Eight British waterskiers are heading to Germany to represent their country at the 2026 Europe & Africa Under-21 Championships and the Disabled Championships. The two competitions are being held in Bremerhaven next week.

Just one athlete will represent GB in the Disabled Championships. Hannah Crossley, who trains with the charity Access Adventures near Staines, is a seated skier who will compete in all three events of slalom, tricks and jump.

In 2014, when Hannah was just 24, she contracted an illness while working as a snow ski instructor in Canada. It left her physically disabled and she now spends much of her time in a wheelchair. Although she had taken part in many sports before her illness, she had never tried waterskiing before being introduced to it at the Edge Adaptive Sports Centre run by Access Adventures at Heron Lake in Staines.

“I absolutely fell in love with the sport, the people down there, the environment, the challenge of a completely new sport. I wasn’t comparing it to a sport I’d done before, this was brand new, fresh,” Hannah says.

Since then, Hannah has excelled in the sport, competing not only at British Nationals, but at the World Championships in the USA in 2023 where she won a silver medal in slalom.

At the Under-21s competition, five men and two women will represent GB.

They are:

Harrison Crossland, 19, from Fairford, Gloucestershire. Harrison trains at Fairford Water Ski Club and Oxford Wakeboard & Ski Club at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He will compete in slalom and tricks.

Lilli Deste, 21, from Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. Lilli trains at Hazelwood Ski World near Lincoln and Oxford Wakeboard & Ski Club at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. She will compete in slalom, tricks and jump.

Tom Parkin, 21, from Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Tom trains at Hazelwood Ski World near Lincoln and will compete in slalom, tricks and jump.

Noah Pollard, 20, from Pentney, Norfolk. Noah trains at Premier Water Ski School at Pentney and will compete in slalom tricks and jump.

Myles Rose, 19, from Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Myles trains at Hazelwood Ski World near Lincoln and will compete in slalom, tricks and jump.

Phoebe Tonge, 19, from Bacup, Lancashire. Phoebe trains at Hazelwood Ski World near Lincoln and will compete in slalom, tricks and jump.

Seb Turp, 18, from Gosfield, Essex. Seb trains at Gosfield Water Ski Club where he is coached by his older brother, Ben. Seb will compete in slalom, tricks and jump. Seb’s dad, Vince Turp, will be travelling with the squad as GB Team Captain.

The 2026 IWWF Europe & Africa Disabled Waterski Championships and the 2026 IWWF Europe & Africa Under 21 Waterski Championships will be held at the Bremerhaven Waterski Club, Germany, from Thursday 6 to Sunday 9 August.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The full schedule, live scoring and the results for the competitions will be available here:

https://www.iwwfed-ea.org/disabled/26EURO06

https://www.iwwfed-ea.org/classic/26EURO02

For more information, please contact Jane Peel, British Water Ski & Wakeboard Head of Communications on 07802 496927 or jane@bwsf.co.uk

Photos can be found in the dropbox link below. Please credit the photographers as shown.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/85in1ji768x2ptvbxnzik/ADuteXjJOKl9aH92elTGD_g?rlkey=875odtyemgm9n4qwum43xnm1c&dl=0

WATER SKIING

Jumping

Waterski jumping is a spectacular high-adrenaline event which involves skiing on two skis over a ramp at speeds of up to 70mph (for the top skiers), taking off and landing on the water to ski away. There are no style points. All the matters is the distance travelled and a successful landing.

Slalom

The boat travels at a constant speed in a straight line down the middle of the slalom course. At elite level the speed is 58kph (36mph) for men and 55kph (34mph) for women. The skier, on a single ski, has to go through the entrance gates - a pair of buoys in the middle of the course - then virage from side to side across the boat wakes, successfully rounding six turn buoys before going through the exit gates.

Each successful pass results in the rope being shortened, making it increasingly difficult to reach the turn buoys. Eventually, the rope length becomes less than the distance from the boat to the turn buoys so the skier has to use body length and reach to round the buoys. The winner is the skier who completes the most turn buoys at the shortest rope length.

Tricks

The skier is given two 20-second passes to complete as many different tricks as possible. These can vary from a simple 180-degree turn to a somersault with a twist. There are also ‘toehold’ tricks where the skier holds the rope with one foot. Each trick is worth a given number of points according to difficulty. Points are awarded only if the tricks are deemed to have been successfully performed.

Overall

The skier competes in the three separate disciplines of slalom, tricks and jump and the combined scores in each contribute to an overall score.

DISABLED (ADAPTIVE) WATERSKIING

The skier competes in the same three events (and overall) as above but the speeds, jump ramp height and the tricks are all adapted, according to the disability of the skier. There are different categories, for example seated, limb differences, visually impaired.

British Water Ski & Wakeboard (BWSW) is the sport’s national governing body and a non-profit making membership organisation. All its income is invested in developing and protecting waterskiing and wakeboarding across the UK from the grassroots to our top athletes.

The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) is the sport’s world governing body to which national organisations such as BWSW are affiliated.

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