Colin Faulkner s water skiing era was the 1960s. At 12 years old, he was seen skiing behind

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Henry Lambert Holland
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Colin Faulkner s water skiing era was the 1960s. At 12 years old, he was seen skiing behind the family ski boat at Yarrawonga by Max Miles who at the time was Victorian Champion.

1 Colin Faulkner s water skiing era was the 1960s. At 12 years old, he was seen skiing behind the family ski boat at Yarrawonga by Max Miles who at the time was Victorian Champion. Max suggested to Col s father Alf that he should enter Colin in some tournaments and within one year Col was winning every slalom competition he entered and was not beaten in any Victorian tournament for 3 years. Alf started entering him the men s competition and he won these also until the association suggested he should only compete in the junior division until old enough. Winning Victorian Junior Slalom title 1960? No life jacket, double handles. What was the water ski association, equipment, rules and competition like in the 60s. There were no national or state run ski schools and Colin had to learn from books like the Cypress Gardens water skiing book. He also joined the American Water Ski association as they used to post an excellent newsletter with coaching hints. He had to motivate and teach himself as there was only one coach in Australia who professionally taught tricks, Bill Grenfeld from N.S.W. Colin never had lessons from Bill or any body else. In 1962 the VWSA had received a reel to reel movie of the 1961 world championships in Long beach California and it showed Larry Penacho and Jimmy Jackson jumping 150 feet which was amazing as at the time Colin was only jumping 90ft. John Kumm, the VWSA president and chairman of the Moomba tournament invited Chuck Sterns and Jimmy Jackson out to ski in the Victorian state titles and the Moomba tournament in To get the chance to ski with and against two of the worlds best skiers was a major influence in Colin s

2 very rapid improvement. Seeing first hand these two champions and how they skied motivated him to train much harder. John Kumm a couple of years later asked if the family would look after and train some of the international skiers when they arrived in Melbourne to prepare for the Moomba Masters. This again had a big influence on Colin s performances getting the chance to train with the worlds best skiers. Colin s family looked after and trained lots of the international skiers out for Moomba for many years after that. David Nations, the owner of the Ruislip Water Ski Club in London had a similar plan in the late 60s as the British men skiers were well below the world standard. He used to fly Colin (now one of the Worlds best skiers) to his London ski club for their short seasons with the same objective hoping Colin s visit would benefit their top skiers. Mike Hazelwood was just one of the young kids skiing at the Ruislip club in those years. The World Slalom record 1966 Geelong Victoria.

3 Slalom Skis were all flat bottom with very basic footgear. The men s top speed for slalom in the early to mid 60s was then 38mph (61kph) and Colin s family struggled to have a ski boat good enough to hold that speed of 38mph through the course. At the 1965 World Titles in Surfers Paradise all the Australian skiers were on flat bottom skis as the 3 major Australian manufacturers Ron Marks, Fred Williams and Surfers Paradise Gardens did not have a concave ski in their range. The majority of the skiers at the 1965 titles were on concave slalom skis. After these titles, former World Champion Bruno Zaccardi (Italy) gave Colin his Italian made concave slalom ski. The following season Colin broke the World Slalom record at the Victorian championships in Geelong against a field of international skiers out for the Moomba Masters. Colin was the first skier in the world to run 24ft off the rope. He only held the record for a week as Chuck Stearns (USA) broke Colin s slalom record at the 1966 Moomba Masters. The Australian ski manufacturers all then started producing wooden concave skis and the best selling skis for the next few years were the Col Faulkner Concave from Ron Marks Skis and the Chuck Stearns Concave from Fred Williams Skis. In 1967 to win an event at the Nationals it was a two day tournament which meant you skied each event twice.the first day Colin won every event, on the second day he skied into the gates buoy and fell early although still winning 5 out of the 6 events. He also broke the Australian jump record in that tournament.

4 Later in 1967 Bill Barlow Junior invited Colin to ski in California and train in the Bay area of San Francisco. The family could not afford the expense so ski friends got together and raised the money for the airfare to the USA. I remember getting letters from Colin (no s then and phone calls were too expensive) and in these letters Col explained how he was winning all the Mens Slalom events he competed in California. He was happy although in the junior competition a few of the junior skiers were often doing equal or better slalom runs than he was. These three junior skiers were Mike Suyderhoud, George Athens (Canada) and a 14 year old kid Colin was training with each day, Chris La Point. In later years these 3 skiers all went on to win world titles. The world titles were in Sherbrooke Canada in 1967 and Tito Antuano (Mexico) beat Colin by ½ a point to win the slalom, Colin was second winning Australia s first ever silver medal and Mike Suyderhoud was third. In 1969 at the Wills International at Ruislip (Europes Major Tournament in the era) Çol won the slalom. It was a pretty hot event to win as competing in the event were Mike Suyderhoud,(USA) Victor Palomo (Spain) Robbie Zucci (Italy)and Kris La Point (USA). I believe all 4 of these skiers went on to win a World Slalom title? Up to 1971 Colin had never skied on a glass slalom ski and after his serious knee injury, his comeback involved only slalom skiing. He won his final Australian Slalom title in 1973 on a Glass Slalom ski.

