Scot Ellis To Be Inducted Into USA-WSWS Foundation Hall Of Fame

The USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Foundation’s Hall of Fame Selection Committee has announced that former pro water ski jumper Scot Ellis (Auburndale, Fla.) will be the 2025 inductee to the USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Foundation’s Water Ski Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will take place on May 3 at Nora Mayo Hall in Winter Haven, Fla.

Ellis’ love for water skiing began as a kid in Central Florida when he happened to catch a show by the Lakeland Water Ski Club. At age 7 he was a member of that Lakeland show team, and at 8 he was skiing three-event, too. Used to playing team sports where you might get one trophy at the end of a long season, Ellis won his first three-event water ski trophy and never looked back. “I could walk away with four trophies every weekend,” he says, “and I was hooked.”

Most of those trophies eventually came in jumping, but Ellis was more than capable in slalom and was an overall skier into the 1990s. His breakout came at the 1988 Junior Water Ski World Championships. Without a major victory to his name yet, Ellis went to Australia and won gold in slalom and overall, silver in jump and bronze in tricks.

They soon knew his name when he broke into the pro ranks in 1990, winning four events and the tour title right off the bat as a 19-year-old. During an era when pro ski tournaments were shown on ESPN and extreme sports were booming in popularity, Ellis was like a literal rock star. Over three decades at the elite level, Ellis was a 10-time World Cup champion, 10-time Pro Tour champion, 3-time Moomba Masters champion, 3-time Australian Open champion and 2-time Moomba Masters Night Jump champion. He also won professional jump titles at the U.S. Masters, U.S. Open and Italian Open. He set 14 U.S. national jumping records throughout his career.

At the 2021 IWWF World Waterski Championships, Ellis, at age 50, made the finals and finished in a tie for 10th place. It was his final major tournament before retiring a few weeks later.