School is back in session, and those lazy, hazy days of summer for the schoolchildren have come to an end. No more sleeping late, watching TV and playing video games all day long, right? Actually, a lot of kids are very productive and active in the summers. For one nationally competitive water skier, the summer went like this:
Finish the last exam of the spring semester on Thursday at noon; 90 minutes later, start practicing for water ski tournaments that will culminate in August with The 77th Goode Water Ski Nationals in West Palm Beach, Florida. Practice slalom, trick and jump the rest of the day and all day Friday at Swerve Water Sports in Manchester, Tennessee. Go to Center Hill Lake and practice all day Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday. Drive to Winter Haven, Florida, to train with Lucky Lowe, former world champion, former world record holder and world renowned coach of champions. Ski five sets a day with Lucky for a week. Tournament in Mulberry, Florida. More training with Lucky. A five-day cruise in the Western Caribbean. More training with Lucky. Return to Tennessee for skiing on Center Hill by Father’s Day, skiing daily with two tournaments in Tennessee prior to the Tennessee State Tournament in mid-July and the Southern Regionals in late July. More training with Lucky until the nationals in early August and, finally, the big dance in West Palm Beach! Out of bed and skiing by 8 a.m. or earlier every day, personal bests in nearly every tournament and very close to “PBs” in the other tournaments. Finally back in Tennessee Sunday morning at 1:30 a.m. and in class at The Webb School in Bell Buckle on Monday morning to start junior year in high school.
That was Trey Snell’s summer. He is competing in the Boys 3 division in USA Water Ski. At 15, he has been holding his own against boys up to 18 years old in a very demanding sport. He won slalom in the Tennessee state tournament and placed second in jump, tricks and overall. He placed sixth in jump in the Southern region and eighth in slalom. He was part of Team Tennessee’s team in the regionals, where the team took second place to Florida, and at the nationals, where the team placed seventh. Personally, Snell finished in the top 20 in the country.
Trey received the Most Improved Boys 3 Jump award in the Southern region of USA Water Ski in July at the Regional Junior Awards Banquet in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This prestigious award is earned by scoring the most increase in distance since the previous annual regional championship. Trey’s score went from 58 feet in 2018 to 89 feet in 2019. His boat speed is 31.7 m.p.h., and with his cut to the ramp, he is hitting the jump at approximately 50 m.p.h. The jump is 22 feet long, 14 feet wide and five feet tall. He is peaking about 12 feet above the water before gravity starts pulling him back down!
At the nationals, Trey was recognized as the most improved jumper in the nation at the National Junior Awards Banquet in West Palm Beach, Florida.
For the non-skiers, slalom competition is fast-paced, with the skier skiing around six buoys that are 37.5 feet out from the center of the boat in a standard serpentine pattern. After each pass, you either speed the boat up two miles an hour or you shorten the rope by standard increments until you miss a buoy or fall. Trey’s top speed for his division is 36 mph. His best score is 4.5 buoys at 28 feet of rope (the standard line length is 75 feet). It takes 16.05 seconds to go from one end of the course to the other, rounding all the buoys. Snell travels in excess of 50 m.p.h. in the fastest part of his pull to each buoy and slows down to about 15 m.p.h. before he accelerates again.
Tricking is a lot like figure skating—if you include flips, and tricks done while holding the rope with one foot!
Trey is also a co-captain of the Southern Regional Junior Development Team and takes an active role in promoting the team, encouraging the younger members and helping organize clinics and other team events.
Trey’s primary training partner is his dad, Freddie Snell. They ski together, drive for each other, coach each other and travel to competitions together.
Trey and Freddie Snell
“We share a love for the sport,” says Freddie. “When Trey was two years and five weeks old, he said to me, ‘Daddy, I want to ski!’ I had trainers in the boat and put them on him. He got up the first time he tried it and went about a quarter of a mile, which is a long time at the blinding speed of 5 miles per hour, which is all it took because he was so small! He’s been skiing ever since.”
Freddie adds, “Trey is a great boat driver and a really good coach. He has passed me in both the slalom and jump events. If I could do what he tells me to do, I’d be a better skier! Frankly, he is better at those than I have ever been. He can’t touch me in the trick event, yet, but he will surpass me in tricks when he decides to do so! I really love sharing this sport with my son. I am truly blessed.”
Freddie holds the Men’s 6 Trick record in Tennessee and placed ninth in the nationals in tricks.
Now back in school, Trey only gets to ski about one afternoon a week and on the weekends, but he is still training hard for the 2020 season.
“We have a Junior Development Clinic over Labor Day weekend with a great coach in northeast Georgia,” Trey says. “I’m looking forward to that training and being with my skiing friends. Then, our first tournament of the 2020 season is Sept. 7 and 8 in Sweetwater, Tennessee. We have one weekend to ski at Center Hill Lake, then a record tournament in Manchester. We’ll go train in Florida with Lucky Lowe over fall break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter break and spring break. Tournament season starts again right after Memorial Day.
This ambitious young man says that, outside of his packed schedule, his general plan is “to keep improving, keep winning and keep loving this sport. I am happy to represent my school in the nationals and my sponsors, Mitchell Bowman and Realtors with Results, my champion sponsor, Hidden Harbor Marine, Healing Hands Chiropractic, First Bank, Haynes Brothers Supply and The Patriotic Ski Club! I love my life.”
