It's Memorial Day and the 2012 ski season is getting ready to start. In just two weeks, the first tournament of the 2012 OWSF season will be underway at Riverbend on June 9 and 10. Check the other news items on this website to get up-to-date with recent news about Oklahoma water skiers.

One reminder to everyone. To guarantee your t-shirt at the state championship, your annual OWSF dues must be paid by July one. It's a little more important to get it done this year, because there is only one OWSF tournament in June. There is a link to the  annual application on the home page of this website.

There was a misprint in the South Central AWSA Guide. The Oklahoma Water Ski Federation championship for 2012 will be held at Outlaw Lake in Marlow, OK. The dates remain the same.

Buster Latimer (May 17, 1935 – March 26, 2012)

It is with great sadness that we report the passing away of Buster Latimer, 76, on March 26 after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s. 

Very active in the water ski scene, Buster would be considered one of the founding fathers of competitive water skiing in the state.  His interest in skiing began in 1958 when he was first introduced to the sport at Duncan Lake.   He and fellow skier, Bill Dietrich, later installed a slalom course and jump ramp, and the Duncan Competition Ski Team was formed.

An avid skier, Buster became proficient in all three events.  He loved the sport so much that he spent countless hours pulling his four children – Jamie, Jana, Jeff, and Janice.   At this time all tournaments were just one round of each event, so most skiers were three eventers.   Buster sacrificed his own practice time so his kids could practice all three events.   Jeff, Jamie, and Jana became top 3-event regional competitors, and Jeff went on to compete and medal at the Water Ski Nationals.  One of Buster’s great joys was getting his grandson, Jarrod, to ski at eighteen months of age.

In 1978, the Duncan Ski Team began leasing Horseshoe Lake, which is located between Marlow and Rush Springs, from Melvin and Betty Heath.  Finally, the club had a private lake with controlled conditions for practice and began hosting tournaments.

Buster’s favorite event for himself was probably jumping.  In the early days of jumping, the boat could pass on either side of the jump ramp.  The boat passing on the left was called Texas style jumping, and Buster, along with most of the others who skied at Duncan Lake including Diane Ledford & Jamie Latimer, were Texas style jumpers.   The early tournaments at Hoseshoe Lake still allowed left-sided jumping.  However, in the early 1980’s, AWSA mandated that all jumping be done with the boat passing the right side of the jump.  For those who used the left-sided jumping style, changing was like relearning to jump and caused many proficient jumpers to quit jumping, Buster among them.

Buster was very active at Horseshoe Lake until 1989 when Outlaw Lake was built.  It was the first man-made ski lake in the state built specifically for competitive skiing. 

After Buster’s children were grown, Buster was able to devote more time to his own skiing.  He holds the current Oklahoma Men 8 Slalom record with a performance of 3 buoys at 28 off.  Skiing was Buster’s passion, and he was active in the Outlaw Lake Skiers Association until recently when his health prevented him from skiing, although he still enjoyed fishing and the camaraderie at the lake.  

We know all who come to Outlaw Lake will miss seeing Buster.

The ski season for the Oklahoma Water Ski Federation began on New Year's Day Outlaw Lake. Check out this rag tag bunch of skiers from Outlaw Lake, Horseshoe Lake, and Triple Creek who celebrated the new year and a new boat by skiing on January 1, 2012.

The annual winter meeting of the OWSF was held on December 7 and 8:00p.m.  in a virtual session hosted by Tom Trautman using Gotomeeting. The treasurer's report was read and accepted, all by-laws and rules changes were adopted by unanimous vote, and the tournament schedule was set for 2012.

The minutes for this meeting were posted on the website, and the OWSF calendar has been updated with the tournament dates for 2012.

Tacey Virgo from the Metroplex Ski Club in Texas attended the meeting and provided a copy of the tentative North Texas tournament schedule for 2012. That schedule is attached to this blog post, and the tournaments have been added you the OWSF calendar.

Thanks to all who attended the meeting.

Tom Trautman
OWSF Chair

The annual winter meeting for the OWSF will be held on Wednesday evening, December 7 at 8:00 pm.There are three agenda items:

• Treasurer's Report
• Voting on Changes to OWSF By-Laws and Policies
• 2012 Tournament Schedule

The changes to the by-laws and policies were posted on this website following a September committee meeting. The meeting is open to all OWSF members. If you would like to attend the meeting, please let Trautman know, and he will send you the link to the virtual meeting

Voting will be held by a live electronic survey. So, when you attend the meeting, have your Internet connection open so you can vote. The link to the survey will be put up on the screen during the meeting.

At the 2011 Annual Summer meeting of the OWSF, there was a discussion and unanimous agreement that we would like to extend an open invitation to skiers from neighboring states to join OWSF and participate in our tournaments including the state championship.

The committee met on September 14, 2011. Present at the meeting were Tom Trautman, Rich Foster, April Foster, Mike Melson, Patti Bray, Billy Varnell, Alvin Neff. My apologies if I left anyone off this list. The discussion included a review of all of the by-laws that needed to be updated, not only for including out-of-state skiers, but also any of the by-laws that needed updating for any reason.

As required by the By-Laws, this posting of these recommended changes to the OWSF website, and the e-mail that was sent to the membership, serves as notice to the membership. A vote on these changes will take place at the annual winter meeting which will be held virtually. The meeting date will be announced in early December.

Attached to thispost are a red-lined version of the OWSF by-laws with the recommended changes, and a copy of each the changes that will require a vote.

Please feel free to get in touch with me or any of the committee members if you have questions. We look forward to seeing our friends from neighboring states at next year's tournaments.

Tom Trautman
OWSF Chair

The 2010 winter meeting of the Oklahoma Water Ski Federation was held today, December 4, 2010. It was the first meeting to be held virtually in a web meeting. It was well attended and the minutes are now posted on this website. The tournament dates for the 2011 ski season in Oklahoma were set. Those dates can be viewed in the meeting minutes and in the OWSF Calendar which is linked on this site.

The dates for the the national, regional, and state championship waterski tournaments have been set. The AWSA made the following announcement last week:


That will place the regional tournament two weeks earlier on July 22 to 24, and the Oklahoma State Championship on July 16 an 17, 2011.

This year's OWSF State Championship Tournament is scheduled to be at River Bend in Oklahoma City.