Saskatchewan Waterski History

Waterskiing was the first towed watersport enjoyed in our province.  The sport made its way into Saskatchewan in the 1950’s, as lakes became a recreation area for our citizens.  The first waterskiers took to the lakes and waterways as they experimented with the new sport as it grew in popularity world-wide.  Athletes created their own informal tests of ability and began informal competitions in their local communities. According to Dave Wassill, in 1960, there was a group called the Humboldt Boat Club, which was created by a number of  World War II veterans, including his father.  This evolved eventually into the Stony Lake Watersports Club as it evolved over decades to include the evolution of towed watersports to include wakeboarding in the distant future. 

​

 Clint Ward was the first Saskatchewan athlete to compete at the national level in the 1960’s, setting a Canadian record in 1968 and becoming a reigning national champion for almost a decade.  He was to be followed by Elmer Hazzard in the 70’s on to the national stage, who also reached the top of the podium, and set a new national trick record in the process in 1973.

About a dozen people in Saskatoon got together regularly to ski on the river in 1971, and decided in 1972 to register as the Saskatoon Waterski Club with Waterski Wakeboard Canada.   The Saskatoon Waterski Club (SWSC) is the oldest continuously active club in the country.  As there was more and more activity on the lakes and waterways, community newspapers across the province published articles on safe use and stewardship of the space for all users.  In 1974, the Saskatoon Waterski Club had developed a large enough membership and volunteer base to host the first Western Canadian Championships.  This event set a standard of excellence in planning and competition for the tournament that still exists today.  Other clubs across the province began to host events and competitions, expanding the opportunities for athletes and enthusiasts. The Saskatchewan Summer Game experience in 1976 was instrumental in creating additional competitive opportunities.  Lisa Williams (nee McPherson) remembers the importance of the games in her development as an athlete, coach and builder.  “In 1976, our cabin was in Meadow Lake Provincial Park, and it was the Sask Summer Games.  Bob Porat watched me compete and talked to my parents, and the next year I started skiing with him and his family.  I spent the whole summer with them, and learned alot about skiing, competing and coaching.  I was able to go to another Summer Games in 1980, and to the Canada Games.”  Dave Wassill explains the impact.  “First of all, we got into the Saskatchewan Summer Games.  That became a  big way to get more clubs in more areas of the province because the Summer Games format requires that you had to be in 6 zones.  I ran around the province delivering clinics and coaching.  The other big builder was Saskatchewan Clubs and competition was the Canada Games. We would have clinics and competitions all over the province and identify the athletes who were successful at Westerns or Nationals.”  

​

These factors provided the foundation for waterskiing to continue to grow in popularity as a recreational sport and competitive sport in Saskatchewan over the next decade.  Athletes became more competent in their skills, and provided the foundation for interest in other areas of the province for club formation.  The Regina Ski Club started programming  in 1982.  It was followed in 1984 by Kipabiskau Waterski Club which is still in operation today .  The Saskatoon Waterski Club and Kipabiskau worked together to put in an application to join Sasksport, and the Saskatchewan Waterski Association (SWSA) was formed.  SWSA hosted its first provincial championships in Saskatoon on the river in the late 1980’s, alternating with Kipabiskau once a jump was installed at their site.

​

Athletes from other areas of the province began to organize and host events.  Tisdale became a hotbed for competitive skiing in the early 90’s. Jim Clunie from Tisdale made Team Canada and in 91, was part of Team Canada that won the gold medal as the top team at the Waterski World Championships in Italy.  In l992, at the Moomba Masters in Australia, he became one of 15 jumpers in the world at the time to break the 200-foot barrier, retiring with a career-best jump of more than 213 feet.  He was joined at the Canada Summer Games in 1993 by his brother Richard, and both Tisdale club boys brought home medals to Saskatchewan.  In 1993, Jim returned to the World Championships in Singapore with Team Canada, bringing home a bronze in jump, and another gold as the top team in the world.  TSN broadcasts of the 1993 Worlds reached 350,000 to 600,000 viewers per day.

​

The Mel Ross Open took place for the first time in 1994 at Christopher Lake.  This slalom event highlighted the opportunity to have a fun event but also allowed for a high level of competition.  It provided the spark that led to a growth spurt in athlete participation, club development and competition in the central part of the province, as the following there was 14 clubs in the association, up from 8.  SWSC hosted the Coca-Cola Jump Tournament on the river, drawing large crowds of spectators to watch the best jumpers in Canada compete.  As more people become watersports enthusiasts, clubs in the province were formed, with 14 registered in the 1995 season.  Ross Lake (now called Fish Lake) hosted Provincials.  This was the same year that SWSC moved from Rotary Park, to the 58th Street Retention Pond (affectionately called the Ratt Hole), making SWSC the first club to operate on a designated site for waterskiing within city limits in Canada.  The sport of waterskiing was added to the Pan American Games in Argentina in 1995.  

