Make it a lucky seven in a row for the Cypress Gardens Water Ski Team.
The team from Winter Haven captured the Southern Regional Show Ski Team title Sunday with a familial group of 130 or so skiers, boat drivers, behind-the-scenes volunteers, dock crew and knowledgeable, experienced coaches at M.L. King Jr. Park on Lake Silver.
Winter Haven 1794.2 points) bested the second-place Tampa Bay Water Ski Show Team (1,364.23), the Carolina Show Ski Team (1,036.1) and the fourth-place Carolina Show Ski Team (1009.44).
The hometown team with married couple Bailey and Ty Hyatt claimed the top female and male awards as Bailey captured the Betty Bonifay Award and Ty claimed the Lynn Novakofski Award.
Winter Haven boat driver/rider Chris Jemec and Angel Viles took home the Bob and Lolita Johnson driver/rider award.
On top of that, the Cypress Gardens team features many former professional skiers, LEGOLAND skiers and Cypress Gardens skiers. Plus, complete families, from little ones to teenagers to parents, are part of the acts.
But more than that, the members lift each other up, sometimes literally, when they get on the water on weeknights at Lake Silver. Many skiers practice and compete with family members.
The Cypress Gardens team used a “Game Show” theme for their show act this year. While skiers maneuvered on the water, two contestants, an announcer and a DJ incorporated television game shows into a performance where the contestants achieved points by waging on the skiers, which was flowing on the lake behind the game show stage.
It appeared all “acts” were achieved with more skiers than other squads for Cypress Gardens, which makes timing and teamwork critical for success.
The hometown squad featured a team record of 25 women on a ballet line, and six skiers on the back barefoot step-off line and nine whipped around the boat.
The Cypress Gardens 720-line (two swivel rotations on a ski) by several women at the same time, a four-tier pyramid with 24 skiers surprised team members Lisa Smith, Connie Carlin, Joey O’Connor and tiny Mazie Smith, 10, who was on top of the pyramid with a flag.
“I guess we did do a lot,” said Joey O’Connor, who along with Lisa Smith and Connie Carlin, sat down to discuss the Cypress Garden’s team success.
“We were all having fun,” said Smith.
“I think they practiced ahead of time, so people knew what they were doing and where they were going and their expectations, their costumes. They didn’t have to think about it.” said O’Connor. “They skied their act and had fun.”
The Cypress Gardens team performed a flawless hot-line pick up where many skiers were towed around the lake and then were joined by more skiers from a dock with a tricky handoff.
“Our dock people are huge there as well as the guy in the boat,” said O’Connor, “and putting it on the release – which was Chris Jemec.”
“A lot of practice,” added Carlin.
Mazie, 10, said the hardest part of being on top of the pyramid is coming down.
She also enjoys another aspect of the show.
“I love seeing all the different costumes,” said Mazie.
The skiers changed their costumes more than a dozen times.
Mazie was also held by Frank Belieu while competing in strap doubles.
The show stage featured a large spinning wheel for points, a disc jockey station and two bubbly contestants behind podiums who interacted with the emcee.
“Our goal was to have a lot more props this year,” said Smith. “Our stage people did an excellent job this year with this year.”
“I think it was a little more involved,” said O’Connor, whose husband, Paul, wrote the show script.
“Every year has it’s new challenges,” said O’Connor.
“This was a one-of-a-kind unique script,” said Smith. “In other words, some teams create a show around a movie or something like that. I think that this takes more effort to kind of work through everything and just dialing it in more and more. You have to cut a lot.”
“He also made the beautiful props on the stage,” added Smith. “I think that was her Mother’s Day present.”
Lisa’s husband, Jason, was game show contestant “Cruise Rider”.
“It’s all a family. That’s what’s it’s all about,” said Smith. “It’s not just a teenager kind of thing. Their mom and dad are here with them. That’s what makes this sport so special.”
A team edict is that no child under 16 can be at practice without an adult.
“Pretty much the family is in whether they like it or not,” said O’Connor. “They stick around.”
“There’s something for everyone,” added Smith. “You don’t have to ski. We need riders in the boat, people to work on costumes. It’s good for families.”
The team is close to 200 members, but they come and go during the year.
What also makes it work – never stopping.
“I think as soon as you’re done, people start thinking about the next year,” said O’Connor.
The “Game Show” and other displays were full of excitement.
Cal O’Connor performed a one-ski heli, a one-ski flip and a one-ski gainer,” said former Cypress Gardens ski show director Mark Voisard. “And he’s 14 years old. That’s always cool.”
Gabe Maddox jumped over 100 feet on a two-ski fun flip,” added Voisard.
“The show didn’t miss a beat,” continued Voisard. “We were going for it and made a six-man back barefoot.”
They had only done the back barefoot once before.
“We practice all the time,” said Voisard. “The driving was well done on Saturday. The patterns are in and out.”
The Hyatts each claimed top male and female for the second year in a row.
“That’s kind of crazy,” said Bailey. “We each had our own goals that we set out to do and it was really nice and easy flowing with this team. The support of the whole team really carries us. It’s such a positive family-forward and fun environment.”
She had some struggles with jumping, but her jumps were landed clean, including her single ski front flip, with the team.
“That was really cool to land. It was the first time in a team event,” Baily said. “It’s just fun doing freestyle.”
“She nailed everything she was in,” said Ty. “She really excelled at her one-ski jumping which was impressive because that’s a hard trick and it takes a lot of practice. It was cool to see her nail all those jumps in the tournament for sure. The team said she was running non-stop.”
Ty competed with the team jump, and he was pleased about Bailey’s success.
“We both had a no-fall show, so it was really nice to stand everything up and be excited for each other and excited for the team,” Ty said. “We really didn’t talk about (both winning). There’s also so many good skiers in the Southern Region, you never really know who it’s going to be.”
Bailey competed in the winning team jump, the swivel pairs with Avery Crain taking second and women’s freestyle jump with a flip and a helicopter, which she won.
The two met in 2014 while skiing at LEGOLAND and married in 2019.
“It’s a great team to ski with for sure,” said Ty.
Keith St. Onge, a two-time world barefoot champion with 14 national overall pro titles, 19 U.S. national titles and over the weekend, he claimed two Southern Region titles as a dad.
He won strap doubles with daughter Zyla and took second with daughter Meika. Wife Lauren placed second in 360-degree swivel.
Just as important as the skiers are the drivers who pull them.
Chris Jemec, Tom Simpson, Derek Camann,, John Walker, Mark Voisard,
Steve Krumwiede, Barb Muren, Michael Maddox and pick up driver
The Cypress Gardens Water Ski Team will perform at 7 p.m. on Lake Silver at MLK Jr. Park Thursday as part of the Rockin’ Freedom Fest in Winter Haven.
