OUR STORY
It all began in 1971 when Auntie Irene and Uncle Stanley bought a boat and launched it on Ohio's Berlin Lake. A big group of adventurous cousins were allowed one tow each on archaic wooden skis, and this would later launch the kids into a lifetime passion for watersports. The seventies were a unique time for the industry, when waterskiing was gaining traction and wakeboarding was just coming into the forefront as a recognized sport -- but no one could have predicted what technology would allow us to do today.
As the cousins traded their wooden skis for the carbon-fiber variety, they began to spread out across America and begin families of their own. The Blasimans and the Hendershots went out to Posey Lake, Michigan; while the Streets and Stulls opted for Mohawk Lake in Ohio. While these families raised semi-pro wakeboarders, trick skiers, and barefooters, cousin Beth moved out to Irondequoit Bay in Upstate New York.
Beth bought a boat when she arrived: a red, white, and black 1993 closed bow Ski Nautique. With a vessel of her own, it didn’t take her long to meet the Aqua Sno Skiers club on the shores of the Bay. Already up to her chin in a successful new career, she found time to ski the buoy course every summer morning before work. She made fast friends with the club members, and it wasn't long before her future husband, Chris, joined in on the fun.
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Chris had grown up in Upstate New York without skis or a boat, but he was as ardent a sportsman as Beth. During his childhood, he looked to ski behind anyone’s boat on anyone’s skis, and found moderate luck on the waters of Keuka Lake. Years later on the shores of Irondequoit Bay, Chris had a Chevy Blazer with a hitch, and Beth had a boat on a trailer. It was a match made in waterski heaven.
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The dynamic duo married and eventually settled down. They purchased a summer cottage on the shores of Keuka Lake, where they bought an open-bow Sport Nautique and raised three children. In Chris' words, "teaching our kids to ski when they were young has given them a lifelong passion for watersports". All three have attended Coble Water Ski and Wakeboard Camp in North Carolina, learning to slalom ski from professional water skier April Coble Eller -- thanks, April!
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Wakesurfing arrived on Keuka Lake some eight years ago. In exchange for teaching them to ride a hydrofoil, a group of local surfer dudes agreed to teach the family to surf. Today, the gang surfs every summer -- all day, every day -- behind their Super 230 Air Nautique. You can find the Galusha family and friends marching as the Keuka Surf and Ski Club in the Branchport Fourth of July parade each year, celebrating their family, their lake, and the foundation Auntie Irene and Uncle Stanley built for them.