LOOKING BACK IN TIME  -  FAIRLAND RECREATION CLUB
As part of the "Skier Recognition Series", Dave Jarrett had an opportunity to sit down with Diane Herr Poff, the daughter of Jerry and Dick Herr, owner/operators of the Fairland Recreation Club near Fairland, Indiana.  In this article, we're not focusing on a particular skier, but reviewing a significant contributor to Indiana's water ski community and, it's history.

In approximately 1960, Dick Herr and Lowell Haverstick partnered up to purchase the "borrow pit" that eventually became the Fairland Recreation Club.  The lake had been created by the state highway department during construction of I-74 and extra dirt was needed for the overpass over the new Interstate.  Lowell had the crane and did the initial digging/creation of the beach area and boat launch area.  In the beginning, the amenities included the concession stand building, beach, and an ice cream truck.  Not long after, Dick bought out his partner and began expanding the property over the years. Dick was a workaholic, according to daughter, Diane. He delivered a postal route early in the mornings, then headed for the lake to work the rest of the day.  Dick took great pride in the property and was always grading the beach, painting and doing the maintenance associated with owning a business property.  He also got his Family involved....wife Jerry did the bookwork while daughters Diane and Dawn were lifeguards, both also helping Dad with a variety of other jobs.

Over the years, the property was expanded to include a campgrounds on the Eastern section.  Improvements came with miniature golf, batting cages, curved shade awnings from an old Frisch's restaurant, diving platforms, party building, boat carports, etc.  As the amenities were expanded, so were the events; Triathlons, jet ski races, winter polar bear swims, and even winter "turkey shoots!"

Sadly, the popularity of the beach and the "swimming hole" diminished, probably due to the availability of inexpensive backyard above ground pools.  Then, in 2002, construction of the Indiana Grand Casino began on the opposite quadrant of the I-74 interchange.  During the construction of the casino,  the water table was drained down for the construction of two lakes on the casino property.  This resulted in the draining of Fairland Lake.  It became a mud field and basically put the Fairland Recreation Club out of business.  Lawsuits were filed and a jury trial resulted in a very insignificant settlement.  A couple of years later an auction was held, many items were sold off and the property was eventually sold to an investor. 

Luckily, the Fairland Ski Club got it's start and continued to operate through all of these years, with the exception of that 2002 season.
 
In the early 1960's, the Indianapolis Water Ski Club was skiing and holding tournaments at the Maywood Lake site on the Southwest side of Indianapolis.  In the early 1970's, Rusty Carter Sr. and several other members leased the Fairland site and moved the Indianapolis Water Ski Club to Fairland.  Some of these members names included John and Charlene Schofield with daughter Marla, Steve and Lynette Helton, Jerry Hickman, Buster Reed, Dan Custer, and Randy Sharkey.  Much later came a different time and a new name.....Fairland Ski Club.  This new Club operated for several decades at the Fairland site.  Back in the day, different ski clubs competed with each other to hold the annual State Championships.  It was financially very rewarding and the events sometimes spilled over into 3 day events.  Fairland was a great place to host due to the amenities and beach for everyone to enjoy.  The Indiana State Championships were held there in 1973, 1975, 1984, 1992 and, 1999 (50th anniversary).  The site was also host to not only numerous IWSA "Spring Flings" over the years, but the Monday Night Ski League began there as well, with Mark Qualkinbush and MD Boats as sponsor.  Some Monday nights entertained as many as 17 skiers that would show up for a set of instruction from Bill Roach and other members. The Monday Night Ski League produced several skiers still active in tournament circles today.


Unfortunately, in 2019, the owner informed the ski club that their annual lease would not be renewed.....an end of a water ski era at the property. 

Dick and Jerry are no longer with us but many fond memories of the Fairland Recreation Club will linger forever. 

Thanks to Diane Herr Poff and Mike Baker for photos.


DJ  

World Water Skiers Foundation
The World Water Skiers Foundation was set up as a Not for Profit Organization to: promote, market and advance diverse worldwide participation and excellence in the sport of water skiing through education, competition and innovation while upholding the principles of fair play. The WWS Foundation was started in 2019 by Jaret Llewellyn and David & Tom Grey. The group held deep concerns over the sustainability of the sport, which stemmed from the fragmented nature of waterskiing. The unfortunate result for the sport is little growth and a trend of losing relevance in today’s culture. The WWS was created in the belief that tournament Water Skiing needs to adapt to the fast pace of today’s technological world.

In an attempt to unify the sport, WWS prioritized the presentation of a modern face for the sport by creating a new website. The website would embrace waterskiing around the World at all levels from Grass Roots to the Elite competitive skier. The aim of the WWS was to create a  website, where you can find information from all countries around the world and waterski communities of all levels without going to numerous websites, a characteristic that no other organization offers. Yet, due to the limited resources WWS currently has, it will take time to achieve this ultimate goal. The WWS website has only been live for just over a year but can  boast:

• Over 1000 skiers that have created profiles.
• A further 500 registered non-Skiing members.
• A Calendar of all 3-event tournaments (see ours here) in the US.
• A collection of all Rankings List and Record events around the world.
• Details of over 500 Ski Sites (a number that is continuously growing) in various Countries.
• Results for all IWWF events, linked to Athletes profiles, Competitions and Ski sites
• IWWF Rankings Lists
• New Items and other Articles and features of interest.

The WWS wants to encourage skiers at all levels to go to the website, to create an account, and to fill out their very own profile. Upon creation, skiers can add photos, videos, news articles and a plethora of general information about themselves.

Likewise, any club or organization that wants to embed any of our 'iframes' on their website pulling back information from the WWS Data Hub about their Ski site, Members profiles, Competitions and results are welcome to contact the WWS and will be provided the necessary code to be able to register their club/organization, completely free of charge. An example of this can be see at https://worldwaterskiers.com/site/USAS0001/

The WWS has also been developing other services that will hopefully be useful to the various Waterski Federations around the world. The first of these initiatives was launched last year in conjunction with Waterski Canada. WWS built a new membership platform specific for the sport, which has now been in use for over a year.
The membership platform is already available for integration into all federations and the WWS also hopes to be able to adapt the platform so that it can be made available to Clubs and other Waterskiing Organizations. WWS has also created additional programs to be able to create a competition, take Skier Registration, produce a Participant list and, in due course, score the event. The WWS tournament management system will allow event organizers to improve the efficiency with which they log information and share said details with participating skiers, officials, and viewers. It has been intentionally built to conform to the variety of rule formats that different countries and federations currently use. 

Although most of the WWS resources are available for mobile phones via the Web App, one of the top priorities is to build a Mobile App. Because of the extensive database of Athletes, Competitions and Results within the WWS, we hope with a newly developed App, the WWS will be able to send notifications to viewers regarding athletes and results that water ski enthusiasts are interested in. The WWS aims to cover all events around the world, meaning that the notification services will not be restricted only to skiers participating in a national event, but any event world-wide.

World Water Skiers are also looking to put on a signature series of competitions and with major sponsor’s support. The Series was due to be launched last Summer, but because of the travel restrictions being imposed because of the pandemic, the maiden events had to be put off till later this year. Look for announcements on this within the next few months.

WWS has been funding this endeavor for over 4 years so we have had to keep the team small and prioritize projects. So much is available now to the community but there are so many incredible ideas to be built out which will strengthen the platform. Some donations have come in and we are totally humbled by your support. Now is time for engagement, the more the community uses the platform, the more it will grow. However you feel you can contribute to the WWS team by the way of time or financial support, we will dedicate 100% to rebuild the sport that we can all be proud of. https://worldwaterskiers.com/donate/
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