I was going to sneak up on them," said Powell.

"Waterskiing is a fountain of youth," said Vaughn. "It's a sport that you can take into your later years and it's a sport that you can share with multiple generations."

As the sun sets on the season, the community stays strong.

"It's just fun to meet people and then see how they did and cheer them on," said Quimper.

You can learn more about Corey Vaughn's ski school, the Bumpass Water Ski Club, here: https://www.peaceloveandwaterskiing.com/

[Than_Bogan]

Wow. Great job by the reporters and editors to really focus on the right stuff!

[PUoldmaid]

Great coverage, Corey! Was amazing to discover your place out here - clearly been out of the game too long. Will be back next summer after ski maternity leave!

[bananaron]

Kudos to Corey for taking time and promoting the sport.GREAT JOB!! I live on a public lake in northern MN or AKA southern Canada.My neighbors live in Hong Kong and I have taught both kids Audrey 13 and Thad 15 to ski and both now are very good slalom skiers.Dad also has now improved and we really enjoy skiing together each day even if it is a short season for them as they return to HK IN early august.Water skiing on our lake is slowly dying however these kids will carry on the sport for yrs to come and they will pass it on to their kids. I love them and they are like grandkids to me.So my lake will have skiers for yrs to come. I am old and they are very young......KEEP SKIING

[Bill22]

That was a fun day. I agree with @Than_Bogan the article got to the heart of skiing.

[h2oSkiJunkie]

Thanks for sharing your stories and stoke! We really couldn't have been more pleased with our first Class C tournament. Looking forward to doing more. Right now, we have fingers crossed that our annual Fun Tournament - The Buskey Cider Cup can happen this year. It's a big event so we'll have to see what sort of crowd sizes will be allowed/appropriate for June.

[2Valve]

Some of my favorite memories were teaching my daughter and her girlfriend's how to ski over 25 years ago.