Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Two years worth of planning and organizing will all come to a head at Dream Lake in Selby next week as the site plays host to the IWWF World Barefoot Water Ski Championships Aug. 12-18.
Starting on Sunday, top water skiers from across the world will take part in tricks, jumps and slalom preliminaries.
The preliminaries will run through Wednesday, with the semifinals and finals getting underway Thursday and running through Saturday.
“On the water stuff will start at 7:30 p.m.,” said Becky Moynes-Meyer, who along with helping to plan the event will be competing for Canada. “That schedule may change depending a bit on weather, we have to work around conditions. Sometimes we end up skiing in rougher water than we like but hopefully the weather co-operates.”
Each day will feature all three competitions and is scheduled to run from 7:30 a.m. until at least 3:15 p.m. except Saturday, when the final competition of the day begins at 11:30 a.m.
The slalom involves skiers navigating between buoys at a high speed, the jump aims to see which skier can travel the furthest distance while the tricks is all about scoring the most points in 20 seconds while performing a series of stunts on the water.
Along with showcasing the best barefoot water skiers from across the globe, each night, except for Monday, will include plenty of live entertainment.
The divisions will be made up of junior boys and girls, senior mens and ladies and open mens and womens.
“On Wednesday we’re going to have a fun night with some snowmobile demos, members of the fire department with some of their equipment and also some adaptive wakeboard demos as well that night,” said Moynes-Meyer.
Sunday will feature an antique car show and fish fry with a performance by Kim Pollard, Tuesday will feature Tim Sheffield, Wednesday a performance by Thin City Band, Thursday Smitty Kingston will perform, Friday Cole Hermer will perform with ski jumping under the lights and following Saturday’s finals will be music by Chicken Wire, 80s Enuff, a firework show and then it’ll all be closed by The Furleys.
“We’re hoping to get lots of spectators out,” said Moynes-Meyer. “It’s free admission, anyone can come watch.”
Athletes from all corners of the globe have already begun to arrive to Lennox and Addington this week and will look to get in a few practice rounds before the competition begins on Sunday. Among the countries represented will be the U.S., China, Italy, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Mexico, Great Britain and Germany, as well as eight Canadians.
Dream Lake, which is a man-made body of water, is located at 1632 County Road 11, just off Hwy 41. A complete list of times and categories can be found at www.iwwfed-ea.org. The event will also be live streamed as well and scoring will be updated on that site throughout the week.
This year’s event in Selby will mark the first time the IWWF World Barefoot Water Ski Championships will be held in Canada.