Coldwater Lake Ski Bees

On any Saturday morning in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s you could find a group of Coldwater Lake teenagers practicing for the annual ski show. They were part of the Coldwater Lake Ski Club. Back then, people didn’t have cell phones, YouTube or the impressive boats you see on the lake today, but they had a love of the lake, friendships and the type of fun you remember for the rest of your life.

The Coldwater Lake Ski Club was started in 1956 by lake residents John Milnes, Fred Nichols and Pete Goshia. John and Fred were college students who came back to the lake for the summer. Looking for adventure, they built the first jump on the lake and ended up establishing the ski club that would entertain residents and provide life-long memories for generations of skiers. The club mascot, the Ski Bee, was named sometime in the late ’60s.

The club started performing ski shows around 1962 and kept them going through the late ’80s, with shows for the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekend. Denise Ward reminisced, “Ski Club practice was something we looked forward to every weekend. The shows generally were in the cove by Beatty Marine (now Lake Drive Marine) although we did a few in front of Davis Marine on Lake Drive (now Coldwater Lake Marina). People would watch from on shore and in their boats and especially liked seeing the jumpers and barefooters. The Ski Bee was also always a big hit because they were the youngest members.”

Steve Wood recalled, “Sometimes, if it was rough in the cove, Tim Martin would use their big deck boat to try to break up the waves. I also remember that we would send people out in paddle boats to go collect donations from people in the boats around the cove.”

Over the years, a few of the Ski Bees even made it to the professional ranks. In the late ’60s, Rick Klopfenstein was the first Ski Bee to take the skills he perfected on Coldwater Lake to Cypress Gardens. He drove down to Florida for the tryouts and was offered a coveted position on the show skiing team. He ended up skiing for both Cypress Gardens and Sea World of Florida.

In the winter of ’72, fellow Ski Bee Tom Snivley traveled to Florida over Christmas break with high school friend Dave Weaver along with Dave’s parents. During this trip they visited Cypress Gardens Water Ski Show, where Ski Club member Rick Klopfenstein skied in the late 1960s. Tom loved the show and set his sights on performing for Sea World of Ohio after speaking with Karl Lyman, a Cypress Gardens skier. He submitted an application upon arriving home but did not get a response for months and assumed he had missed the opportunity to ski at Sea World. Then, in early May, he received a phone call on a Wednesday to come audition on Saturday. He was still in high school, so he asked his dad, and he made it to the tryout. His audition consisted of jumping and barefooting in the frigid spring rain on Geauga Lake in Aurora, Ohio, the then-home of Sea World of Ohio. Tom graduated from high school on a Sunday and started skiing in the show the next day. During his first year at Sea World of Ohio, he was employed by Tommy Bartlett Water Shows, who were contracted by Sea World to perform daily shows. In 1974 and 1975 Sea World produced its own show with Hollywood producers. He still has his employment contracts for the three years he spent at Sea World, reflecting pay of $110 per week with $20 per week withheld for housing. What the job lacked in pay, it made up for in fun and in lifetime experience. The theme of the ski show in those years was “The Roaring ’20s” and Tom frequently performed as a barefooting Charlie Chaplin. Even after Tom was no longer a regular Coldwater Lake Ski Club member with the Ski Bees, he would come back and perform as Sparky the clown.

Said Tom, “I am very thankful for our parents who supported the Ski Club in so many ways and allowed us to burn hundreds of gallons of gas during our time on the water practicing for shows or just enjoying a day on the water. None of us had any formal training, we just learned the skill over time by trial and error … and maybe a few bumps and bruises. My experience at Sea World of Ohio was a dream come true and an experience of a lifetime. I had the opportunity to work with individuals from around the world and from many sports, as we had professional divers, lumberjacks and dancers woven into the show. I still have the opportunity to keep in contact with many of the Sea World skiers via Facebook and Christmas cards, which has been a blessing over the years.”

In 1990, Steve Wood had a similar dream of skiing at Sea World. In the spring of his junior year at Bowling Green, he called Sea World of Ohio in hopes of skiing that summer. The Ohio team was full so Steve called Sea World of Florida. They needed a skier, but typically required new skiers to attend winter training sessions and try out for the show. Steve told the ski manager, “I’m driving down there after my last final next week. If you don’t like me, send me home.” He arrived at the park on Sunday, and performed in the first show Monday morning, jumping off a 10-foot-tall platform coming up barefooting. “I lived with one of the other skiers who was married to a killer whale trainer, so I would hang out at the whale pool in between shows. It was a pretty cool experience.”

Steve went back to Florida the next spring to train at Cypress Gardens. The jumps used at Cypress Gardens were almost a foot shorter, which caused Steve to come up short and crash, ending his professional skiing career. In 2013, one of his friends talked him in to dusting off his skis and competing in three event tournaments. Steve’s ski-jumping experience paid off, and he emerged as the Men’s 3 Champion at the Michigan State tournament.

