Caite Skelly.
Have you ever seen a tantrum, elephant or KGB in action on the River Foyle?
The chances are you haven’t, but all that is about to change when some of the world’s top watersports athletes unleash their adrenalin at the LegenDerry Maritime Festival.
Tantrums, elephants and KGBs are just some of the terms for death-defying tricks and flips used in wakeboarding, the sport developed from a combination of waterskiing, snowboarding and surfing techniques.
Co. Derry man Rob Skelly. who is the agent in Ireland for Xtreme Action events, is bringing an elite display team to thrill the crowds at the nine-day Festival.
Among those taking part will be Rob’s 16-year-old daredevil daughter Caite, who has been involved in watersport shows and demonstrations around Ireland since the age of four.
Talented Caite Skelly started waterskiing at the age of two. In 2009 she took up barefooting – waterskiing at around 45mph with no skis – and she is currently Ireland’s only female barefooter.
The schoolgirl will fit in high-octane demos for spectators at the LegenDerry Maritime Festival from June 21~29 alongside her GCSE exams.
Her brother Joe, a qualified waterski coach who will be taking ‘try it and see’ taster sessions at Prehen, is sitting his A-Levels and will celebrate his 18th birthday during the Festival.
The first weekend of the Festival will feature exhilarating displays by four members of the Irish wakeboarding team who perform as far afield as the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza.
The display team includes David O’Caoimh from Dublin doing 900 degree spins; David Coates from Belfast, head instructor at Xtreme Gene – the top wakeboarding school in Europe based at Cordoba in Spain who is the Irish cable wakeboarding champion; Ashley Murray from Armagh, Irish junior men’s champion; and Aisling Deegan from Dublin, Irish junior ladies champion.
The second weekend will feature wakeboarding barefoot team members Anthony Burgess, world pro freestyle jetski champion, and Jason Bleasdale, ranked number 3 in the UK freestyle jetski who will perform stand-up flips, spins and 20ft back flips.
Anthony Burgess will also demonstrate his skills at flyboarding and perform tricks including ‘dolphins’, a technique performed 30ft high in the air.
Paul Hughes, the owner of Xtreme Action, will be compering the jetski and flyboarding displays, while Brian Deeghan (sister of Aisling) will MC the wakeboarding displays.
Festival-goers can expect to be wowed by whirly birds, consisting of back flips with 350 degree rotations; tantrums; slim chance fives, which are 540 degree vertical spins; elephants; and KGB flips on the water.
Rob Skelly, who runs The Edge Watersports, has been teaching waterskiing and wakeboarding for 22 years. As well as operating the biggest waterski pro shop in Ireland, he works as a lecturer in TV and film and production arts at the Northern Regional College in Coleraine. The Skellys are a family of high achievers in every sense of the word!
The live water displays will take place at Queen’s Quay from 4.00pm to 9.00pm on 21 and 22 June and from 1.30pm to 9.00pm on 26, 27 and 28 June.
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