Five Seasons Water Ski Team wins Division 2 national championship

For the first time in its 45-year history, the Five Seasons Water Ski Show Team won a national championship earlier this month in Illinois.

The Cedar Rapids-based team won the 22nd Division 2 Show Ski National Championships, beating four other teams, including the Muskego (Wisconsin) Water Bugs by four points out of more than 1,300 points awarded.

“We had a great show from start to finish,” said Tom Bueckers, the Five Seasons team vice president and show director. “We’ve never won Division 2 — and we’ve never won Division 1 — so this was a big accomplishment for our team.”

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The Five Seasons Water Ski Team, which started in 1978, has 75 people on the team this year, including 50 skiers ages 5 to 53. The team also includes boat drivers, equipment personnel, sound crew and an announcer.

Based on size of the team, Five Seasons dropped down from Division 1 to Division 2 after the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift made the Cedar Rapids team much more competitive with the best mid-size teams across the country, Bueckers said.

In a competitive show skiing competition, each club has an hour to present a theatrical performance on water skis, earning points for originality, presentation and execution, according to USA Water Ski & Wake Sports. Costumes, formations and music add to the performance, narrated by an announcer.

The Five Seasons show involves water ballet, pyramids, barefoot skiing and jumps off a ramp. This year’s biggest single act is the final pyramid, which involves 12 people on the base — all holding tow ropes to a boat with three motors — and 12 people who climb up one, two or three levels.

The team performs its show every Thursday night in the summer on the Cedar River at Ellis Park. The shows are free and open to the public.

Bueckers, 48, started skiing as a kid growing up in Minnesota.

“I’d never seen show skiing until I moved to Cedar Rapids in 2001,” he said. “I went down and saw the show and was absolutely amazed.”

He joined the team in 2001 and now has three teenage children who ski on the team. “It’s a very family-oriented sport.”

Safety is a priority for the team, which has insurance through USA Water Ski and follows protocols to protect skiers from boat motors and other hazards, Bueckers said. A safety boat picks up fallen skiers and equipment.

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Practicing and performing on the Cedar River is a little different from performing on a lake in that there are currents on the river and the space is long and narrow, Bueckers said. The team anchors its ski ramp on the river floor for shows and then tows it to a nearby backwater in between events, he said.

While show skiing happens across the country, the highest concentration of teams is in the Midwest, Bueckers said. The Waterloo Waterhawks Ski Team competed at the 48th Indmar Division 1 Show Ski National Championships at Hidden Lake in Warsaw, Indiana, earlier this month.

The Five Seasons team’s annual budget is about $30,000, which pays for boat and dock maintenance, fuel, insurance, storage and licensing. A nonprofit, the group depends on membership dues, company sponsorships and donations. Supporters can donate cash during intermission at shows or online.

“This year we’ve had better attendance than we’ve ever had,” Bueckers said. “I believe we’re bringing in between 400 and 700 people per show. It’s really been a great year.”

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