*Brothers Ethan and Jacob Kuntz competed in the Canadian Water Ski Championships, along with their sister Hannah. [Bill Atwood]*

Waterskiing has become a family affair for three Conestogo siblings. Hannah, Jacob and Ethan Kuntz all competed at the 2023 Canadian Water Ski Championships at Shalom Park in Edmonton on August 9-12.

Jacob, competing in the U14 boys division, won two medals – silver in the jump competition and the overall bronze medal – while Ethan achieved four medals in the U12 boys division, including the silver in jump and gold in slalom and trick, as well as the overall gold medal. Coming off a knee injury from soccer, Hannah tied for fifth overall in the U17 girls slalom event.

“Obviously, it felt good. In slalom, I was hoping to do a bit better than I did. Even though I did really good and I won, I was just hoping to run the pass, but I fell,” said Ethan.

“You may be able to beat the other people easily and win it, but you might not have done as well as you wanted. Or you might do really good for yourself but still not win. So you just have to be happy with what you got. You can’t really complain about not getting podiums and do the best that you can do,” added Jacob.

Hannah started in the sport five years ago, while Ethan started the following year and Jacob took up the sport three years ago.

“I thought it was cool, so I started trying, and I liked it. We started doing some tournaments just for fun and then Jacob started trying it,” Ethan said.

The siblings ski out of the McClintock’s Water Ski School at Puslinch Lake under the coaching of former Pan Am Games athlete Jason McClintock. It’s his coaching that Jacob credits for their success.

“Our coach is pretty good, so he made it pretty easy to get better at it. Still took a lot of work and a lot of hours on the water. He’s a really good coach and with his help we got to the place we are today,” he said.

Jumping, the hardest event, was new to the boys this year.

“It’s definitely the most dangerous one, which is why a lot of people aren’t allowed to do it, because you’re hitting the ramp pretty fast. The professional people are going under 250-plus feet – it can be pretty dangerous, so a lot of people don’t let their kids do it,” Jacob explained.

Because the season is so short, only about five months, the family is already preparing for next year, including the national championships that will take place in Ontario.

“We start doing all the fun things that we maybe couldn’t do before like trying new tricks or working on different techniques for jumps, going up new speeds because with every age category in slalom they go up in speed,” added their mom, Julie Kuntz.

However there is not much time to do it because of how cold it can get, Jacob said.

“Especially going the speeds you’re going like you go up – next year I’ll be going up to 58 kilometres an hour when I ski, so going that speed when it’s like 10 degrees outside doesn’t feel too nice.”

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