On the water

One St. Paul family finds fun, friends, and family on the Rock River through the Backwater Gamblers water ski show.

Bridget Berger grew up in Westosha, Wis., where she did gymnastics and 4-H and developed an athlete’s sense of balance and body awareness that she didn’t yet know how useful it would be. She studied industrial engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, then earned an MBA from the University of Iowa. She moved to the Quad Cities for a job with John Deere and has been with the company more than 21 years, now working as a program manager.

She knew how to water ski from summers on the river with friends, getting up on two skis and figuring the rest out. But she’d never skied with a team until 2009, when she saw the Backwater Gamblers advertised and went to check out a show.

“You go see a show and you think: how do I get involved?” she said. “And then you’re in.”

The Backwater Gamblers are a volunteer water ski show team based on the Rock River in Rock Island, Illinois. Every Sunday and Wednesday evening from Memorial Day through Labor Day, they put on a free, one-hour show for anyone who wants to watch. It’s part competition, part theater, part community. Every year brings a new theme, new choreography, new props, and new members working their way into the lineup. This summer’s production, ‘Backwater Beach,’ features lifeguard skiers, a bully causing trouble, and a running joke about priorities that, per the official rules, you have to come to a show to hear in full.

The team has been doing this since 1980 — more than 45 years without missing a summer.

“Want to learn to jump? Come to jump practice. Interested in barefooting? There’s a practice for that too. The culture is one of patient, multigenerational teaching — older skiers passing skills to newer ones, who eventually pass them along to the generation after that,” Bridget said. “You can count on a lot of people to teach you. Usually, kids don’t want to learn sports from their parents. But here, I’ll teach the next generation, and that generation teaches my boys. We just pass it around.”

By 2014, she was head coach of the Rising Gamblers, the Backwater Gamblers junior team. The kids she coached back then are now in their twenties — and now they’re the ones doing the teaching.

The Berger boys find their footing 

Charlie and James have been on the water practically since birth. Charlie, now 11, started young enough that his earliest ski memories involve an older skier guiding him between their own skis, holding him steady until he found his balance.

“Once you’re up on the skis, it’s kind of scary,” Charlie admits. “But when you do it more and more, at some point you want to go out on the lake all the time. Then it becomes more fun and  you can get involved in shows and acting.”

Both boys are in the show this season. In ‘Backwater Beach,’ they ski as lifeguards — part of an act that mixes stunts with comedy. Charlie, who cheerfully admits he likes making people laugh, has discovered a new role this year: helping with the skit itself, not just the skiing. It’s a different kind of performing, and he’s learning how to inhabit it.

Between the two brothers, there is an obvious and enthusiastic rivalry. They are, by their own description, always trying to one-up each other.

“We mostly try to show each other up,” James said.

Charlie nods. “Yeah. Mostly that.”

Bringing in Eric and Emery 

The Berger family has been sharing their love of the water with their newest family members. Bridget’s boyfriend and St. Paul member Eric Houy, head coach for the Quad City Hockey Association and maintenance manager at J&J Snack Foods, has been stepping into the Backwater Gamblers world alongside his nine-year-old daughter, Emery. The families have been blending — and the ski team, it turns out, is a pretty good place to do that.

“It’s been really exciting to jump in with them and be part of their world,” Eric said. “As a newer member, I’m starting out as a utility guy — helping out as needed. I’ve been around the water, I’ve skied, I’ve driven a boat. I’m learning how the team works.”

Emery has been learning to ski too, catching up with the boys with the kind of determination that impresses even seasoned Gamblers.

“The whole team has been very encouraging of us coming together as a family,” Eric said. “The ski team is a really good support group.”

On a typical Monday evening, the whole crew is down at the river site. There’s an hour of free ski time — anyone can jump in and go. Then Bridget heads to ballet line practice, where skiers work their synchronized routines. Meanwhile, Eric handles behind-the-scenes work: pulling in ropes, getting them wrapped up, keeping track of kids who have found crawfish and snakes in the sand near the shore.

“A lot of people refer to it as the ski team family,” Bridget said. “Charlie had to write down his family for school and he included members of the ski team as cousins. Ski team family is family.”

Access for all 

The commitment the Backwater Gamblers ask of their members is real. Practices run three days a week, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The show runs twice weekly through the summer. In January, the team begins indoor practices twice a month — learning dances, building pyramids, putting together the script for the new season’s production. When the weather allows in April or May, they hit the water.

The team also runs its Access to Waves program twice each summer, giving people with a wide range of differing abilities the experience of being on the water. Skiers with one leg, in wheelchairs, sight impairment — participants are fitted with adaptive equipment and sent out onto the Rock River with Gamblers beside them.