A new water ski show team is launching in Gravenhurst this summer with the goal of making the sport more accessible to athletes, families and the wider community.
The Lake Effect Show Ski Club bills itself as Canada’s first not-for-profit waterski show ski team, bringing a community club model more commonly seen in the United States to Gull Lake Rotary Park and the Muskoka Wharf.
The club’s first public performance is scheduled for Canada Day, Wednesday, July 1, at the Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhurst. The show begins at 1:30 p.m.
The club will then begin its main weekly show, Olympic Showdown, on Wednesday, July 8, at Gull Lake Rotary Park. A 6 p.m. work-in-progress show will give developing athletes time in front of a crowd before the 7 p.m. main show.
Lake Effect will also perform Muskoka Pirates at the Muskoka Wharf on select Thursdays in July and August, with shows scheduled for July 9, July 23, Aug. 13 and Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. Additional specialty shows are scheduled for Aug. 1, including a Pirate Fest show at the Wharf and a Make a Splash show at Gull Lake Rotary Park.
All shows are free to attend, with donations accepted at performances. Organizers say 48 athletes and supporters are currently signed up.
For organizer Neil DePiero, the club is about creating a new pathway into a sport that can be difficult to access without a boat, equipment and a place to ski.
“We saw a need for Canada’s first not-for-profit ski team after seeing how successful it can be down south, and we wanted to try and replicate that in Canada,” DePiero said.
Show skiing has a long history in Muskoka, but organizers say the sport in Canada has traditionally been tied more closely to ski schools, private companies and professional performance teams than to community-run clubs.
Lake Effect is trying to offer a different model in which athletes of different ages and skill levels can train, perform, and help build the organization together.
DePiero said the cost of water skiing can keep people out of the sport, even if they have the ability or interest to take part.
“You need the equipment, you need a boat, you need to put gas in the boat, and you need a place to put the boat,” DePiero said. “So I think it’s cost-prohibitive to a lot of people.”
The club has purchased or made much of the equipment needed to get started, including two boats, a show trailer, show boards, ropes for all acts and some shared equipment for athletes. DePiero said the club has also purchased its own ski jump.
The team is designed to include experienced skiers while also giving new athletes a way into the sport. DePiero said the club plans to offer specialty clinics in areas such as jumping, barefooting, swivel skiing and pyramids.
Show director Emma Pham-Dinh grew up around show skiing. Her parents met through the sport, and she and her siblings were introduced to it as children.
For Pham-Dinh, the appeal of show skiing is that it turns something many people consider an individual sport into a shared experience.
“You think of water skiing, you think you’re alone behind the boat, or at least that’s what people outside of this world would think,” Pham-Dinh said. “And we’ve made it into something that you can’t do on your own.”
She said the sport depends on trust between skiers, drivers, dock crews and teammates.
“You’re trusting so much the people that are underneath you, the people that are driving the boat, the people that are holding your rope on the end of the dock,” she said.
Pham-Dinh said that teamwork is part of what makes the sport special.
“I think it just adds a really nice layer of teamwork into a sport,” she said.
She said the club model changes how athletes experience the team because they can see their own work going into something they are helping to build.
“Everybody is working towards this common goal of growing this club and making it what we can all envision it to be,” she said.
Lake Effect relies on sponsorships, donations, volunteers and community partnerships to make its programming accessible and sustainable.
Tourism Gravenhurst said Lake Effect applied for and received grant funding to support its waterski show on Gull Lake this summer. The tourism board said the shows will help create weekly activity at Gull Lake and the Wharf, engage summer visitors and residents, and provide a more consistent offering throughout the season.
In an email to Muskoka411, Amy Taylor, Gravenhurst’s manager of economic development, said the shows also support the town’s Tourism Destination Plan and Wharf Revitalization Plan by creating attractions that generate foot traffic and support midweek activity.
“Having something mid-week that helps bring people into town and specifically to the Wharf is a good investment in our existing tourism economy,” Taylor said.
DePiero said the goal is not to create something for one season, but to build a club that can continue for years, with experienced athletes helping newer skiers develop and future leaders eventually taking over.
“We set it up in a way that it should sustain for years to come,” he said.
Pham-Dinh said the first season will not be measured only by how polished the shows are, but by whether the club can bring athletes together, help them reach their own goals and build something they are proud of.
“I think the goal for this summer is to bring everybody back down to what show skiing is really about,” she said. “We just want to grow the club into something that we’re proud of.”
For her, that means creating a team where athletes can learn, perform and leave the water feeling good about what they accomplished.
“If everybody is achieving their goals and everybody finishes the show in a practice with a smile and is proud of what their body can do. That’s the goal for me,” Pham-Dinh said.