​

The demographics of waterskiing in Canada in 1995 was reported by a study by Waterski Canada to be over 1 million participants nationally. The approximate gender distribution was 65% male and 35% female.  The average age was 25, with a demographic of U18 - 35%, age 18-29 - 35%, age 30-39 – 20%, over 40 – 10%.     The Saskatchewan Water Ski Association membership was 581 in 1995, with a strong club presence in 6 of the zones.  By 1996, there 20 clubs in the province, with half of them capable of hosting waterski events.  Wakeboarding was becoming a popular activity in Saskatchewan at this time, and many clubs adapted to support both waterski and wakeboard programming.    The health of the association was evidenced by the volume of activity across the provinces, such as an NCCP Coaching Clinics Level I and II and a Boat Driving Clinic in Humboldt, the Loon Lake Rating Tournament, the Fred Abrahamsen Open and a Team Jump Challenge in Saskatoon, the Mel Ross Open and Officials Clinic in Prince Albert.   There were provincial training camps for waterskiiers at Borderline WSC in Lloydminster (2), Kipabiskau WSC, Ruby Lakers WSC in Hudson Bay, Northern Lights WSC at Denaire Beach, Regina WSC, Stoney Lake WSC in Humboldt and Lakeland WSC in Prince Albert.  Another highlight of the season was Team New Zealand training with their coaches at the Saskatoon Waterski Club site July 13 – Aug. 2nd, as they prepared for Worlds in Minnesota, and participated in own Provincials.  

​

The list of events and training opportunities in 1997 continued alongside the rapid expansion and development of wakeboarding in the province.  The association’s volunteers and officials were also key to this growth. Their levels of qualifications increased with the added opportunities.  A prime example of their qualifications is the fact that Gord Clunie served as the Technical Director for the 1997 Western Water Ski Championships that were held in Saskatoon.  Sadly, Mel Ross passed away in 1997, with his legacy continuing with the annual Mel Ross Open held at Ross Lake that year in his honour.   In 1998 and 1999, there were a total of over 20 events held in the province for waterskiing.  This provided the foundation for athlete success, coaching development, officials’ growth, and volunteer involvement that was key to the growth and expansion of programming in the next decade.  In 1999, the association’s board put Adaptive Skiing on the agenda for the next season.  The 90’s ended with the Pan-Am Games being hosted in Winnipeg, MB.  Jim Clunie made this event his one and only competition in 1999, and during qualifying rounds he had the most spectacular jump of the competition.  Making his final pass in the water skiing jump preliminaries, he lost his grip on the bar and cart-wheeled into the water in front of the 1,950 spectators.  The crowd waited for what seemed like an eternity before he surfaced and waved, signaling he was okay.  

The new decade saw the growth of the Travel Clinic from its start in the 90’s at the club level.  It started to deliver coaches and equipment  to areas not served by one of the 15 local clubs in the province.  In 2001, the Travel Clinic went to a total of 17 sites for a total of 41 days of clinics, introducing grassroots participation to a wider audience.  The SaskFirst team was officially named by the association in 2001, giving athletes and coaches the opportunity to train and grow.  The fruits of this growth were evidenced by the success of athletes at the National level, highlighted by Val Gilliland setting the Canadian Open Jump Record and the Women’s Jump Record in 2002.

 

The Western Canadian Water Ski Championships were hosted in Melfort in 2003 with 72 athletes attending.  It marked the first use of a video jump system for the officials to use for scoring.  There was a contingent of 29 athletes from Saskatchewan competing against a skiiers from Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.   Dave Wassill served as the Technical Director, and Michelle Clunie was the Safety Director.  The support of the clubs and volunteers provided the opportunity for this event to be a celebration of waterskiing in the province as the association prepared for the next stage of its growth.

 

In 2004, the Association was renamed to Saskatchewan Water-Ski and Wakeboard Association anticipating the change required by Waterski and Wakeboard Canada by an entire year, as in 2005, it was required by the National Sports Office to change it to Waterski and Wakeboard Saskatchewan to reflect the national branding. The association continued to grow beyond its classic waterski program offering in 2005, as the SkiAbility program was initiated by WSWC to promote water skiing and tubing among Canadians with disabilities starts this year.  

