On a sunny Sunday this past June, Ellen Fortin walked into the staging area of her home waterski team, the Silver Lake Ski Club, to line up her swivel ski. Fortin has been a member of SLSC since 2016, having served as show director and secretary for the team. She set her ski down next to twelve other swivel skis, and took a picture of those skis.
“The first day I came to practice at Sliver Lake with my swivel ski, I was the only swiveler on the team” said Fortin, a longtime swiveler and pilot for Delta. “This is what I walked into today.”
The Silver Lake Ski Club recently hosted its first Flaunt-It Swivel Tournament at its home site on Silver Lake in Fenton, MI, where Fortin was competing that Sunday morning. The tournament drew competitors from Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as Michigan. As a small team, the SLSC was particularly excited to be hosting this prestigious event.
“Several of our swivelers have worked in Florida with Shauna [Pasanen, founder of the Knotty Girl Ski School and host of the Flaunt-It tournament series]”, said Jeremy Ameen, president of the Silver Lake Ski Club. “So when Shauna approached us with the idea of hosting a Flaunt-It tournament, we were thrilled.
“Our mission as a team is to grow the sport of waterskiing, and to grow the Silver Lake team. This event accomplished both of those goals. As a teaching organization, this event also really inspired our younger skiers to participate in an elite competition. So this checked all of the boxes for us.”
Becca Roat, member of the SLSC and former member of the Sarasota Ski-A-Rees, competed in the Silver Lake tournament in the 360 division. Becca joined the SLSC at age 6, skiing until she moved to Florida in 8th grade. She trained in Florida with Betty Bonifay (show skiing’s first swivel skier) since age 12, until she returned to her Michigan roots in 2020.
Despite that impressive resume, this was Becca’s first Flaunt-It competition.
“I would not have competed in Flaunt-It if it weren’t for the support of my Silver Lake teammates” said Roat, a special education teacher. “The best part of this tournament was watching our youngest skiers be inspired by the talent of the older competitors and set goals to improve their own skills and compete again.” (The youngest competitor at this event was age ten, and the oldest was age 35.)
So will Silver Lake host another Flaunt-It?
“We would love to make this an annual event” said Ameen. “This kind of event really helps us to grow our roots in the community in addition to fulfilling our nonprofit missions. This was a win across the board for everyone.”
