The Plum Ski‐ters Water Ski Club was started in 1960 primarily by Nick Seegert (pictured) whose parents owned a resort and marina in a quiet bay on Plum Lake.
The founding members of the Plum Ski-ters used borrowed towboats and pickup boats to perform shows three nights a week along the shoreline of the resort. It quickly became a favorite tourist attraction for the local community members and visitors alike. The Plum Ski-ters used borrowed towboats and pickup boats until the mid ’60s when the club was able purchase a Hydrodyne with twin 100hp Johnson motors.
Over the next couple of years, many of the members competed in individual ski tournaments around the Midwest earning the team the bragging rights of four Individual State Championship awards. The Ski-ters also participated as a team in the annual regional tournament held in Janesevile, WI, bringing back two Division Championship titles. That honor cleared the way for the Ski-ters to host the next state tournament in July of 1967. The home show site at Seegert’s Marina, while adequate for the newly established ski-team, was not conducive to hosting a large tournament. With the help of Bill Froelich and a direct line to the governor’s office, the club was granted special permission to use beautiful Crystal Lake, a no-wake lake located just 6 miles west of Plum Lake, as the state tournament site. With its crystal clear water, wind protection, and ample campsites, it was truly a tournament to be remembered.
Like many teams across Wisconsin, keeping a show site through the years had its struggles. As show attendance and club memberhip increased, the original site at Seegert’s was outgrown; and the bay, with its restricted show flow, started to haunt newly created acts and the need for more speed. State‐owned land across the lake seemed to be the club’s only choice. The team acquired a site on the Northwest side of Plum Lake, which was used for several years. After many attempts to find alternate sites in the area that were easier to access, it seemed that the search always came back to beautiful Plum Lake until landing at the current site at Statehouse Point!
Membership over the years has ebbed and flowed and after a “lean” summer with no ski shows in 1998, former club president, Aaron Carper, donated a boat and recruited a new base of experienced skiers to rekindle the team and build a more sustainable youth development program with the support of local families. With continued financial support from Russ Davis and others during the next five years, the club created a financial base that helped it acquire its own boats once again.
Today, with the support of the Town Board of Plum Lake and the State of Wisconsin the club has an arrangement to use Statehouse Point just off Razorback Road as its permanent site. The club’s focus is now on team show skiing, evident in the slightly changed name “The Plum Ski‐ters Water Ski Show Team.” As in the past, the team has a large group of championship skiers with several having skied all over the world. The Ski-ters are now becoming known for producing entertaining shows, world-class team jumpers and barefooters. Since 2000 the team has consistently increased in size, drawn in more families from the local community, and performed at the State Tournament with a second place finish in Division III in 2017.
With support from alum Scott Harrison, the club now has a museum located in the backroom of the Sayner Pub. Come check out the memorabilia and photos from the 60’s!