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Tanner, Val, Tristan & Randy Thompson

Come and Ski!

Trust others. Stay anchored. Bear with one another. Watch for obstacles. Commit to the team. Work shoulder to shoulder. Learn how to fall safely. Come up smiling. Live with gratitude.

Summer for the Thompson family of St. Paul could be subtitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned on Water Skis. Six evenings a week, except in flood stage, you’ll find Randy and Val and daughters Tristan and Tanner on the Rock River practicing their act. In a 36-person ski pyramid, you’ll spot them grinning for the crowd — in tier 1 (Randy), tier 2 (Val), tier 3 (Tristan), and right on top, 10-year-old Tanner.

This super-soaked family is part of the Backwater Gamblers, an 85-member competitive water-ski team, started in 1980 and now ranked fifth nationally. You’d need to travel 100 miles from the Quad Cities to see anything else like this “circus on water,” as Val describes it.

On performance nights, typically Sundays and Wednesdays, the Thompson family van pulls up to the Rock River water ski site. “Everyone scatters,” says Randy. “The beauty of this is we all get to participate. We put on our makeup, get costumes and skis on, get the equipment ready.”

Skiers rely on other skiers. They move quickly from dock to dock, from act to act. If a coiled rope is not where it’s supposed to be, the act can fall apart. For 13-year-old Tristan, the river-hugging summer community is her social life. She learned the hard way early in the season: Do what’s expected of you first, text-message your friends later.

This water-savvy subculture has its own language. A guy, tethered around the waist to a ski rope, gracefully hoists a girl aloft in “strap doubles.” The women and girls practice their “hop docks” for the ballet line, stretching 15 to 22 female skiers across the river behind one boat. Boats tow skiers “around the horn.”

Randy, whose dry-land occupation is regional insurance claims manager, joined the Backwater team at 16. “It was just a swamp and woods then,” he says of the riverside site that has now been developed with bleachers and ski jumps. He has such a “passion for the sport” that when he started dating Val, she came to shows in order to see him.

Val loves Randy, so she learned to slalom (on a single ski) and hop docks. A registered nurse by day in the Genesis East operating room, Val’s non-working hours are dedicated to “vibrant sparkly” costumes (up to seven per person), stage makeup, and precise choreography on water. She says it relieves stress!

For a time, as daughters were born, Randy and Val gave up competitive team skiing. “The time commitment is unbelievable,” says Randy. “I knew that once we started again, we’d be in it for a very long time.” Before they knew how to swim, Tristan and Tanner learned to ski with a training boom on the side of the family boat. “We have good flotation devices,” Randy smiles confidently.

Now, Thompson family summer vacations are on hold. The girls give up summer sports. They manage a week at Camp Shalom, scheduled when it has the least impact on the ski team. Even during the school year, they practice choreography in a gym. This is a family dedicated to their water craft.

Flooding kept the team dry-docked for four weeks this summer. But on July 6, they were back in the water, practicing for a tournament. The dock was partially under water and debris floated in the river. But the show went on: Music boomed, the MC cracked jokes, daredevils flipped over waves. The plastic buckets were passed and onlookers dropped in bills to support the volunteer team.

Martin Luther said that we live every day in God’s grace, realizing the power and promise of God given to us in baptism. Luther called this “walking wet.” The goal of a good skier, Randy is quick to say, is to start dry and end dry. Start from the dock, stay upright, glide up to the performance platform with your hair dry. But this “walking wet” lifestyle has taught the Thompsons some faithful lessons:

  • Trust: Teammates are shoulder to shoulder, ski to ski. With repetition comes trust. Teamed with her dad on strap doubles (“it’s like ice skating pairs”) starting at age eight, Tristan had to trust Randy in a new way. “I was so scared,” she remembers. “I was little and dad was so tall. It was a long way down if I was going to fall. I was hesitant and tense. But I learned to relax and trust him.”
  • Responsibility: “We have to get to every act on time,” says Tanner. All this fun is based on serious responsibility. Adds Randy, whose shoulders bear up to 10 people in a pyramid formation, “There’s a lot of risk, but we depend on each other.” Tristan says, “It can be nerve-wracking. There are a lot of ropes and we’re going off fast. You need to pay attention to yourself and the people near you.” This ski community is anchored in commitment.
  • Kindness: “It’s important to be nice to everyone,” says Tristan, who stands up for the underdog. “What’s the point of being mean? You make less and less friends.” Each summer, the ski team sponsors an Adaptive Ski Day, helping disabled people experience the thrill of skiing. Their wet and lovely grins say it all.
  • Gratitude: “Sometimes we can take this for granted,” says Val. “This is who we are and what we do. It’s a great thing to do with our family; no one gets left out. We thank the Lord for the ability to share our skills with others.

Even the family email address reflects the joy of their summer life. You can send a message to Randy, Val, Tristan, and Tanner at: h2oski@qconline.com

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"The good news is that God loves me long before I could have done anything to deserve it." ~Desmond Tutu