There is only one way to stay in shape for water skiing, Scott Thompson likes to say.
Water ski.
The 67-year-old would know. Nearly every day, he skims over the water in a private water-skiing lake in Yacolt.
Water skiing is an adrenalin junkie’s sport, he said. It’s addictive and intense — and to be good, it requires discipline.
He has no intention of ever trading in his ski for a set of golf clubs. But for him, water skiing has always been more than about clearing the next buoy.
It’s also about family.
Along with his wife, Mary, who was his high school sweetheart, Thompson bought his first ski boat in 1969. He had recently returned from Vietnam, where he earned a Purple Heart, and was approached by a soldier trying to sell his aluminum ski boat. It was the winter in Kansas; ice lined the lake.
The couple drained their savings, bought the boat at the heavily discounted price of $375 and took turns dragging each other across the lake until they got the hang of it.
That was in 1969. When purchasing the 14-foot aluminum ski boat, Thompson never anticipated what a big part water skiing would play in his life.
At one point, his wife would be the nationally top-ranked woman water skier in her age group.
His daughter, Erika Bolliger, now 45, impressed judges and ranked both regionally and nationally in the sport.
The family traveled together to competitions throughout the country, each doing well in their own age group.
Bolliger’s daughter, Thompson’s granddaughter, is a skier.
And, Thompson says with a smile, he’s betting it won’t be long before his great-granddaughter, who is expected in September, will be out on the water.
“It’s a lifetime sport that we can all do together,” he said.
On Mint Lake, the man-made private lake Thompson co-owns, the conditions are always perfect.
The rectangular lake was engineered to foster glassy conditions; the wind rarely makes the water choppy, and rolling waves are rare.
The lake is about 2,200 feet long and 5 feet deep.
Mint Lake was the first private water-skiing lake in the county. Thompson teamed with four other families to build the lake.
The controlled environment, he said, has helped the sport thrive, and the athletes who practice on it improve drastically.
Warman Lake and Tug Lake, both in Vancouver, were built a couple of years later.
Private water-skiing lakes are not unique to Washington, although the state has a thriving water-ski culture. More than a dozen private water-ski lakes dot the state. The first private lakes appeared in the Seattle area and Southern California in the 1970s.
On a recent sunny day, Bolliger is at the wheel of a Malibu TXI skiboat, with her father behind the boat.
The engine throttles, the slack in the line starts to disappear.
“OK, honey,” Thompson says.
In a second, he’s out of the water.
With a rooster tail following him, he appears to barely touch the water as he flies over the wake, carving around a series of buoys and managing to make what would leave most of us aching for weeks look effortless.
Each time he makes it through the six buoys, the rope is shortened to increase the difficulty.
“If it was an easy sport, you know what they would call it?” Thompson says later.
“Wake-boarding.”
