Sask. Wakeboarding Clubs

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The first Wakeboard dedicated Clubs in the province were registered with the association in 2003, they were the Off Axis Water Sports Club in Regina and North Sask Riders in Saskatoon.  Kipabiskau also had members that participated in wakeboarding in their club, and was able to serve the needs of both disciplines this season.  The Provincial team trained on the South Saskatchewan River and there was enough interest and volunteers from this key group to host the National Wakeboarding Championship in Saskatoon.  The riders took advantage of having the event on their home site to dominate the event.  Rusty Malinoski was already a national and international champion and celebrity in wakeboarding, and the opportunity for our athletes in the province to work together and train was key to the rapid growth of clubs and participation in the next decade.

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The association began discussions to add wakeboarding to its programming when Adam Balon made a motion at the 2003 AGM to include it in programming.  Wakeboarding was added iin 2004 to the provincial association umbrella, with the first discussion to  initiate the development of the wake SaskFirst team to mirror the waterski program in the association minutes.. This increased the opportunity for funding through the Matching Assistance Program Grants (M.A.P.) and further funding for athlete development.  This season, Kipabiskau hosted its first Flying Beaver Big Air Wakeboarding competition this season as well as provincials.  The association was officially registered as Waterski and Wakeboard Saskatchewan in 2005, which reflected the name change for Waterski Wakeboard Canada.  Kipabiskau Club held both waterski and wakeboard development opportunities this year, with a very full grassroots camp of 38 participants.  For the more experienced members, they had a slalom course and jump for the water-skiers, as well as a jump, kicker, and slider for wakeboarding set up for parts of the summer.  Danny Grey reflects on the value of the programming at Kip for the community and the Wakeboard athletes. “It's a community. So you know we have Jim Clunie, who was a two time World world record holder and a champion as a member.. He has a billboard at the top of the hill on the way into the park.  We all wanted to be active and competitive water sports athletes because of Jim and his brother Richard. Kip Water Sports Club comes with a bit of a legacy and and you know you aspire to reach those orders of magnitude or levels in sport.” 

 

A lot of  the credit for the growth of Wakeboarding and the clubs in the next decade is because of the vision of Sheri Sieferling, Executive Director of Waterski Wakeboard Saskatchewan at the time.  She explains, “my heart always beat for  the beginners. I think the biggest accomplishment I had is we had great coaches that when we did the traveling clinics for a number of years there we went from not very many to I really built that part of it so that we were out and engaging with a lot of different people. In a lot of different areas and I think it was probably something that I really took personally because I just thought if we don't build the grassroots part then you never get something to build upon. Yeah. So for me personally, now I don't know what the board would say during that time, but for me personally, that was probably the biggest achievement was reaching all of those families and kids. And all of that kind of stuff that we did during the time I was involved and which also brings people to coach and volunteer.”

 

Queen City Riders became a club this season, and hosted a Coors Lite Summer Invasion contest at Katepwa. The impact of the club on the community is summed up best by Adame Burwell.  “What has shaped the lives and sporting community is the support of Waterski and Wakeboard Saskatchewan. And you know, none  of our careers would have happened, would have never had those experiences. You know, I think the fact that they've always, since I was involved, there was always emphasis put on all facets of the sports, whether it be water, ski or wakeboard, but from grassroots level first timers to high performance there was an understanding that all those pieces need to be needed to be built in so that they can feed one another, that we weren't just looking at grassroots and we weren't just looking at high performance. And you know, I think it shaped a lot of lives and gave us an opportunity.”

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 In 2006, the initial Sask First Wake Team featured athletes Braden Strumborg, Dylan Miller, Ashley Leugner, Mark McMorris, Craig McMorris, and Riley Ness.  The importance of the team experience is reflected in this quotation from Ashley Leugner; “I think the people that like for me being on the provincial team like they brought into my life are like life long friends and I wouldn't have had those relationships and strength, from those relationships.”

