There still may be ice on the local lakes, but that hasn't stopped one couple from thinking about waterskiing and preparing for the 2014 B.C. Summer Games.
Tom and Stacey Birkhiem are the towed water sport coaches for Zones 7 and 8, an area that stretches from 100 Mile House north to the B.C. - Yukon border. And they're looking for youth athletes to compete in the towed water sport events - waterskiing, barefoot, wakeboarding and wakeskating.
"There hasn't been any representation from northern B.C. at the Summer Games in some time," said Tom Birkhiem. "We know there are kids out there who do ski and wakeboard for fun. We're looking for kids who have skiied in competitions before or who love the sport."
The 2014 B.C. Summer Games are in Nanaimo July 17-20 and feature 19 sports.
Boys and girls in two different age categories are eligible to compete: 10-13 year-olds and 14-17 year-olds.
The Birkhiems' goal is to have interested athletes registered by mid-June.
At the Summer Games, waterskiing has three different events: slalom, tricks and jumps.
Slalom is performed on one ski where the athlete skis back and forth around a set of six fixed buoys with various boat speeds and rope lengths.
In trick skiing, an athlete is allowed two 20-second passes in the trick course to perform as many tricks as possible.
Jumps has the athlete approach a jump ramp at various speeds in order to jump as far as possible.
Barefoot involves skiing without skis and perform slalom, tricks and jumps in modified forms.
Wakeboarding uses a single board with bindings. Using the wake of the boat, a competition consists of performing a series of tricks using each worth particular points.
Wakeskating is an adaptation of wakeboarding, but the athlete is not bound to the board in any way.
Transportation to and from Nanaimo, accommodation and food costs are all covered for athletes.
The towed water sports will occur on Quamichan Lake near Duncan.
Athletes who are interested in competing can contact the Birkhiems via email at [email protected]. The Birkhiems will travel to the lake where the athletes water-ski, whether it's Summit Lake, Clucluz, Purden or West Lake, or any of the other lakes in the region to get an idea of what they can do. Athletes can also submit video of themselves performing the sports.
