UPFRONT
Backflips with Brandstetter A veteran pro water skier looks forward to one more world championship and many more single-ski backflips When it comes to water skiing, David Brandstetter—president of Blu Marketing and owner of Surf Cafe—is an encyclopedia of knowledge. He’s owned water ski and wakeboard schools, was the president of Water Ski Wakeboard Ontario (WSWO) for a while and was chair of the Canadian Water Ski and Wakeboard Instructors Course for 12 years. But he doesn’t just talk the talk, he can ski the ski. Watching him huck himself at Newmarket’s Spray Lake was an impressive feat; it was his first time jumping in 2021, but three jumps in he landed a single-ski backflip off the ramp. Something not many people in the world can do. And at 56 years old, he may be the oldest person to ever do one.
Mountain Life: So how did you get into water skiing?
ML: How many shows were you doing?
David Brandstetter: I was trying to find my way after high school, this was in 1983. I went down to Florida, got into show skiing, then eventually ended up overseas in Germany doing shows. Then I was lucky enough to get hired by Sea World in Australia. They’d bring one international athlete down and I was there for three years. That was on the Gold Coast. It was pretty darn cool. I went down when I was 20. Lots of shenanigans.
DB: Three shows a day, sometimes six shows a day, sometimes shows at night under the lights. That was a time. Each show was about an hour.
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ML: So you do freestyle skiing? DB: I’m more involved in freestyle skiing, yeah. Twisting and turning and going upside down.
