HO Sports

They call it Nationals. But if you spent any time lakeside at Imperial Lakes from October 16–18, you quickly realized it was less like a championship and more like the Super Bowl of spray.

College water skiing’s annual pilgrimage landed in the Imperial Valley this year, where the desert sun showed up early, the playlists showed up loud, and the athletes showed up with exactly the right mix of swagger, caffeine, and mild academic neglect.

For three days, Imperial Lakes turned into the Coachella of collegiate water skiing.

The difference being that instead of guitars and flower crowns, the headliners carried skis, wore life jackets, and measured their success in buoys, flips, and the occasional airborne existential crisis off a jump ramp.

And the crowd?

Imagine a student section that runs on Red Bull, cowbells, and the belief that yelling louder will somehow score points for their teammate.

It usually doesn’t.

But they yell anyway.

Teams rolled into El Centro like a traveling circus with better abs.

Vans full of skis, ropes, duffel bags, and the kind of optimism that only exists when you’re 21 and convinced you can set a PB with a hangover, before breakfast.

The heavy hitters were there. UL Monroe & Lafayette, Alabama, Rollins, Florida Southern.

The usual suspects who treat Collegiate Nationals like their own family reunion, except the reunion involves 36 mph boat speeds and the occasional spectacular crash.

And then there were the dark horses.

West Coast teams who looked around the shoreline and thought, “You know what? Maybe this is the year we ruin someone’s dynasty.” College sports thrive on that kind of dangerous optimism.

Slalom is water skiing’s version of chess, except the pieces move at 36 miles per hour and the board occasionally punches you in the ribs.

From the shoreline, it looks simple. Six buoys. One boat. One rope. From the ski, it feels like you’re trying to play Flip Cup while riding a roller coaster.

The best skiers made it look easy.

Engineering majors running shortline passes like it was a study break. Pre-med students running the course for the first time with the calm precision of someone who knows they’ll be dissecting a frog on Monday morning.

Then came tricks, the event where the laws of physics briefly step outside and let college students do whatever they want.

Spin this way. Flip that way. Land sideways. Somehow keep the ski under your feet.

Judges nodded thoughtfully and wrote down numbers. The crowd cheered like someone had just dunked from the free throw line.

Jump is the moment when the entire shoreline goes quiet.

Not because they’re calm. Because everyone is thinking the same thing. “Surely no human needs to go that far.”

But the skier disagrees. They cut for the ramp, as late as the worst student on the first day of class, with the determination of someone who has already decided that gravity is more of a suggestion than a rule.

The boat roars. The spray explodes. The ramp appears.

When they land, the shoreline erupts. And the next jumper quietly starts calculating whether they can go even farther….or if they are willing to die trying.

College logic is undefeated.

Of course, Collegiate Nationals isn’t just about skiing. It’s about college teams being college teams.

Between events the shoreline looked like a cross between a tailgate and a team meeting that got slightly out of hand.

Face paint appeared. Cowbells multiplied. Someone brought a megaphone that probably should have stayed at home.

Because that’s the strange magic of collegiate water skiing. One minute you’re trying to beat someone. The next minute you’re helping them carry their jumpers back to the dock.

By the time the final jumper finished on Saturday evening, the desert sun was settling behind the mountains and the shoreline looked like the aftermath of a three-day master class in equal parts athletic brilliance and college-level enthusiasm. AKA, it looked like a weekend that had gone exactly as planned.

There were champions, of course. Records, maybe. A few performances that will grow taller every time they’re told, a few egos lightly bruised, and more stories than anyone would ever admit to their parents.

But mostly there was the thing that makes collegiate water skiing special. A bunch of students who will ski all day, cheer all night, and somehow still show up to class on Monday pretending they spent the weekend studying.

They didn’t. They were in California, at Imperial Lakes, making memories…. Running buoys. Landing tricks. Flying off ramps. And for three days in October, they turned some quiet lakes in the desert into the loudest, wildest show on water.

Not bad for a sport most people think only happens once a year, behind a rental boat and a cooler full of questionable decisions.

So who’s coming back to Cali for 2026 Nationals? October in Sacramento. Pack your stoke and leave your worries at home.

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