The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Everyone knows that hockey has helped put Flin Flon on the map, but it's not the only sport to do so. On Lake Athapap in the 1950s, local resident Doug Slater is believed to have become the first person in Canada to fly a water ski kite, the forerunner to today's boat-pulled gliders. Built and perfected by Slater, the kite is now prominently on display in the S.S. Keenora ship at the Marine Museum of Manitoba in Selkirk. "It's always nice to be the first to do something that's interesting and dangerous and unique," smiled the youthful retiree. Slater, who loved water-skiing as a young man, was intrigued when he first learned of the concept for such a kite from an American water-skier some five decades ago. "The kite was just something that I saw, and I just said to myself, 'I'm gonna build one of them,'" he said. Using aluminum for the frame and, with the help of the HBMS tailor shop, sailcloth for the canvas, Slater built his first kite in 1955. The unit had a wingspan of 13 feet and weighed about 50 lbs. The whole concept might have seemed simple enough, at least in the beginning. Slater would be pulled behind a boat on his homemade water skis while gripping the giant kite as it elevated. But with nobody around who had flown on such a kite before, the trailblazer went through a lengthy trial-and-error process as he mastered the novel form of flying. "I must have fell 30 times while I was perfecting it," said Slater, who had to go at least 40 m/h to achieve lift-off. Those who knew him at the time probably weren't all that surprised at what he was doing. Back then, he was known for taking risks. See 'Bird's' P.# Con't from P.# "Anybody who wants to do stuff like this is kind of sitting on the edge," commented Slater, who still calls Flin Flon home. "I wanted to do something different. All my life I seemed to be sitting on the edge." The following year, 1956, Slater finally perfected his kite-flying skills, and he is thought to be just the third person in North America to operate a water ski kite. He was at a loss for words when describing the feeling of soaring as high as 150 feet above the water, the boat appearing tiny from his bird's eye view. "You're just flying over the water, it's like an airplane," said Slater. "It was quite a thrill. I can't explain it. You're up there and you're looking down at the boat, you're looking down at the people." Whether or not he put on a brave face, he admits the experience was as intimidating as it was exhilarating. "My mouth was absolutely dry every time," commented Slater. "I had to keep putting water in my mouth, especially when I was perfecting it because I didn't know whether it would fly or not." The water-skier impressed local residents with his flying stunt for several years during an annual water show at Bakers Narrows. It has now been nearly four decades since the last time Slater flew with his kite, and he still smiles when he watches home movies of himself up in the air. The historic kite has been a popular attraction at the Marine Museum of Manitoba, where Slater donated the contraption at the suggestion of the Flin Flon Station Museum. "Museum visitors enjoy seeing it on display," manager Shaylene Nordal wrote in a letter to Slater. "They think it is quite unique and are glad to see it in a museum." Within about five years of his first successful flight, Slater said, water ski kites were being manufactured and sold across Canada. "I had flown it first and I had my satisfaction of flying," he said. "If somebody else wanted to fly one of these kites, it didn't take anything away from me." Slater is modest about his role in local history, saying Flin Flon, not he, deserves the recognition. "The way water-skiing has taken off, it is an honour for Flin Flon," he said.