 

The continued international success of Rusty had a huge impact as he made trips back to Saskatchewan over the next few years to train and compete with many of these riders and inspired Dylan Miller to make the commitment along with Ashley Leugner and Braden Stumborg to train in Florida..  Another bonus added this season was the addition of video recording, and that the clubs and riders now had access to video analysis for continued development and training.  Also this season, North Sask Riders and Backside Boardshop hosted a Hyperlite tour stop in Saskatoon called the Summer Harvest event.  There were now 7 clubs that worked with the development of Wakeboarding. It was during this decade that Dale Pointer became a driving force for development in Southern Saskatchewan.  The archival collection has hundreds of photos from Dale and his involvement with the athletes in Wakeboarding in Saskatchewan, and he joins the long list of humble and talented builders in the towed watersports community in this province. 

 

The challenge in the 2000's was to connect to the large number of participants and create club building in the communities that had wakeboarders and for existing clubs to incorporate wake alongside waterski programming.  The list now included Off Axis Board Riders Club, Queen City Riders Waterski Wakeboard Club , SouthWest Riders, Kipabiskau Water Sports Club, North Sask Riders, and Qu'Appelle Valley Water Sports, all dedicated to developing very successful programs and athletes.  In 2007, there was more focus on wakeboarding at Queen City Riders and Kipabiskau, along with continued development of athletes, volunteers and officials with the wakeboard clubs including Qu’Appelle Valley, North Sask Riders, and Eastside Riders, a new club this seasoon.  Kip’s new logo was created this year to reflect all of the disciplines in the programming for  the towed water sports community, which  is still in use as of this writing.

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Wakeboard Nationals returned to Saskatchewan in 2008, hosted by the Queen City Riders on Wascana Lake.  It was called Summer Invasion, and included headliner bands and family programming with over 100 riders competing for major cash prizes.  The provincial wakeboard clubs provided support and assisted with the volunteers and judging needed to pull of this major event.  The 25th anniversary of the Kipabiskau Club was in 2009, with a huge party and event.  The Saskfirst Wakeboard Team trained out of Melfort this season, and had evolved since its first group with Dylan Miller, Ashley Leugner, Mark McMorris, Craig McMorris, Anthony Hollick, Braden Stumborg, Laruen Schumacher, Josh Dutchak, Mike Alport, and JC Lipon. The list of active Wakeboard Clubs included, East Side Riders, North Sask Riders, Kipabiskau WaterSports Club, No Boundaries, Queen City Riders, Boarderline Wakeboard Club, Qu’Appelle Valley, and Southwest Riders.  There was a Wakeride event in Saskatoon, with 18 athletes participating on the river, along with activities for the public to enjoy the event.  

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Three wakeboard tournaments were held in 2010, including one at Estevan (20 participants), Christopher Lake (50 participants), and Wake Ride event.  The Saskfirst Team listed this year added a Development Team with Tye Doan, Brooklyn Fiesel, Taylor Fiesel, Mandy Fiesel, and Brett Morris. By 2011, half of the clubs and activity of the association was focused on wakeboarding development in the province, including the choices of the athletes for the Travel Clinic. Of the 10 total clubs in Saskatchewan, 5 were Wake clubs. The clubs were  Kip,   No Boundaries, Eastside Riders, North Sask Riders, and Queen City Riders. There was 2 fun tournaments held this year to help athletes prepare for provincials in Regina.  The city of Regina began to charge for the use of Wascana Lake, which had an impact on planning any future events there.  

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In 2012, Lac Pelletier joined the association as a wakeboard club, followed by the addition of the Flying Monkeys Club in Melfort in 2013.  Regina hosted Wakejam provincials in 2013 and 2014 on Wascana Lake despite the rising cost of using it for events, and it was another successful event for our provincial athletes.  Wakejam provincials was held in Saskatoon in 2015, as well as Wakeride.  Rusty Malinoski competed again for Team Canada at the Pan Am Games.  The 2015 SaskFirst provides a glimpse of the growth and development as there were athletes from all over the province involved.  The Elite Team had Brett Morris, Mitchell Keet, Sage Dayman, Adam Benson, Connor MacNeill, Taylor Johnson, Taylor Fiesel, Brooklyn Fiesel, and the Development Team had Lyndon Rysavy, Mckinley Smith, John Konkin, Jennifer Kemp, Camden Fiesel, Jayden Kushniruk. The importance of the team is described well by Connor McNeill.  “The Sask development team. you got to meet up with other people a few times a week who you rode with Nationally. Just like being involved with that community and having fun, getting away for three or four days and just riding until you're beat because you'd learned so much in a couple of days.”

