Lloydminster’s Max Strilchuk is making waves in the world of international water skiing.
Team Canada recently named the 16-year-old Grade 11 student from Holy Rosary High School to its U21 squad for the IWWF PanAm Championships in Bogotá, Columbia
The skiing competition, set for Oct. 7-13, consists of five categories including slalom, trick, jump, overall and team.
Strilchuk will be competing in slalom, trick and jump, but his favourite discipline is the jump.
With a personal best jump of 45.7m (150 feet), Strilchuk explained travelling that distance at high speeds is hard to beat.
“It’s pretty cool and it happens pretty quick, there’s nothing really like it,” he said on Tuesday night.
This will be Strilchuk’s second international competition after taking on the field at worlds in Calgary over the August-long weekend.
Strilchuk explained he’s excited to see how things are done down south, but noted elevation will be a factor.
“The elevation is going to be a big factor. I’ve heard guys say they get dogged quicker,” he said.
Skiing success at home
As of late, Strilchuk has trained at Ski Fluid in Florida in April and Bennetts in Louisiana in June. A crash during practice in Louisiana saw Strilchuk with a broken left orbital bone, forcing him to return to Canada.
Back on home soil, however, Strilchuk competed at the Junior Canadian Open, U17 World Championships, Western Canadian Championships and the National Canadian Championships.
Strilchuk first got on waterskis at the age of five at Little Fishing Lake north of Paradise Hill. Through the local club, Strilchuk got his first taste of provincial competition. The rest, as they say, is history.
It won’t be long before people are saying “We knew him when.”
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