The Athlete: SCOT ELLIS
Episode: Water Ski Launch | Premiere: Jan. 15, 2007

Perry's Thoughts:
I think the thing that stands out the most to me with Scot Ellis was how he took the sport of ski jumping and redesigned it. The way that they took the skis that are normally used for jumping and redesigned them so that they were more like airplane wings gave him greater lift so he could go longer distances. Although I knew that ski jumpers were going long distances before this show, watching Scot jump and seeing how far he could go in person was amazing. I also left the show thinking that although ski jumping is a beautiful and graceful sport, it is also an extremely brutal sport that ultimately takes its toll on the athlete's body.

Eli's Thoughts:
I was especially interested in the flying part of Scot's sport. Scot has had a long, successful career in this field and he helped invent "skiflying." When we showed up at the location, I noticed immediately that it was a very nice lake — quiet and peaceful. Scot pretty much had free reign over this lake; basically, it was his backyard playground. We looked at all the gear they had modified to get the most distance possible while flying in the air being pulled by the boat and I found it fascinating how similar it was to the Olympic skiers who fly off these ramps for distance as well. For many years, I have watched the skiers use their bodies to get the most out of the distance, and in skydiving we, too, use our bodies to fly in a similar way, something we call "tracking." When it was time for me to try this new sport I was a little concerned about putting skies on that seemed to be twice my size, but when they pulled me out of the water I found them to be completely stable. The hard part would be to successfully get off the ramp and land without buckling under the pressure. I took a couple of good spills but in the end pulled off a successful landing. On stunt day, they started out with nine boats and Scot cleared them by a mile, so we upped the ante to 14 boats, to tie the previous record that had stood for 23 years. When he cleared that, it was time for the big one: 19 boats. When he did the stunt, it looked really cool — he was flying, he cleared all the boats, and he nearly went 250 feet. The jump was really impressive and seeing him clear the boats was truly exciting. Nice work on Scot's part. With all his bumps and bruises in the past he clearly showed us why they call him "The Rocket Man."