Foothills family making waves in water skiing

Two sisters dipped their toes into the water with golden results with their older sibling set to make her mark on the world stage.

All in a weekend’s work for Foothills County’s Pelkey family.

Sofia, 9, and Sarah, 12, earned gold medals in their debut at the Canadian National Water Ski Championships held at Predator Bay in the Heritage Heights area on Aug. 1-2.

“This was my first big competition,” said Sofia. “I was very nervous, but it was fun.”

Going to bed early, eating snacks and a lot of practice helped the youngster prepare for the competition. Predator Bay also hosted the Western championships over the weekend before the nationals got underway.

Sofia took home the national title in both the U10 trick and jump categories while Sarah was tops in U12 slalom, the only discipline of the three she competes in.

“I got a personal best,” Sofia said. “When I jumped at Westerns I wanted to do better so I had a lot of pressure, but I did better.”

Ellie Germain weaves through the slalom course at the Canadian National Water Ski Championships at Predator Bay near DeWinton on Aug. 1. By Brent Calver

They’ve learned from one of the best in the country in the sport who just happens to share the same last name.

Megan Pelkey, 14, has parlayed her early success in the sport into a spot on Water Ski Canada’s U17 World Team for the 10th IWWF (International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation) Water Ski World Championships.

The worlds event runs Aug. 22-29 in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

 “It’s really (an honour) and it just reminds me how hard I worked to be able to go to that event,” Megan said.

Pelkey, one of three Albertans on the U17 Team, will compete in the overall event encompassing slalom, jump and trick.

“My goals are to make it to finals in the tournament and to do the best I can,” she said.

The pandemic has impacted the competition nature of the sport with travelling and big meets in 2020 postponed until this year. Megan’s training, done largely out of the Innisfail area and at Predator Bay, has remained fairly consistent throughout.

Likewise for getting to watch her sisters follow in her footsteps.

“It’s really amazing and I’m proud of how hard they’ve worked,” Megan said.

“And one day they will all catch up to me.”