6 Trick Skis in the early 60s trick skis were very long and much much narrower and every skier had a 2 skis run and a one ski run with lots of step overs. In the early days Colin used to correspond with the American Water Ski Association and they used to send him booklets with step by step photos of how to do a trick. He used to keep the booklets in the boat as a reference and I remember he spent hours and hours learning the toe 360 and toe wake 360 which in the era were the big scoring tricks. Col had trouble keeping the toe strap on so his Dad made a metal loop and covered it with thick rubber and then a heel strap. It often did not come off so when he fell they had to stop the boat (Trick releases were not even invented then) In 1966 the World Rules changed and trick skis specifications changed allowing them to be much wider but a much shorter ski which I believe is still the same rules today. When he went to the USA in 1967 the other competitors could not believe he used the metal loop strap and also his trick handle was just alloy with no rubber on it. He used to get dragged a lot as they were not used to stopping the boat. The first trick skis he used under the new rules specifications in 1967 were poorly designed like 2 mini wooden ironing boards.

8 Jump Skis in the 60s were always an issue and for some reason Colin was the worst person for breaking jump skis. Colin s first ski sponsor was Vel Aqua and like most manufacturers at the time had no idea of how to make jump skis that did not break either splitting down the middle or the tip breaking off. He used to train at Melton Weir and a whole fence was made there of Colin s broken jump skis. Some weekends he would break 6 pair and most of the time was spent changing the fittings to the spare skis (no plate bindings in that era) At Melton weir the jump had only one anchor as it was so deep and every week the water level altered too much to fix the jump in a permanent position. He always jumped into a head wind as the wind would determine what direction the jump was facing so naturally there was no 40ft guide buoys either. The luxury was to go to tournaments or train at Bridgewater where the jump was fixed and there were boat guide buoys. In the mid 60s Colin used to get invited to the South Australian and NSW state titles as a draw card for their events. He used to go by train as airfares and excess baggage was too expensive then. His Dad Alf wrote to the NSW association and informed them that Colin would only go to their state championships in they guaranteed the jump would have a side curtain on it as a month before at a NSW tournament a skier was seriously injured when he went in under the jump. The AWSA later made it compulsory to have side curtains on all jumps.

9 Ron Marks became Colin s ski supplier and the shape and quality improved but Colin still kept breaking jump skis. He used to have about 20 pair of Jump skis to get through a season and they would be stored in the home garage. Ricky McCormick used to be amazed at how many jump skis Colin broke as he used to stay with Colin over Moomba and would arrive from the USA with a pair of wooden Cypress Gardens jump skis and one spare blank. In the 1968 Moomba Masters jump final, one of Cols jump skis delaminated just before the jump throwing him out of his skis and across the bottom of the ramp. It was one of the spectacular falls that channel seven used as a promo for a while although we don t have a copy now. In 1969, 70 and 71 Colin was still breaking jump skis although he was now hand making his own double wrap boot bindings and had them fitted to an aluminium plate. In 1971 he purchased a pair of Italian made fiberglass over wood jump skis that had a metal rod brace attached from the tip of the ski to the flat front top of the ski. This was supposed to stop the tip from flattening out and cracking. These skis were really heavy and hard to control. In the first round of jumping at the 1971 National titles in Perth one of these skis broke and Colin crashed heavily seriously injuring his knee. He was still selected in the Australian team to compete at the world titles in Spain but had to have major knee surgery. The best knee surgeon at the time operating on all the top AFL footballers was Dr Bartlett. He operated on Colin straight after the Nationals. The operation was unsuccessful as knee surgery was not as developed as now. Colin still went and trained in the USA for a few months after the operation without jumping. He then had his first jump session a

10 few weeks before the world championships and the knee completely collapsed basically ending his world class overall water ski career. When Colin was training in the USA he had been in discussion with the EP ski company who had developed a honeycomb aluminum core jump ski that many of the top USA skiers were now using. They offered to send him a pair and they arrived to Australia in early He was very unlucky as he never ever got the opportunity to jump with these fantastic 67 EP jump skis and they went to his brother Ian who thought they were probably the best new ski development since the concave slalom ski. Note: Leslie Cockburn replaced Colin in the team in 1971 which made Australia the first team to have a team mix of 3 men and 3 women. It was also the first time three members of one family had skied at a world title. Silver Medal, World titles 1967 Sherbrooke, Canada In summary, the number 1 Australian water skier in the 60s was Colin Faulkner. His natural talent and seemingly effortless slalom style made him one of the worlds best skier s of his era. Other great Australian male skiers that should be considered for Australian HOF from the early 60s were Ron Marks, Col Birmingham and Wally Morris although Colin was the first Australian to reach the level to be competitive against the Worlds best. In 1969 at the peak of his skiing career he was the first Australian to be invited to compete at the

