From the Capital Crew Masters Archives….a water skier pulled by an 8+ crew?

Rick Jones and Catherine Younger, our fellow rowers, forwarded me this photo and thought we shared it with the group. Not only is 8+ for rowing but it is also for pulling a water skier. This infamous photo was taken at the 1993 Collegiate Pacific Coast Championship regatta. Apparently, it was a spur of the moment effort, someone showed up at the Aquatic center hoping to waterski and were disappointed to learn that waterskiing behind motor boats was prohibited. That led to conjecture among the rowers present if the crew could get a skier out of the water!

We were able to get names of some of the rowers :

Tim Scofield – Stroke

Mike Laing - #4

Don Alden - #2

From Dave Worthington….I think this performance was done during a break in the action of the WIRA (Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association) regatta.  Bob Whitford would have been the person who figured out how to connect a ski rope to the boat.  The skier was a middle school kid - lightweight.  The skier did a marvelous job of remaining upright - since the boat would speed up, then slow down.   As we know, skiing behind a rowing shell never became a "thing".

Feel free to comments if you recollect or know other facts about this infamous photo