Water ski clinic introduces athletes of varying abilities to the sport

Splash Adaptive Water Ski and Wake offered a “Give it a Go Day” at Predator Bay in De Winton Saturday for disabled athletes interested in trying out the sport.

Splash Adaptive Water Ski and Wake offered a “Give it a Go Day” at Predator Bay in De Winton Saturday for disabled athletes interested in trying out the sport.

Dale Ohler used to water ski and wakeboard and says being able to do it again is amazing.

“Once you get on top of the water, it's such a feeling, and so nice and these people are just unbelievable at being able to get us out there and to do these things that we get to do,” he said.

Rae-Lee Colcleugh, committee chair of Splash Adaptive Water Ski and Wake in Alberta said it’s an incredible opportunity to be able introduce people of any and every disability to this sport.

“We've had people participate that had never done sport before in their life and are now integrated into other adaptive sport communities, and we just couldn't be happier with the outreach that we've had and the ability that we have to bring these events to these participants.”

Some athletes, like Melissa Veldman, believe adaptive water skiing opened the door to whole new world of possibilities.

“It means so much to me, to be perfectly honest," she said. "It's changed my life this program. I've never had the opportunity to be involved with Disabled Sports before. I started with splash adaptive, and ever since then, I I've been able to try a bunch of different adapted sports like wheelchair basketball and and biking and downhill skiing, so it kind of I call it my gateway sport.”