 

 The impact of the fees to use Wascana had an impact on clubs in our province, and there were only 3 active this year for wake athletes, with Kip, Flying Monkeys, and No Boundaries involved in training and events.  There was still a large number of athletes wakeboarding in the province, but club registration and event participation started to decline over the next few seasons.   Wakeride, hosted by Backside Boardshop,  was held in Saskatoon and was an incredible opportunity for athletes as well as spectators with a full slate of activities on and off the water.  Proceeds from the event were used to purchase sports equipment for inner city programming in Saskatoon.  

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 The clubs in 2016 included No Boundaries and Kip as the wake clubs in the province, joined by the Flatlanders Club in 2017.  This group had a winch cable system set up in Grandora, and wake athletes enjoyed this form of training for the season.  By 2018, it was down to Kip to carry the load in the province for Wakeboard clubs as clubs had dissolved and interest in the sport had reached a peak a few years prior. Saskatchewan was still present on the world stage, as Mike Lieffers was part of the Team Canada coaching staff as. the head coach for Wakeboarding at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Peru. The recovery from the pandemic was quite swift, with athletes qualifying for national and international events.  Ashley Luegner competed for Team Canada at the Pan Am Games, making a remarkable comeback after a couple seasons of recovery from injury.  

 

As of 2024, Kip remained as the sole wakeboard club in Saskatchewan, hosting events, training, and competitions.  Danny Grey describes the pride of the achievements of the club.  “We've got lots of Canadian National champions, a lot of Canadian National athletes, a lot of provincial champions that come out of Kip and on to Team Canada. The provincial Wakeboard coach was from Kip for a number of years. We had a 40th anniversary in 2024 that really celebrated that . We are pretty proud of the club and pretty proud of the ability that we've had to carry it on this long and create the opportunity to just give back to the sports and let people get involved and break down those financial barriers.”

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Wakeboard Nationals was held in Saskatoon as part of the YXE Urban Games in 2024, and it was the volunteer team from Kip that pulled it off.  It was an incredibly successful event, and provided much needed exposure for the sport and the potential to re-build club and athletes interest.  The opening of the Cable Park in 2024 created the opportunity to work with urban athletes for training and competitions, and eventual club development.  As the sport evolves, the potential exists for continued success in Saskatchewan for wakeboard enthusiasts.  From the humble beginnings in the late 90’s, to its peak years in the mid 2010’s, there is a very proud history of wakeboard clubs in our province. Its impact on the individual is explained well by Connor McNeill. “ It helps you with a bigger purpose, it definitely helps you learn to do things by yourself. Self discipline because it's the sport that you're out there doing by yourself. So you just kind of work through different tricks in your mind.Put the fear aside and go try whatever you're working on. Definitely good for mental focus and good. Yeah, like overall confidence too. Yeah, learning, yeah, confidence or I don't know what the best way to put that is. I don't know if it helps you in the grander scheme of things in your life. Well, think definitely, you know, self-discipline.”

The final comment on the importance of the Wakeboard community in Saskatchewan will go to its most recognizable athlete, Rusty Malinoski.  “You know, beautiful Saskatchewan summer nights where it is 10 o'clock and you can still ride because the sun’s up, it’s still bright enough.  Those are amazing memories for me.  Those late Saskatchewan summers on the river in Saskatoon were some of the best times ever, with Napper, Briske, Monzy, Richie, Stumborg, Riley, Lieffers, Dust.  Lifelong friends from our times together on the water.”