Ski Racing in Australia have Annual Championships. These consist of two forms of skiing, one is speed racing which is conducted over a forty kilometre course, with a one up skier as a time trial, with the fastest skier winning the event, and the other section is a Marathon event where the skiers ski on six different types of skis over a 90 kilometre course, where they start on double finless, single finless, doubles, singles, a freeboard and end up the last lap on a fence paling.
This is done to a time trial, where the skiers have to average a speed of 60 kilos per hour, which means they have to do each lap in 15 minutes and if the skier comes in a second early or late they lose a point for every second early or late, so this is a team effort and precision driving, timing and skiing is needed.
The National Championships are conducted in various States. The first one was conducted in 1970 at the St. George Leagues Club Grounds on the Hawkesbury River, and was quite a small affair, but it enabled the Nationals to get off the ground. It moved then on to South Australia, where they were conducted at the Murray Bridge, 50 miles north east of Adelaide, then back to N.S.W. and from then they have alternated to various States, where in 1979 they headed west to Perth which was a mammoth effort to transport 100 boats over to Western Australia and the cost of transport alone was something in the region of $100,000.00, so this shows the keenness of the Ski Racing Fraternity.
Water ski racing combines elements of two of the worlds most exciting sports, motor racing and down hill snow skiing. Like motor racing, dedication and money is required to provide the power to boats capable of running at speeds close to 160 kilometers per hour for long periods of time. As snow skiers take part in the great down hill slalom, water ski racers need not only the exceptional reflexes necessary to absorb the shock of waves created by wind and tide but also the strength and mental condition to maintain high speeds for long periods of time and distance up to 100 kilometres.
The combination of athlete and mechanical power has made the sport of water ski racing one of the most demanding and frustrating sports on the Australian sporting calendar. Even the most dedicated preparation for a major event can be in vain due to the problems associated with mechanical sports which makes the sport frustrating, and demanding because of the matching of mechanical power to athletic ability.
In Australia, water ski racing was under way in the 1950´s. One of the earliest venues was Sackville on the Hawkesbury River. In those days Sackville was the home of water skiing and identities such as Gelignite Jack Murray, George Andronicus, Bill (MacLac) McLachlan and Ray Leighton were but a few of the colourful personalities that were enjoying the new found thrills of water skiing. Mary McMillan
With the emphasis on the beauty, reliability and power of the individual boats, it was not long before the idea of racing the boats with skiers hanging on to a ski line became popular. Unfortunately, an accident in the early days of this activity clouded the growth of the sport. Kemble Barclay, brother of former Australian Slalom Champion Graham Barclay, fell while leading one of the races and he was struck by a following boat and fatally injured.
The accident to Kemble Barclay changed the whole attitude of water skiers to racing and saw the introduction of time trials and marathon skiing. Among the early races were the 100 mile Ampol Trials and another innovation peculiar to Australia was introduced as skiers competed in pairs or better known now as two up. Whatever the reason, whether it was a shortage of boats or Australian mateship creating the teaming up, the popularity of two up racing became the accepted format for Australian ski racing.
As in all sports there is always the team to beat and in the early days it was Jack Murray and Ginger McEwen who were picking up the trophies. The first really professional team to dominate the sport was Chicka Courtney and Fred Crofts. Chicka and Fred were virtually unbeatable for many seasons and Chicka particularly would have been hard to beat anywhere in the world. Competition to Chicka Courtney and Fred Crofts who competed with Yogi Bear, came from Drag-On, Patricia and Turbo-Fire. Skiers being Phil Reeson, Darryl Herring, John Butler and Mike McEnnally were some of the contenders for the crown of Australia’s top ski racing team.
Another team starting to pick up trophies was Cha-Cha, skiing firstly Bob Tilling and Terry Bennett and then Bill Willbreandt. Cha-Cha and Turbo Fire took over the crown of Chicka Courtney and Fred Crofts with the crew of
Charles (Chicka) Courtney & Noel Berringer
Cha-Cha causing a lot of discussions about their peculiar style of pulling the ropes behind their backs for long periods of the race.
Top line skiers who battled through their races using only a short slalom type handle ridiculed the casual looking style but as was proved throughout the world in years to come, the style was the way to win ski races.
Bob Tilling and Terry Bennett behind Cha-Cha were the team to beat in 1966 and 1967 and then the SK´s, the flat bottomed speed boat from the U.S. came on the scene and the era of high speed racing had arrived. Among the first promoters of SK´s was Wally Hackett who imported and immaculate “Howard†hull powered by a 427 cubic inch ford from the U.S. With Peter Ward now skiing with Terry Bennett, the boat Thunderbolt rewrote the record book. In 1968 Thunderbolt won 15 out of 16 events it took part in. The only race to elude the team was the Bridge to Bridge. The reliability of the high performance engines became a major factor in ski racing in 1969.
Thunderbolt’s winning run came to an end with repeated engine failures as more and more power was looked for and Bill Hooper’s Caroline arrived on the scene. Caroline sported a mammoth overhead cam 427 cubic inch engine that punched out 1000 horsepower and towing, perhaps the best ski racer the world has seen, Paul McManus, Caroline began winning races. Skiing with Paul McManus was Col Bilington and this team was the next team to be the one to beat.
In 1970, with some of the best boats in Australia assembled for the Bridge to Bridge, Caroline became the first boat to break the magic hour for the 68 mile race. 1971 heralded in Norm Griffin’s Louise J towing brilliant young skiers Wayne Jones and Glen Faust. ´Stormin Norman´ Griffin took over as King of the River.
The brilliance of the young skiers made them practically unbeatable although the faultless preparation of Louse J by Norm Griffin kept top line skiers like Bruce Robberds, Peter Ward, George Eastgate and Chicka Hill back in the run or placings.
In recent years boats of the calibre of Thunderbolt, Wahoo, Thunderchicken, Firebird, Louise J, All Torque, Plus One, The Judge, Missile have towed skiers of the standard of Robbie Woods, Wayne Ritchie, Ray Wheeler, Wayne Atta, Bruce Robberds, the Hardaker brothers, Rory Brown and Peter Nelson into world prominence and the sport of water ski racing gives the owners of these craft a huge debt of gratitude for their efforts and the failure of water ski racing in Australia lies with the continued efforts of these boat owners.
This article was reproduced from “Water Skiing in Australiaâ€.
Courtesy of Bob Wing.
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