Summer 2022 saw Don Christman, of Alburtis, win the Eastern Region Water Ski Championship for Trick Skiing in his age group.

In addition, Lyman Hardy, president of the American Water Ski Association, recently announced Christman is in the top 7% of ranked trick skiers eligible to compete in the elite Masters Men division.

Since first balancing on water skis the summer after his high school graduation, Christman has been a serious and successful competitor.

A natural, Christman almost immediately transitioned from using two skis to one and purchased his first slalom ski that first year.

In 1979, he began his competitive career by entering the tricks division at an event held on Spencer’s Lake in Owego, N.Y. He took first prize. Water skiers may participate in any or all of three skiing venues: slalom, jump and trick.

Slalom involves the skier moving smoothly through a course composed of six tethered buoys. After each run, the competitor must increase the difficulty of the course by either shortening the tow rope or increasing the boat’s speed. Points are tallied according to the number of buoys the skier can successfully round without disturbing the buoy or falling.

Those competing in jump are given three chances to fly off a ramp at breakneck speeds and jump as far as possible. The skier’s longest jump counts and the person achieving the longest jump distance wins.

Early in his career, Christman competed in all three events, but by 1983 he had sworn off jumping. In an article which appeared in the July 17, 1983 edition of the Reading Eagle he is quoted as saying, “I used to jump, but I quit. That’s not for intelligent people.”

Trick skiers compete by performing as many tricks as possible during two 20 second runs. Judges view videos of the skiers taken from the boat and determine scores by computing the aggregate point value of each skier’s tricks. Christman’s favorite event is tricks.

Although he never lost his passion for the sport, beginning in 1991 Christman took a break from competition. A self-described “competition addict,” he resumed his career in 2013.

The desire to excel has also led Christman to attempt some unusual feats. A friend once commented, “You can ski on anything.” To test this inference, he has skied on a board found floating in a lake, barefooted and on Ping-Pong paddles.

2018 proved a difficult year for Christman. He began to struggle to make the first pass in slalom practice. His boat driver mentioned another skier experiencing a similar situation had been diagnosed with a heart problem. Christman followed up on the comment, discovered he had blockages and eventually underwent triple bypass surgery. After rehabbing, he was back on skis by spring 2019 and in his words, “[... had] a good skiing season.”

The following year he felt dissatisfied with his early-season performance. To retain his edge through winter, Christman returned to another of his competitive passions, power lifting. In his age and weight class he is currently the International Powerlifting Association World Amateur Raw Mens Record Holder for the squat, bench and dead lift. (Raw indicates no special equipment is employed by the competitor.)

As well as providing another outlet for Christman’s competitive drive, powerlifting has helped him hone his skiing skills. For the 2022 season he was nationally ranked second in his trick skiing age division and is currently ranked first in the Masters Men division.

Powerlifting mainly in the winter and water skiing in the summer keeps Christman fit and on top of his game. When asked about his future sport goals, he explained that since water skiers are grouped by age, he intends to live long enough to enter the 120-year-old division. After that, he’ll see.