11 US Masters. He still has the gold ring which in that era was given to all competitors when they skied for the first time at the US Masters. In 1968 he was the first Australian to be invited to ski at Ruislip in England at the Wills International, it was the British Masters and was the biggest tournament in Europe. At the Wills international in 1970 he had the biggest win of his career winning the overall, 3rd in tricks 3rd in slalom and 2nd in jumping. Bruce Cockburn was 2nd overall and Mike Suyderhoud was 3rd (Mike was then the current overall world champion) In the 60s era, the top 4 tournaments were, The US Masters USA The Wills International Europe The Australian Moomba Masters The World Championships Colin won Overall titles at 2 of these tournaments. Silver Medal 1969 World Titles, Copenhagen, Denmark. Colin James Faulkner Water Skiing Achievements

Victorian Champion: 1963-1971, Victorian Team Member 1963-1973 Australian Championships: 7 times Australian Champion 1. 1966 Men s Slalom 2. 1967 Men s Jump 3. 1967 Australian Men s Jump Record 4.

12 Victorian Champion: , Victorian Team Member Australian Championships: 7 times Australian Champion Men s Slalom Men s Jump Australian Men s Jump Record Men s Tricks Australian Men s Tricks Record Men s Overall Men s Jump Men s Slalom Men s Slalom 10. Created a WORLD SLALOM RECORD at Geelong in 1966 although only held this record a week as Chuck Sterns USA beat it by ½ a point a week later at the Moomba Masters. 11. Australian Record holder at different times in every event, Slalom, Jump & Tricks. National Titles Presentation??? Colin Faulkner, Bruce Cockburn and Wally Morris Moomba Masters Championships:

1. 1967 Men s Overall Champion 2. 1967 Men s Slalom Champion 3.

13 Men s Overall Champion Men s Slalom Champion First Australian to win the tournament when it became an international event, (only 5 Australian men s skiers have won the Moomba Masters Overall.) Overall Champion, 1970 Wills International, Ruislip, England. Wills International Masters Ruislip,Great Britain: Men s Jump 3 rd Men s Slalom 1 st ( beat slalom specialist Kris La Point) Men s Overall 1 st Men s Jump 2 nd Men s Slalom 3 rd Men s Tricks 3 rd International Competitions: There were only 4 big World events in this era, The World Championships; The USA Masters; The Moomba Masters; The Wills International Masters 1. Colin Faulkner won the overall in 2 of these 4 major tournaments 2. Moomba Masters 1967 Colin Faulkner Overall Champion 3. Wills International Masters 1970 Colin Faulkner Overall Champion 4. The USA Masters 1970 Pine Mt Georgia Colin Faulkner Men s Tricks 3 rd, the first Australian to be invited to the USA Masters. World Tournaments: In 1967, Colin was the 1 st Australian to win a medal at a World Championships, Canada Men s Slalom 2 nd Sherbrook Canada Men s Overall 5 th Sherbrook Canada Men s Jump 9 th Sherbrook Canada Men s tricks 11 th Sherbrook Canada Men s Slalom 2 nd Copenhagen Denmark Men s Overall 4th Copenhagen Denmark (30 points short of 2 nd 14 points short of

3rd place) 7. 1969 Men s Tricks 6 th Copenhagen Denmark 8. 1969 Men s Jump 7 th Copenhagen Denmark 9.

Colin s career was cut short with a major knee injury at the National titles in Perth in 1971.

14 3rd place) Men s Tricks 6 th Copenhagen Denmark Men s Jump 7 th Copenhagen Denmark 9. Australian Team member 1965, 1967, 1969, selected for 1971 team (had to withdraw from team due to injury) 10. Colin s career was cut short with a major knee injury at the National titles in Perth in Although he was still selected into the National team, he never recovered from the major knee surgery to compete in the 1971 World Titles. That era, knee surgery was not as successful as it is today. Recently aged 60, Colin had a new artificial knee inserted as he was becoming a cripple. Colin was in the era of wooden jump skis and never ever had the luxury of jumping with honeycomb, aluminum and carbon skis. It was a broken heavy wood and fiberglass jump ski that caused his injury. After knee surgery, Colin was never able to jump & trick again although he did win one more National Slalom title even with his bung knee.

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