There are certain sights you expect to see while traveling along Maryland’s Route 50: geese flying overhead, colorful vegetable stands packed with produce, state troopers stealthily parked by the side of the highway. The sight of people whizzing along on water skis on a manmade lake just north of the Nanticoke River bridge in Dorchester County is not one of them. But there they are, nonetheless, skimming across the water at up to 50 mph while you sit stuck in traffic.
So who are these people and what are they doing here?
They are members of the Vienna Ski Club, a group of competitive water-skiers, who apparently have found the perfect—albeit unique—spot to whip themselves into shape.
Of the several ski clubs in Maryland, this is one of the few with its very own private lake and 880-foot slalom course. The ski club is the love child of Louis “Lou” Alcamo, fifty-four. Today he’s ranked eighth nationally among 800 skiers, age fifty-two to sixty, by USA Water Ski, Inc., the largest governing body in the ski world with 23,000 members. Alcamo came to skiing late in life at twenty-eight, but he still exhibits the passion of a teenager.
To pay for his sport, Alcamo swapped boat rides with his roommate in lieu of rent. It was the early ’80s, and Alcamo was an insurance adjuster, but he didn’t let that interfere with skiing. Often, during lunchtime, he would put on a dry suit (a waterproof coverall that seals at the neck, wrists and ankles) over his business suit and ski. Soon this ski junkie had to have a boat of his own, so he opened Annapolis Master Craft, a boat dealership, so he could buy a boat on the cheap. Then he had to have a lake of his own.
In 1996, Alcamo bought the eighty-six-acre parcel of land for $135,000 and dubbed its centerpiece, the thirty-six-acre body of water, “Lake Lou.” He found ten skiers to pony up $1,000 each for the down payment, picking up the last check on the way to sign the contracts. The Vienna Ski Club was born.
Currently, the club maintains a tight- knit membership of seventeen, only accepting new members when old ones leave. A mere $1,200 a year, plus $650 for boat maintenance and gas, gives each member keys to the gate and the boat. Parking places for their RVs run around $280 for the season.
Not only is this a place for skiers to test their stamina and prowess, but it’s also a gathering place for their families to while away the sultry days of summer. RV’s are parked near one of the lake’s two docks, and lawn and beach chairs are strategically placed so people can plop into them and watch the day’s skiing on weekends. Chefs also cast an eye to their barbecues as they fire them up throughout the day, producing platters of chicken, shrimp, burgers, and the ubiquitous hot dog. (During the week skiers come and go, practicing and competing from April until the first frost of autumn.)
“The skiing lifestyle is all about family,” says Mike Sturdevant, forty-six, a road construction manager who lives in Trappe, who took over the helm from Alcamo last year. Now he’s the one responsible for making sure the grounds are maintained and the boats are in top condition. “It just shows you can be serious about a sport and not exclude your family.”
Sturdevant began skiing with his father at the age of six. He, in turn, introduced his kids to the sport. His wife, Beth, and their sons, Skylar, fifteen, and Brandon, twenty-one, both ski competitively and join dad on the slalom course.
While the Vienna Ski Club is loosely organized, the rules they ski by are strictly adhered to. Different age groups generally ski at speeds ranging from 22 to 36 mph. A skier races until he misses a buoy. After each successful pass of six buoys, the skier shortens the tow rope to make the course more challenging.
At the 2007 Goode Water Ski Championship, Sam Ingram, forty-six, arguably the top skier in Maryland, took first place in the Nationals held in Bakersfield, Calif., clearing 106 buoys using a rope shortened from 75 feet to 39.5 feet. “Everything becomes more intense when the rope is shorter,” says Ingram, a structural design engineer for precision-guided munitions, who lives in Deep Creek, Md. “I lean into the turns so aggressively that my knees actually scrape the water when I go around a buoy. The spray off my skis hits me in the eyes. I’ve had to learn when to close them.”
Rachel McNealey can only dream of becoming a master skier. At age twelve, she is the club’s youngest skier and one of its most promising. She has consistently moved up in the rankings. Now fifth in the Eastern Region and 33rd out of 137 nationally, she made it to the Nationals for the first time in 2007.
“I was so young when my parents took me in the boat that I rode around in a car seat,” said McNealey. “By four, I was double skiing, and began competing in slalom at ten. Someday I’d love to be a semi-pro and maybe teach.”
Her youthful enthusiasm is mirrored by each member of the Vienna Ski Club. Water-skiing is the rope that binds these divergent people together. Plus, they have one other thing in common: really great legs.
The Vienna Ski Club hosts two sanctioned events this year: the Maryland State Championship on July 12 and the Delmarva Crab Fest on September 6. Spectators are invited to watch both competitions. For more information, call Mike Sturdevant at 410-476-4885.
Gail Buchalter writes from Dorchester County. A former New Yorker, she’s not much of a water baby.
