Soaring roughly two times the length of the Sam Ketcham Memorial Pool, Williams Lake’s Conley Pinette, 15, showcased his skills while representing Team Canada Jan. 8-15 in Lima, Peru, at the International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation World Junior Championships.
Pinette was one of five athletes from Canada to attend the championships, who combined to finish second overall in the team competition at the event.
Overall, in the individual portion at the worlds, Pinette placed 11th after participating in three events against athletes from 21 countries throughout the world.
Pinette placed ninth in tricks, 10th in jump and 28th in slalom. He said his jumping scores were the most impressive.
After the preliminary rounds, Pinette reached the finals in both trick and jump.
“That [jump] was probably my best,” he said. “I scored a personal best in my prelim at 162 feet (49.4 metres). Before that [my best] was 154 feet.”
The junior world championships, held on a private lake called Lake Bujana, are held every second year. It was Pinette’s first time attending the competition.
“I was really happy in jump,” he said. “I skied really well in trick but didn’t get the score I was aiming for.”
But at just 15 years old, Pinette will likely have another chance to attend the next junior world championships in 2017 in Chile — this time, however, as one of the older competitors.
“That could make a big difference,” he said.
Prior to the event Pinette travelled to Florida to train with Canadian coach Matt Rini, and was joined by teammates Dominique Allard of Quebec, Neilly Ross of Ontario, Paige Rini of Ontario and Geneva Roach of Alberta at the event.
He added a fundraising dinner and auction hosted by Richard Kohlen at the Laughing Loon before leaving was a great help in supporting his trip. Close to 50 people attended.
“I very much appreciate it,” he said. “That was pretty cool.”