Sarasota Ski-A-Rees Water Ski Show Team

We were able to get out yesterday and assess damage from Hurricane Milton! Believe we were in the direct path of the eye based on tracks we’ve seen! 😔. Here is a drone video of the damage and explanation of what you’ll see in the video! Good news or bad news? I’ll go with the good news first! On Monday a team member was able to secure a 14’ enclosed trailer and 6 team members were able to load it to the brim with as much as we could. We loaded it with like 90% of our skis, 100% of our ropes, wetsuits, vests, helmets, sound equipment, trash pump, leaf blower, the rest of the costumes, costume material, rope, handle and ski parts. We also had our two club boats at a team members house and they are all good, could use a good wash and detail though! So we were able to save all that and boy are we glad we did that, it paid off! Our block clubhouse, work shed, and rope shed are ok! Our main bleachers are all good! Believe to have had less storm surge than Helene less than 2 weeks ago. Walkway to main dock, our stage, costume shed are in same shape as they were after Helene. Also, on Monday we unanchored our ski jump and took it to the Ken Thompson boat ramp and tied it strategically at the ramp to ride out Milton there. Can report that all is good with it. We had 1 portion of our main starting dock that ended up at our neighbors, the Sarasota Outboard Club, teetering on 4 pylons half over land, half over water. We tied it toward the water in hopes that it may find its way back in the water floating, from storm surge, and we have success! The other portion of our main dock came off of the pylons that were anchored through it. But we had tied it off in anticipation of that happening, and we still have it floating next to where it should be. We will need to pull the pylons and reset the docks, but we don’t have to rebuild them. Our traveling Floating dock or extra floater that was on trailer in parking lot is still on trailer in parking lot

We need your support now more than ever! We began the overwhelming task of clean up, demolition, and recovering costumes from the trees this weekend, but we still need your help to bring smiles and joy to our community once again. If you're able, please consider making a donation via PayPal or Venmo, user name @SkiARees or a donation through our Hurricane Helene GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-skiarees-recover-from-hurricane-helene?qid=42ec16192d269a064943f7cf477dc849 We will also be looking for donations to replace kitchen items such as cabinets, countertops, sink, fridges, bbq, freezer, etc. If you know of an organization able to help with a tax deductible donation, please message us!

Long post incoming TLDR: Our site is in bad shape but we will rebuild and perform for you all as soon as we can! May not be this fall though, we will have to see. So, we were supposed to have our first show tomorrow but Helene had other plans! I believe this is the worst we have ever been hit with hurricane damage at Ski-A-Rees and the hurricane was 100 miles west of us and made landfall some 200 miles away! The storm surge was real! A few of us made our way out by boat Friday late morning to assess the damage. It brought us to tears to see the devastation to our ski site that we all have put so much of our blood, sweat, and tears to build a beautiful site to perform for you all! Our costume shed got torn up and strung costumes all across our site in the water, in trees, some 300+ feet away. We recovered all we could see on Friday while we were assessing damage and got them to the mainland to get them rinsed and washed to hopefully save. Another 2 shed door got ripped off and strung things across our site. A sliding glass door on our clubhouse came out and broke and allowed water into our clubhouse. The inside of clubhouse is a total loss. Fridges, stoves, freezers, gas grill, paperwork, first aid kits, some concessions items, and many other things! We believe water to have been about 3 feet in our clubhouse and sheds based on water lines and stuff that got wet and stuff that didn’t. Our stage got lifted up about 3-4 feet from where it normally sits. All still toegether, just lifted up and at an incline from one side to the other. We are hoping we can save it. We will have to see. Definitely a lot of man hours and repairs in our future. The walkway to our main dock is half in the mangroves, and half lifted up. We are hoping we can save this as well. As for our main dock, one portion stayed in place the furthest away from the shore. Pylons are leaning a little and need to be straighten. The other portion of our main dock made i

Did SkiARees just host the world's first 6 *person* front flip?! Most of these jumpers showed up today with the goal of being in their first 4 or 5 person front - each left with a brand new accolade to add to their resumes! Congrats to each man AND WOMAN to accomplish this new feat! @sarahfiedorowicz @elicarson8 @hovdadallas Nick Lyman @nathanfiedski @loganfiedski

6th show for our 2024 Winter/Spring season! Wear green and come celebrate St Patrick’s Day with us! SHARE and COMMENT with a friend you want to join you on Sunday! Show this Sunday 3/17 @ 2pm located behind Mote Marine Aquarium on City Island! 1602 Ken Thompson Pkwy, Sarasota, FL 34236 #SkiARees #freeentertainment #ShowSkiing #Sarasota #LifeOnTheWater #StArmandsCircle #SaltLife #ShareSarasota #LidoKey #SiestaKey #VisitSarasota #CityIsland #LongboatKey #WaterSkiing #Florida #USAWSWS #NSSA #waterski #showski #FREE

We had a great time at the Sarasota Holiday Parade over the weekend! Here is a time lapse video we captured! We think we built 23-24 pyramids along the parade route, the time lapse started a couple pyramids late and captured 21! We start back up performing FREE water ski shows Sunday, February 4th, 2024! Hope to see you at a show in the new year!

Sneak Peek of Pyramid in America’s Musical Journey