 

Saskatoon Waterski Club hosted the first officially sanctioned learn-to-ski clinic in 2005 in cooperation with the Saskatchewan Wheelchair Sports Association.  Rosy Gilliland’s $1,800 donation, matched by WSWC, funded new equipment for the athletes.  This lead to the eventual development of a dedicated board position and program focused on Adaptive skiing.  The success of the Travel Clinic was recognized nationally, as the head coach Troy Monz was recognized nationally at the WSWC meeting for dedication and contributions to the sport.  On the high-performance side of the programming, four athletes from Saskatchewan on U.S. Water Ski Scholarships with Mitch Novlan, Matt Weninger, Trent Finlayson and Valerie Gilliland all attending school and training in the states.  Trent and Valerie were named USA Collegiate National All-Americans for the third time, and Valerie Gilliland also joined the Canadian National Team.  

 

The growth of the opportunity develop was enhanced  in 2006, with the introduction of the Rip ‘n’ Ride program, introduced into our province to the clubs and the province by Troy Monz.  Troy and LeRoss Calnek also participated in the training sessions for coaches for Adaptive skiing.  This was also the year for transitioning to the NCCP Coaching Programs: Level 1, 2, and 3 coaching to be redesigned and rebranded. The Travel Clinic maintained its high level of activity, as well as the training camps, with the clinic at Kipabiskau delivering a high quality camp for all 3 disciplines of trick, jump and slalom.  On the international stage, Trent Finlayson represented Team Canada at the IWWF Worlds in China.  Brooke Smith attended Junior Masters as part of Team Canada.

 

In 2007, Jim Clunie was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, joining Elmer Hazzard and Clinton WardThe Jeux Canada Games Foundation (1989) provided a grant for the association to purchase a portable electronic scoring system to be used at events.  In 2008, the strength of the club development and coaching provided for Saskatchewan athletes to continue their international presence, with  Matt Weninger and Mitchell Novlan participating in the U.S. Junior Open, Pan Am Games, and Can Am Games.   In 2009, 10 Saskatchewan athletes trained for a week with Ryan Dodd and Breanne Wagner at Dodd’s Pond. At the Junior World Waterski Championship (Lima, Peru), Saskatchewan's Matt Weninger represented Team Canada.  At the Can Am Competition (Jerseyville, Illinois), Mitchell Novlan won the jump event and placed 3rd overall.

 

There was a focus on re-development for waterskiing in the early part of the 2010’s as wakeboarding had become extremely popular, and it was a challenge to identify athletes in the waterskiing discipline as many towed sports enthusiasts were drawn to wakeboarding.  Matt Weninger added to his international resume in 2010, skiing at the Junior Moomba Masters in Australia and continuing his college career at University of Louisiana-Munroe.  Provincially, our athletes were able to enjoy a new slalom course at Kipabiskau Lake for training.  Unfortunately, bad weather affected training for all the athletes at all of the clubs and for the Travel Clinic. The Saskatoon Waterski Club was unable to offer a full season due to high water levels and flooding affecting the site, yet they were still able to host the provincials.  The waterski athletes were hungry to compete in 2011, and the local clubs, volunteers and officials held 6 tournaments over the summer.   The SaskFirst team went to Westerns in Calgary and were a force, winning 12 medals, and adding 3 more at Nationals.  The strength of the program was in the younger age groups, which provided a strong foundation of growth for the upcoming seasons.

 

In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Matt Weninger continued his college career.  Trent Finlayson set an Open Record for Saskatchewan in 2013 for slalom for 35+ division.  The association, clubs and coaches worked hard to continue to offer programming for waterskiing, and to continue to develop the young group that began the decade.  This group was small but highly successful, and each Westerns and Nationals event during this time had SaskFirst athletes bringing back a collection of hardware.  2014 was another tough year regarding poor weather, and it was such a miserable day for provincials in Saskatoon the club brought a hot tub to the site for the athletes to stay warm.   Carter Lucas and Adam Morris were selected for the Can Am waterski teams in 2014 competing for Team Canada  in Jerseyville, Illinois.  

 

In 2015, nine members of the Future Best team traveled to the Philippines in May to train with the Manitoba team, including water-skiers Josh Edwards and Carter Lucas.  The provincials in 2015 again required the hot tub, as weather turned nasty, however the hot tub decided it didn’t want to finish the event.   The Saskatchewan contigent for Team Canada was very strong, as Trent Finlayson participated in the Senior Worlds Waterski, setting a new Canadian Record in the 35 + division in slalom. The Junior World Waterski Championships had our SaskFirst athletes Adam Morris, Brett Walker, Carter Lucas, Josh Edwards, Matt Weninger participate for Team Canada.  This was the group that had dominated their age groups at Westerns and Nationals in the first part of the decade. 

