At nine years old, living in Newburgh, Indiana, near Evansville, Suzanne Webb learned to water ski on the Ohio River.

Her family began visiting Rough River Lake in 1966, and in the 70’s, she and her new husband, Mark, began spending their weekends and vacations at the lake on a lot her mother had given her. The couple camped on the lot for the first eight years, before moving a mobile home onto the site.

During all that time, she continued to ski on the lake, loving the time away from her job as a financial officer for a company in Evansville that manufactured baby formula.

In the late 80’s, the Rough River Water Sports Club, through an arrangement with the U. S. Corps of Engineers, constructed a water ski slalom course at a site a couple of miles west of the intake tower for the Grayson County Water District.

Suzanne and Mark, who also skis, were members of the club and they and about 25 other families took advantage of the course to compete amongst themselves.

But it was not until she and Mark retired a couple of years ago that she began thinking of competing on a wider basis. On August 14, at Water’s Edge, in Wilmington, Illinois, Suzanne captured the championship of the Women’s 6 Slalom division (age 60-64) at the 68th Goode’s Water Ski National Championships. At the same competition, she finished third nationally in the USA Trick Competition in the same age division.

In the early 90’s, the couple began looking for another place on the lake to live that would be closer to the water. A friend had them look at a house on Out Post Road, on Little Clifty Creek. They were unable to make a deal on that place, but they did purchase a lot a little further down the road where they built the house where they now live. An extra bonus was that the site was just a short hop down the lake to the slalom course.

Suzanne now is able to practice on the course daily, going out early in the morning during the week before the wind kicks up and makes the course difficult to use. Mark guides the boat and offers advice on what Suzanne is doing right or wrong on each pass. After the workouts, Suzanne practices her tricks as Mark takes the boat back home. Weekends are mostly down times as the additional boat traffic on the lake makes it nearly impossible to do her workouts.

Suzanne is at something at a disadvantage to skiers from places where the weather is more moderate, like Florida, as she is only able to get on the water at Rough River for about five months of the year.

“We would go down to Florida for spring workouts and when we would come back, it would still be too cold to get into the water,” Mark said.

This past spring, the water stayed high for so long, Suzanne could not get on the course until July. Ed Sorace, who is president of the Rough River Water Sports Club, allowed Suzanne to practice at a ski facility he owns on a private lake on I-65 near the Lebanon Junction exit.

The club puts the course in the water each spring, then removes it each fall to comply with the regulations of the Corps. Mark said putting the course in takes three men about five or six hours. It is put in around the first of May and taken out near the end of September.

One-inch aluminum tubing secures the balls which float at the surface and the whole thing is tied together by stainless steel aircraft cable. The course itself is 850-feet long, but with all the cable under water, it’s total length is about 1,200 feet. It is anchored at each end by two 55-gallon drums filled with rocks.

The club recently completed a second course on the lake, on the North Fork, in George Branch. Suzanne is a membership chairperson for the club, and is also treasurer for the Friends of Rough River, a not-for-profit group which helps with clean-ups on the lake and also promotes local tourism.

In competition, skiers in Suzanne’s division ski the course at 32 miles-per-hour. The speed of the boat is maintained automatically and the boat’s position down the middle of the boat lane is confirmed by a GPS system to make sure it is within the allowed tolerance.

The tow rope is 75-feet long, but it is shortened after each successful pass. In Suzanne’s championship run, she had a successful pass of all six balls at 28-off (28-feet off the 75-foot rope), and one ball at 32-off (45-foot rope).

For a successful pass, the skier must pass through the gate at the front of the course (the first two balls of the boat lane), maneuver around six balls, three on each side of the boat, then pass through the gate at the other end.

In trick skiing, the boat goes slower and once she enters the course, the skier has 20 seconds to do as many tricks as possible. Points are handed out for each trick, with the more difficult maneuvers gaining the highest point total. Suzanne said a good run for her would be 1,080 to 1,200 points. She scored 850 in her third-place finish at the nationals.

Mark said that last year, 22-off in the slalom was not a given for Suzanne, and 28-off was pretty much out of reach.

“Now our goal is to reach 32-off,” he said.

Suzanne said she feels because she started competing so late, she has an advantage over some of her competitors.

“A lot of them were competing at an early age and they peaked a long time ago,” she said. “Many of them have begun to decline. I’m still improving.”

The couple said they are very appreciative to the Corps of Engineers for allowing the course to have been built on the lake, something it did not have to do. They were also appreciative of all the assistance and coaching Suzanne has received from members of the club and other water skiers on the lake.

“We have a lot of very good skiers on this lake,” Suzanne said, “ and I have taken a little from here and a little from there and applied it to my skiing. Sometimes I don’t really understand what they’re telling me and other times I’m just unable to do what they’re saying.”

But at 61, Suzanne still has some good years ahead of her.

“We have one skier who lives on the lake, Viola Keys, who is 89 years old,” she said. “She gets out early in the morning and runs the slalom course, but stops if any boats start passing. She has had knee replacement surgery, but she still gets out there and goes up and down the lake.”