An adventure-loving elderly woman from Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, is making a big splash!
At the age of 92, Dwan Jacobsen Young is officially the world’s oldest waterskier (female). Dwan has been water skiing since 1961 when she was 29 years old. After purchasing a summer cabin on Bear Lake, located between Utah and Idaho, Dwan noticed that waterskiing was very popular in the area.
Wanting to indulge in the fun, she decided to try her hand at the sport. Every summer, Dwan and her family spend as much time on the lake as possible. They always water ski unless the weather is unfavourable. Dwan first learned to water ski by using two skis.
After much effort and many failures, she was finally able to get up on the slalom — a moment she says is her favourite water-skiing memory. She decided it was best to save her energy for the actual water skiing and learned to get up on two skis and then immediately drop one of them. She also takes precautions when skiing and stops if the water gets too choppy or rough. Dwan also pays close attention when water skiing and checks when to turn and cross the wake.
Although she now only skis in the cold waters of Bear Lake, when her family was younger, they would ski at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which have warmer waters.
However, Dwan says if she could ski anywhere in the world, it would be Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