 

The boy’s division continued to make their mark on the national stage in 2016 and 2017, with Brett Walker, Greg Edwards, Adam Morris, Josh Edwards, Carter Lucas, Jackson, Tyler, and Noah Skoworodko filling their walls with medals at regional and national events. In 2017, Saskatchewan skiers Josh Edwards and Carter Lucas were selected to represent Canada at the Can Am Championships in St. Louis, IL, with Carter Lucas placing 3rd in slalom. In 2019, Josh Edwards participated in the U21 World Championships for Team Canada.  

 

The challenge for the association at the end of the decade was to begin to re-stock the talent pool as this group of athletes started to age out of their divisions, and move on to adult life.  The plans hit a major roadblock with the Covid-19 Pandemic.  All sports were effected, and waterski coaches, athletes, volunteers and officials did their best to work around the restrictions to train in 2020.  The training was impacted as the athletes were not able to train together and push each other.  There were no competitions held that year anywhere in the country, limiting the opportunity for athletes to progress.   Clubs did their best to encourage activity and keep the athletes on the water.  

 

2021 saw a limited return to the competitive stream, as events such as Westerns, Easterns and Nationals were combined into one tournament.  It was obvious that the efforts to rebuild were positive as Callie Steen, Ethan Hamilton, and Enzo Kristian brought home medals from the event.  Carter Lucas was able to compete for the University of Lousiana-Munroe, and was named to the World U21 Team Canada and brought home a team silver. He also received the Manoo and Jean Gurjar Scholarship from WSWC.

 

In 2022, the association held 8 events for waterskiing, which included 2 fun events called “Mom’s Got Game” in Saskatoon and Bronson Forest, and a Deaf and Hard of Hearing clinic in Saskatoon to continue to grow and promote waterskiing.  The SaskFirst team was able to put in a full season of training together and had camps at Saskatoon Waterski Club and Bronson Forest.  Westerns returned to Saskatoon in 2022, with a very strong team of U16 athletes on the male and female side from Saskatchewan dominating the event.  The team at the event included medal performances for Samson Clunie, Carter Stolte, Tori Stolte, Jade Stolte, Ethan Hamilton, Aiden Hamilton, Naomi Hamilton, Maxime Kristian, and Enzo Kristian.   Some of the veterans joined the competition as well, with Adam Balon and Hunter Hollerbaum taking home the gold for their age categories.  

 

A number of our athletes trained in the United States in the offseason to prepare for the 2023 season.  A highlight for the team was that Carter Lucas represented Canada at the U21 Worlds in Mexico. Carter was the provincial coach for the SaskFirst program which provided the team with a solid understanding of the commitment and level needed to get to the Team Canada program .  The U17 program continued to excel in both the male and female program, with the addition of the Lac Pelletier Club to the Saskatoon Waterski Club and Bronson Forest for provincial training camp, and  giving further expansion and growth opportunity.  Westerns and Nationals were held in Edmonton, providing for excellent competition for the team to compete against the best in Canada.

 

2024 was a showcase season for waterskiing in Saskatchewan.  The clinics were all full, and additional programming aimed at attracting new development level skiiers were highly successful in adding new male and female members to the Saskfirst team.  The Mel Ross Open was held again, providing the same low key fun event that is still competitive and valuable to the community.  The U17 boys group consisting of Max Stilchuk, Samson Clunie and Enzo Kristian pushed each other very hard this season, swapping positions on the podium ast several events, and sweeping the Westerns and National medals.  They surpassed the qualification standards to compete for Team Canada at the Pan Am Games in Chile, bringing home individual and. Team medals to the province.  They also competed in the Canada Cup event hosted in Saskatoon at the Saskatoon Waterski Club.  This signature elite event brought the best skiiers in the world to our province and provided fans with an opportunity to see the top riders up close.  In 2025, Carter Lucas became the second Saskatchewan Waterski athlete to jump beyond the 200 mark.

 

Waterskiing has been the foundation for the growth of towed watersports in Saskatchewan over the decades.  The community has been accommodating and accepting of the new disciplines as they have emerged to become part of summer activities on the water on our lakes and rivers.  The volunteers, coaches, builders, officials and athletes have had national and international success since its early days and the waterskiing discipline is still creating international caliber participants to continue the sport’s legacy in our province.