Get your skis shined up, grab a stick of JuicyFruit ...

So, he decided to build his own lake.

In his back yard.

Actually, it's not really a full-blown lake - more like a large pond, really. But it's big enough to waterski on. Big enough, in fact, to host entire waterskiing competitions. Michigan State actually holds a tournament there every year.

In the Oppenlanders' back yard.

Jim Rose Rose Beef

It's where Lauren Oppenlander, a senior on Michigan's waterskiing team, has honed her considerable skills in a sport most people don't try more than once or twice each summer - and even then, for most it's just a recreational thing. But Oppenlander's different. After the Midwest waterskiing regional in Syracuse, Ind., it can be said that she's the best female waterskier in the midwest. Dan Smallidge, Michigan's top male performer, bears the same title: Best of the Midwest.

So does the whole team, really. The two standouts were each just a part of Michigan's regional championship, which earned the team a trip to Louisiana for this weekend's college nationals.

According to Jeff Sawka, the club's treasurer, the team doesn't exactly expect to take the tournament by storm, since most of the other teams will be varsity clubs from practice-friendly, warm, climates. "We'll literally get blown out of the water," he said.

But no matter. The Michigan team is one of two midwest squads going to nationals. Purdue is the other. Sixteen other schools weren't good enough to advance past the regional tournament.

How exactly do these tournaments work, you ask? Simple. There are three categories, consisting of jumping, slalom and tricks. Each team has five performers in each area, and points are accumulated largely based on degree of difficulty.

Consider the slalom category: Skiers are dragged behind the boat, which pulls straight through the course. Each skier has to zigzag in and out of six buoys, while the boat cruises ahead at a set speed. Sounds simple enough, right? At first, maybe.

But after mastering the first go-through, it gets a little bit tougher. Tougher, as in, the boat starts speeding up. Same drill, in and out of the buoys, just faster. And then, if you eventually master the course at the maximum speed, the rope connecting the skier to the boat gets shorter. This goes on and on, until even the best skiers can navigate just a couple of the markers before spilling.

The trick category, Smallidge's favorite, also awards points for degree of difficulty. Tricks range from the 'surf 90-degree turn' - "the easiest," Smallidge says - to the 'wake double-flip,' which consists, well, of two flips. At the same time.

In the air. On skis.

Smallidge hasn't perfected that one, just yet. "I just do regular backflips and reverse backflips," he says. Oh, is that all?

The jumping category might be the wildest of all.

"It's definitely the biggest spectator sport" of the three, Oppenlander says, "because there are a lot of crashes."

Basically, it works like this: The boat drives up alongside a ramp, and the skier launches off of it.

Beginners just let the boat drive them right up to the ramp. More experienced daredevils, however, use the boat as a slingshot, propelling themselves to the ramp so they hit it at full speed. The jumps are sometimes spectacular; and the landings are often more spectacular.

This is where, you might say, collegiate waterskiing is missing the boat (so to speak). With many beginners making their very first jumps in collegiate tournaments, the potential entertainment value of this sport is practically unlimited. Think splash, and you get the idea.

Ann Arbor's "Waterski House," as team members affectionately call it, is home to a large portion of the team's competitors, including Stacie Hosner, the club president. The vice president, Tim Sherman, also lives there, and he says that most of the team members "really just love to ski. But most of them have never really seen the competitive side of the sport until they join the team."

You want someone who has, though, you talk to Oppenlander. Or, better yet, go to her house. You can ski there, remember.

Ricci Oppenlander is also on Michigan's team. Her brother and father both set records in waterski competitions - this past weekend. Dad's record was eventually broken again by somebody else, but that's OK - it's incentive to keep getting better. Her mom even gets into it - "she's the boat driver," Lauren says.

Lauren Oppenlander has actually qualified to compete nationally next year, after her collegiate career is over. So she's got that to look forward to. But for now, she has just one more tournament left as a Wolverine. And then, of course, comes the onset of the one and only unfortunate thing that keeps Oppenlander, Smallidge and the rest of Michigan's team from being out on the water absolutely all of the time - winter.

- Jim Rose can be reached at jwrose@umich.edu

10-12-98