Waterskiing is a popular water sport for the whole family to experience and enjoy. Whether you are a beginner or wanting to improve your skills, here on the Gold Coast we are fortunate to be able to do both. Gliding over the Gold Coast waters behind a boat—it is not walking on water, but close and definitely a unique feeling!
Waterskiing has a century worth of history attracting both national and international attention. The Gold Coast with its fancy history is not a stranger to the sport and some of our most successful locals started out as water skiers and became some of the cities most successful local identities. Flashback 1958.
Keith of the Skis
Formerly located on the southern bank of the Nerang River in Carrara, The Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens was founded and developed in 1958 by Keith Williams. The Ski Gardens was a tourist attraction and very popular with holiday makers. The Ski Gardens were available for skiers to train, producing some of Australia’s best waterskiers. It ran successfully for 13 years creating memories that will always live on. Some of those memories included ski shows, aqua ballet, speed boat exhibitions and also various Australian Water Ski championships. It closed down in 1971.
With such a passion for water skiing, Keith Williams developed Ski Land in 1971 on a 50-acre leased property at The Spit. This obviously became one of the Gold Coast’s significant theme park attractions. Ski Land became Sea World, and by 1981 drew more than 500,000 visitors per year.
The Sea World’s ski team, Waterski Wipeout had world class talent. The costumes and the amazing stunts that included barefoot doubles, swivel skiing, aqua ballet and freestyle jumps created an amazing atmosphere. The crowds always looked forward to the end which was of course the iconic multilevel pyramid.
The last memorable Waterski Wipeout show was performed in July 2009 after nearly 40 years with 30,000 performances. The Sea World waterski shows will never be forgotten as it truly was the start of Sea World which we all know and love today.
Keith Williams brought Australian tourism to the Gold Coast with his development of Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens and Sea World. Keith had a love for waterskiing and with it being so popular in Australia was able to be so successful in his developments. He became the Australian Water Ski champion in 1959 and staged the world championship in 1965.
He later went on to build Surfers Paradise and Adelaide Raceways, he started the development of Hamilton Island and financed Port Hinchinbrook Resort and Marina
With such an amazing contribution to the Australian tourism by following what he loved doing so much, Keith became a legend. He passed away in October 2011 at aged 82, remembered for his passion.
Vaughan to Ski Barefoot
There is yet another iconic inspiring person who has contributed to Gold Coast waterskiing history. Vaughan Bullivant was a waterski champion in the sixties. He was one of the featured acts at Ski Gardens. Vaughan competed in two World Water Skiing championships, and for 10 years held the world record for the longest ski jump at 42.5m. Vaughan was the Australasian Water Ski champion for four years.
Vaughan was the first water skier in the world to perform the barefoot toehold. Skiing at high speed, bare foot, he held to the ski rope handle with his foot. So extraordinary was this manoeuvre at the time, he travelled the world performing this trick in a dazzling on water act.
Unfortunately, Vaughan had a terrible accident while barefoot skiing backwards at 90km/h and smashed into a steel tower. He was knocked unconscious and spent several minutes under water before he was rescued. Due to lack of oxygen, it was thought that Vaughan would not survive or walk again. With a recovery that left doctors dumbfounded, Vaughan was teaching his paralysed legs to walk again in three weeks and was skiing again six weeks later. Vaughan strongly believed that his vitamin and antioxidant nutrient consumption helped with his recovery. He also felt that he had a second chance in life and began to explore his other passions. Vaughan proudly owned several vitamin stores which were extremely successful and eventually established Nature’s Own vitamin empire. Three decades later he sold the company and purchased Daydream Island in the Whitsundays.
Ski Wing
With such an amazing history about waterskiing we are still fortunate to be able to enjoy the experience and be treated to its mastery by our modern day waterski heroes, such as Joel Wing.
Joel has dominated Australian waterskiing for more than a decade. He is a 13-time Australian Water Ski champion and Australian Water Ski record holder. Joel has travelled the world and competed in tournaments throughout USA, Europe and other international locations. He has been a member of the Australian Water Ski team since 1999. He is a qualified coach and helps develop the best practices for water safety and training techniques. He now runs his own waterski and wakeboarding school on the Gold Coast.
By Carmel Bellchambers
