August 2023 Member Spotlight: Joseph McNamee, Fredericksburg, Va.

My wife water skied when I met her, and I got invited on a family trip to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. I skied on two skis for the first time in summer 1984. I really enjoyed it. I skied on one ski for the first time later that summer in Columbus, Ohio. I've always been into the thrill of competing. I was a pretty accomplished tennis player and basketball player. I want to compete in any sport that I'm playing. I was in the Air Force and was transferred to Edwards Air Force Base in 1990. We went boating at a lake nearby and stopped to have dinner. Somebody else pulled in who had a tournament ski boat. I started talking to them, and they belonged to a ski club. I was able to join that ski club the next year, and I was very active for three years. It was a lot of fun. The Air Force transferred me back to Ohio in 1995 to get my PhD. I was in Ohio from 1995 to 2001 and skied at a small lake that was once a rock quarry. Beginning in 1997, I became very busy working and raising children and didn't ski for about 12 years. We moved to Northern Virginia in 2001, and my boat, a 1986 MasterCraft, sat in our garage unused until my wife rented a house on a small river for my birthday in 2009. We loved the house and the river, so we subsequently bought the house. After a couple of years on the river, I found several water ski clubs with private lakes nearby and joined Timberlake Water Ski Club. Now I am back competing in tournaments. I love being able to free ski on the river and ski the slalom course at the club.

I am Joseph McNamee. I am a slalom skier, and #WeAreWaterSki.