- I have the hardest trouble explaining show skiing to people.

(dramatic orchestral music) Well, show skiing, by its nature, is just really weird and stupid.

(Nick laughs) So yeah, show skiing is basically a form of water skiing where you put different acts out on the water, be it pyramids, jumping, bare footing, and there's also a stage portion of the show, so comedy acts, an announcer and things like that.

It's just super rewarding, and then when you do that with friends, it just makes it all that better.

And now we're pulling up to the crows nest and we'll hook up the boat.

(Nick chuckles) (door rattles) - Perfect.

- There you go.

The first time I ever heard of the Little Crow ski team was in 1998.

We moved here as a family.

My mom got a job in Willmar, so it was something that we'd never even heard of.

What is a water ski show?

So we went and watched and 1998 happened to be the year that they won the national tournament, so it was kind of, you know, you're seeing the best right off the bat and I was kind of hooked after that.

So then the first year, I kind of came to realize that even though I thought I was a really good skier, I was not as good as the other kids my age, so there was a big learning curve there and I had to work really hard.

(gravel crunches) The site that we ski at is called Neer Park.

It's right in the town of New London.

It's been a place where I've spent most of my summers for the last almost 30 years.

- [Photographer] So that's the jump right there, isn't it?

- Yeah, that's the jump, 14 feet wide, five and a half feet high, at least that's what we think it is.

We just kind of put it in every year and hope it's accurate.

(Nick chuckles) We take it out every year, but I think that jump is over 30 years old.

There's been some repairs that have been done to it, a new surface and things like that, but not much else.

I love the site, because, one, it's just a great place to go and watch a show.

We have good facilities there, good bleachers, good sight lines for the audience.

Oh, Jay's already stretching.

But just mostly the memories that I've made there, you know, friends that I'll have for a lifetime, you know, people my age, even boat drivers, people that are older, people that are younger that you kind of share that common interest with.

And also it's probably one of the smallest sites in all of show skiing, so it's very unique to us.

We have to do things a lot differently at home than how we would do them at tournaments, but that also means that we have beautiful water 100% of the time, so for bare footing and for jumping, you really can't beat it.

- So I learned to ski when I was right around a little after the age of two.

My uncles would always take me out in the boat, and then I just picked up a pair of skis and went out and learned how to ski.

- [Interviewer] At two?

- Yeah.

- No.

- My grandma has the pictures.

I could barely even fit into my life jacket with a deal.

I joined the Little Crow ski team when I was seven years old.

I have been jumping about 30 years.

(Jay laughs) It is a good stretch.

I don't think most people hardly make it out of 20 years of jumping before they kind of hang it up and do something else.

The first show I was in, I believe it was in 1995 at the National Ski Tournament and I was on top of the three-tier barefoot pyramid.

Three-tier barefoot pyramid is probably one of the hardest pyramids ever done.

There's three guys bare footing on the bottom, two guys in the middle, and one guy on top of the pyramid.

- Yeah, you got- - Still the dumbest thing ever done in show skiing.

- You gotta kind of- - That is, yeah.

- This one.

- [Jay And Nick] The three-tier barefoot pyramid.

- Yeah.

- That one was '96 and this one was '95 and I was on top of both of them.

The three-tier barefoot pyramid has only been done by Little Crow to my knowledge.

- [Nick] And that is the highest scoring act you can do.

- [Jay] If you showed those pictures to another show skier, they're just like- - You're stupid.

- Yeah.

- It just knocks- - Nobody does it.

That's why it scores so high.

- Just knocks out the little guy on top.

- Yeah, there's definitely dangers.

- We had a show director a few years ago, Chad Thompson.

He actually lit himself on fire and went and did a gainer back flip over the jump.

- Yeah, there's Marky who did the two-way around the boat pole.

That was his little baby.

He spent a lot of time on that.

Over 20 years ago, we had a skier that skied professionally in San Antonio and he came to the dock one day and he said, hey, we do this trick where we do around the boat and there's a second person who just kind of stays behind the boat and it looks really cool, but I think we could send two people fully in opposite directions around the boat.

I need a whiteboard to explain how it was done.

(both laugh) Almost getting ran over by the boat.

Boat running over ropes.

- I almost lost an ear.

- Yeah.

Fader almost lost an ear.

When I was 21, I was doing 270s and my skis kind of separated and my leg just went.

(Nick smacks lips) - I hit a wave coming up to the jump and it kicked me sideways.

I ended up hitting my head on top of the jump and getting completely knocked out cold.

It blew both my ear drums and fractured a sinus cavity.

- That was a good one.

Now he can't hear out of one ear.

- We were doing a five-man heli and came around and the rope, like, wrapped around my ski and it took my whole knee and twisted it and faced it straight while my body was still facing backwards.

- So yeah, there's risks, but you try not to go out there, you know, unprepared.

(people faintly chattering) (wetsuits rustle) (boat engine hums) Uh-huh.

(boat engine growls) The Little Crow ski team has won the National Jump Team Competition five times.

Last year at the national tournament, we took the most outstanding act, so that was the highest scoring act of the entire tournament.

- [Jay] Winning team jump at nationals last year was a pretty cool moment.

Regionals did not go well.

- Is it a jump?

- It's a barefoot jump.

- Is it a jump?

It's a barefoot jump.

- I mean, I think we pretty much botched the whole thing and got second to last place.

- You wanna know what- - Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

- You wanna know what hurts?

Being old and falling.

How about that?

- Yeah.

- And we went to Warsaw and did our whole jump routine flawlessly, no falls.

We got first place, which is hard to do.

It's very hard to win team jump.

- For our jump team to have five national championships when we're pulling from New London and Spicer, an area that has a population combined of maybe four or 5,000, it's a pretty big deal when you're going up against teams from, you know, the Twin Cities and Madison, Wisconsin and things like that.

- Oh.

- I can't jump that long.

So to really look back on the journey of joining the ski team when I was, you know, 11, 12 years old where I was just rolling ropes and hauling skis to be where I'm at now with, you know, every time I go down to the dock it's like I'm with family.

My daughter's on the team now, so being the developmental director I can, you know, kind of help her progress, and then other kids her age and I see her kind of making those same friendships that I made when I was younger and it's something that's really fulfilling.

- Bridger, you're comparing yourself to Dan.

(kids chuckle) - Sometimes I'm doing- - Comparison is the thief of joy.

Just go out there and make a hellie.

You can do it.

- Jumping in shows and at practice and showing kids how to do the jumps and learn is almost more rewarding than myself going over the jump.

I think that's what keeps me coming back and at the age I'm 40 years old and still jumping, but I think it's more so for the kids, like, to show 'em, hey, let's keep going.

Let's build this thing and let's try to win a few more awards.

(laid back music) (uplifting music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region, more at wcif.org.

(uplifting music)