Toby Swick, the last president of the Ski Club in the late ’80s, noted that while there is no longer a Ski Club on the lake, many of the club members remain friends today and some have even returned to the lake to live or vacation.

We found a few Ski Bees from years past and asked them to share some memories.

Cathy (Norton) Lams:

“I often think about how fortunate I was to grow up on Coldwater Lake. I never understood when friends would complain how hot it was “in town.” I loved early-morning ski practices, skiing with friends at dusk, when the water was most calm, the constant stream of people in and out of our house, wet towels always on the line, bathing suits being worn sun up to way past sundown, and my great friends and neighbors, as well as my dad’s. I would get so sad every fall when I would start to see the docks come out. It was the BEST way to grow up. I’m super grateful for a wonderful dad who gave me that life.”

Jeff Friedrich:

“Every time the Snivley boat left the dock we all ran down to their house so we could see them whipped in to the beach. We would watch them glide up to the dock, jump out of the skis and run down the dock without ever getting their hair wet! Learned a lot about skiing from Tom!”

Greg Diehl:

“I remember in 1963, my neighbor Charlie Van Aken, who was about 16 at the time, took me to a ski show practice. I was 5 and skied in the show as the Ski Bee. I also remember being taught how to fly the kite by Butch and Jerry Gottschalk and doing that in the show after they grew older and moved on. Looking back on those years, they truly were some of the best summers a child could hope for.”

Sandy (Wood) Reetz:

“I remember Cindy Dunlap, Wendy Klausing and I would sit around Dave Wright’s kitchen table and write the script for my dad, Chuck Wood, to read during the ski show. We gave him biographies and interesting facts about each of the performers to announce when they skied their various acts. (And I still have the notes!) How we ever orchestrated the order of the acts and got each one out of the water, one right after another, was truly amazing and so much fun! Coldwater Lake will always be a magical place with so many summer memories especially of the fun and friendships formed in the Ski Club.”

Denise Ward:

“The first Ski Club meeting of the spring was always an exciting time. This meant summer was right around the corner and the fun was about to begin. One particular spring, Sue Snyder and I decided to start practicing early. Being neighbors and friends of Toby Swick on Pearl Beach, he saw us practicing early. During the first Ski Club meeting at the Coldwater Lake Association building, Toby told everyone that he had seen us skiing in the very cold water. He told everyone at the meeting, “If you want to be a good skier you have to start early no matter how cold it is!” My friends from Fort Wayne could never understand why I loved the lake so much. To them, it was just a lake. To me, it was a way of life. Once Coldwater Lake is in your soul, it never leaves. That is why I moved back! The memories I have of the Ski Club and Coldwater Lake will last a lifetime.”

Dawn (Boester) Beckhusen:

“I truly didn’t realize how special it was to grow up on Coldwater Lake until I left for college. My high school friends would say, “Oh, you have a 238 number so you must live out at the lake.” I know now Coldwater Lake was the place everyone wanted to be … especially in the summer. I participated in the Coldwater Lake Ski Club and I have many fond memories. Although some weekend mornings the water was cold for practice, it was pretty impressive how teenagers put together a show. I was the infamous Ski Bee one year (my two younger sisters, Erin and Tina, also donned the black-and-gold outfit a few years later) and I also was in the junior/senior ballet groups. My fondest memory was taking off from the dock at Beatty Marine (now Lake Drive Marine) on the Fourth of July and performing in front of a huge array of spectators. I could hear all the boat horns going off while we performed. It was so much fun. The memories of growing up on Coldwater Lake are priceless!”

Steve Wood:

“I can remember putting speakers on top of my parents’ car and driving around the lake with my sister announcing the ski show. I was a lot younger than my brother and sister, and I remember them taking me to practice and making me the Ski Bee one year. A bunch of us from the club ended up skiing against each other in college, representing Bowling Green, Purdue and Western Michigan, which was a lot of fun. I also remember Grant Newton skiing on an oar!”

Sue (Snyder) Sponable:

“I remember Mountain Dew mornings with Denise, being part of the show and just being with all of our friends and having fun without parents telling us what to do. When I look back, we all worked together to put on the shows without much help from adults. Probably the most famous quote I remember is when Toby Swick was teaching me to jump. He told me, “Knees, trees and freeze”—it worked!”

Sue (Snivley) Eichler:

“The Ski Club was like family. We would practice rain or shine. I remember everyone coming to the Snivley house on Saturday mornings for practice. A lot of long-time friendships were made over the years.”

Jeff Short:

“I was fortunate enough to spend summers on Coldwater Lake and got in the Ski Club. Since then I have competed in water-skiing, snow-skied for a few different clubs and hosted clinics for amputees and wounded warriors. Water-skiing has been a part of my life thanks to the Snivleys, the Wright Brothers, Danny Davis, the Beattys, the Martin Family, Dave Norton and so many others. ‘The Lake’ truly influenced who I am today, and some of the best memories of my life happened there! Thank you all!”