At 80 years old, Collin Fieguth continues to make waves.
The Vernon senior makes a splash several times a week, water-skiing every summer.
“I was 25 when I started,” said Fieguth, whose brother got him into it with his first ski at Hatzic Lake in the Lower Mainland. “I really got hooked on it, I’ve been doing it forever.”
Now he skis on Swan Lake, with a few friends.
“My water skiing buddy just turned 71, and another guy is 62 and another one is 60,” Fieguth said.
While he usually hangs up his skis in September, Fieguth used to be out on the lake until Thanksgiving.
But he gets right back out every spring, even earlier this year due to the warmer weather.
“I try three or four times a week,” he said, after hitting the lake more than 30 times this year.
And he has no plans on stopping.
“As long as my buddy keeps on pushing me I guess I have to go.”
Fieguth has even taken the podium at national competitions, with 2007 being the last time he took part, in Calgary.
But the 1982 BC Summer Games are what pulled Fieguth and his family to Vernon. Living in Prince George at the time, his trip to the Okanagan, where it was still 28 C at the end of August, was a game-changer.
“I liked it so much I said to the family, ‘We’ve got to move here.’”
Two years later, they called Vernon home.
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