South Africa’s first lady of water-skiing honoured

The South African boating industry honoured Barefoot Waterski Champion Nadine de Villiers with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Official Opening of the Johannesburg Boat Show over the weekend.

Many regard De Villiers as the greatest female barefoot waterskier of all time. This true legend of the sport became the first and only South African to be inducted into the International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation’s Hall of Fame in Santiago, Chile in November 2013. No small feat considering the IWWF only inducts five nominees every two years.

The De Villiers family name is synonymous with waterskiing in South Africa with Nadine and her brothers Andre and Zane having had an extraordinary impact on the sport. By the age of 17 she already had three Girl’s World Barefoot records to her name, an indication of the great heights her career was to reach.

De Villiers boasts no fewer than eight World Barefoot Records covering Slalom, Tricks and Jump; ten World Barefoot Championship Gold medals; twelve Europe/Africa Championship Gold Medals and a myriad of South African championship titles and records.

In a four-year period she set eight World Barefoot Records; two in Slalom; two in Jump and four in Tricks. Her Trick score of 4 400 propelled her into the Guinness Book of Records. Today she still holds the Guinness World Slalom Record of 17.0 crossings of the wake in 30 seconds set at the Gauteng Waterski Championships in January 2001.

Not one to rest on her laurels, De Villiers has dedicated herself to serving the sport in which she achieved great heights. She has served as president of SA Waterski, President of Gauteng North Barefoot Waterski and as an official judge and boat diver and coaching at numerous ski schools in South Africa and Europe from 1997 to 2013.

As truly one of the greatest exponents of watersport in the world, it is fitting that De Villiers was honoured by the boating and watersport fraternity in her home province.