Local athlete competes in World Water Ski Show Tournament
Trevor Zister — a local athlete from Baden — competed with Team Canada and took home third place in the World Water Ski Show Tournament in early September.
The tournament was held at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, and it was the first time the event was held in another country other than the U.S.
“For me it was nice because it was my first time on the team and the best aspect was that my friends, family and our whole country was there to support us,” said Zister.
The other countries competing in the tournament included Belgium, Australia, the U.S, China and Germany. Zister said the training period took place from September 4-7, and then the competition was held on the weekend.
According to Zister, each country had one hour on each competition day to show off their skills. In show skiing, some tricks include building pyramids, barefoot skiing — when the athlete has no water skis on and is behind a boat travelling at a fast speed on the water, and doubles — when men are attached to a harness and lift a woman above their head who will then perform acrobatic moves.
Along with the water skiing tricks, the competitors put on an entire show for the audience with an announcer, costumes, comedy, etc. Zister said the competitors are marked on every aspect of their routine, including the skiers’ emotions as they are required to smile and wave at the judges in the crowd during their performance.
Team Canada put on a show centred around the theme of a Las Vegas destination wedding.
“Our acts were like different shows that they went to see (in Vegas) throughout the whole time and we were backtracking and remembering what happened. We did a Siegfried and Roy (segment) who are the two that put on a show in Vegas and are always getting attacked by a tiger and stuff,” said Zister. “It is an entertaining show all for the crowd.”
Zister said the countries put on relatively the same performance each day and were allowed to change it up a bit if they wanted to. The teams were awarded their highest score out of the two performances.
He said it was unfortunate as his team went into the competition shooting for second place as they knew the U.S had a strong chance of winning due to their high-calibre athletes. However, the weather made the water rough, making it hard to make up for mistakes made on Saturday, keeping them in third place behind Australia.
Zister, 25, said he has been water skiing since he was four years old, but didn’t begin to truly get into it until he was eight and started to wakeboard. Then, when he was 13, he said he started to attend camps where he would learn how to do flips and barefooting.
Although he has water skied for most of his life, he said he never competed in any competitions until he got into show skiing when he was 19.
“I started working at a ski school (called Fern Resort in Orillia) and then we started doing ski shows, so when I started doing all of that it kind of got me into the realm of it all,” said Zister. “Then, there is another company that does a lot of ski shows called Summer Water Sports and a few of them are on the Team Canada committee and that’s when it all sort of started up.”
Zister said he has been training intensely for four years for doubles and six years for barefoot skiing. He has trained in Florida at the World Barefoot Centre for many summers.
Zister said he was going to be on Team Canada two years ago as he had tried out for the team and done all of the training, but ended up tearing his hamstring and needed surgery to repair it.
Now that he has this year’s tournament under his belt, Zister said he would like to compete for Team Canada in Australia in 2020. However, Zister said this depends on whether or not the team can attend due to financial reasons.
“We would need to be down there for like a month or three weeks because it is going to be in March because that is their summer time, so it is a big expense” said Zister.
When summing it all up, Zister said what he loves most about the water skiing world is how friendly everybody is.
“Yes, we want to beat the other country and show them that we are doing well and have potential, but as far as it goes when it actually comes down to it and you are talking to everyone, we are all just super friendly and there are no grudges against each other because there is no head-to-head combat.”
He said water skiing makes him feel free.
“The best way I can explain it is when I am out there, whether I have people or I don’t, it is just very freeing. If I am barefooting and just flying down, I just find it so much fun and there is no one I can hear and I am just doing my own thing and gliding on my own feet, said Zister. “Then, you throw the people out there and we are just having the best time hooting and hollering doing tricks beside each other.”
“Being a part of the environment is so uplifting and that’s why I never want to leave it.”