Going for a winter water ski
With snow on the ground and chaos on the roads, a group of Chestermere’s avid water skiers saw no reason to cancel their planned trip out on the lake Oct. 2.
“We go out every day,” said Brandy MacDonald who had the warmest job driving the boat that day.
“We looked at the water, the water was 37 degrees and we though we’ll just do it,” she said.
MacDonald was joined by her friends Russ, Ginny, Johanna and Kevin Aneca.
“We love the sport My husband and I,” said Ginny, “I grew up in a big family of water skiers.”
The access to the lake so that they could water ski every day through the summer was one of the main reason’s the moved to Chestermere.
Not only did they decided to water ski in a blizzard, but Kevin recorded a video of their fun on the water that has since gone viral.
“It’s quite a big surprise actually some of the people in the video aren’t even on social media,” said MacDonald of their sudden internet fame.
“I have family in Saskatchewan and they’re messaging me and I’ve had people I haven’t spoken to in years reach out and say this must be you,” she said.
“They expect it from us but they do think we’re crazy.”
Ginny is one of the group who isn’t on any social media and said that the popularity of the video has been a shock.
“It surprised all of us,” she said.
“But at the same time if we were the people viewing [the video] we’d be like holy cow this is crazy and sending it to all of our friends and family too because we love the sport,” said Ginny.
While this was everyone’s first time water skiing in a winter storm, MacDonald said it’s nothing new for them to be out when the weather is on the colder side.
“We are usually the first people out in May when the water comes up in Chestermere and we’re always the last people out,” said MacDonald.
“This last year my son waterskied on May 11th and the year before he water skied on April 27th,” added Ginny, “and that’s cold like really cold.”
The inclement weather did shorten the amount of time that the skiers were able to stay in the water.
“You can’t stay in for very long,” said MacDonald, “We’d usually ski the length of the lake, we’re skiing an eighth of the lake, just turning around and heading right back to the dock and jumping in the hot tub.”
While their hands, feet and face would get cold, MacDonald said that their wet suits did a good job of keeping the rest of them warm.
With the rest of the lake abandoned, the conditions were perfect if cold for water skiing.
“It’s exhilarating ‘cause your adrenaline’s running I wouldn’t say you’d go out and do it often,” she said.
For Ginny, the opportunity to water ski during the snow storm has been something she’s wanted to do for a while but has never been able to with the lake level lowered for the winter.
“We always laugh and say wouldn’t it be so fun to water ski in the snow,” she said.
Having now water skied in the snow storm, Ginny said that, “the snow made it really exciting.”
Her new goal is to go downhill skiing and water skiing in the same day.
“Downhill ski for the day and then come home and end off the day with a water ski,” she said.
To view the video go to The Anchor’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/theanchorweekly/
By Jeremy Broadfield, Staff Writer
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