On the Basin since 1954

Members ski Wednesday to Sunday on two slalom courses and a jump ramp built to World Record standard, with coaching for everyone from first-timers to internationals.

The UniWorlds entertainment evening drew more than 900 people to the West Reserve and around the club. Part of Auckland Council's Moana Auckland festival celebrating our connection to the water, the night featured food trucks, the Flip-off competition, the livestream on a big screen and a performance by the Australian Show Ski Team.

More than 90 skiers took to the Basin for the UniWorlds as part of Auckland Council's Moana festival, celebrating our connection to the water.

The championships opened with a powerful pōwhiri by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, attended by Mayor Wayne Brown, and closed with a ceremony at the Viaduct attended by Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson.

It was the first time New Zealand had hosted a world-titled waterski event.

The club hosted the NZ Open on the Basin, bringing elite skiers from New Zealand and overseas to Auckland and laying the groundwork for a world championship bid.

Current and past AWSC members brought home 15 medals from the IWWF Oceania Championships in Mulwala, Australia. The New Zealand team included three past club presidents and the then president, two life members and 12 current or past members, showing how much the club contributes to the sport in New Zealand. The team won the coveted Over-35 team trophy, and club president Chris Shaw won multiple gold medals including the Over-35 Men's Overall.

After decades as owner of the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show, the club sold the show to XPO Exhibitions. The pandemic had been a challenging period, and the Cornwall Park Trust Board's plan to lease the Auckland Showgrounds to a film studio put at risk the only venue large enough to host the show.

The club's final years as owner included the 2021 grand prize, a Surtees 750 Game Fisher worth more than $250,000 and believed to be the largest boat show prize in the world.

The club marked its 60th anniversary with a major renovation of the clubrooms and hosted the NZ Tournament Water Ski Nationals at Easter as part of the celebrations.

Former club president and life member John Wigglesworth was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to art, waterskiing and the community. He also led the national association from 1968 to 1972 and was made a life member.

The club staged a night jump on the Basin, with skiers launching off the ramp under floodlights.

AWSC members have won world titles: Fiona Nairn in jump, and Steve Cockeram, Aaron Larkin, Stacey Gilbert and Thomas Gilbert in slalom. Megan Ross and Kyle Eade became University World Champions, and Grant Coyle, Steve Cockeram, Megan Ross, Kyle Eade and Thomas Gilbert have all been ranked in the world's top ten.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 2009 National Championships.

Thomas Gilbert won bronze in slalom at the Under-17 World Championships in France in 2006. Stacey Gilbert followed with bronze in slalom at the Under-17 Worlds in Peru in January 2009.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 2004 National Championships.

As part of the ongoing maintenance of the Orakei Basin, dredging was undertaken to remove sediments, increasing accessibility for recreation and removal of odours during flushing.  21,664 cubic metres of sediment were removed.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1999 National Championships.

Steve Cockeram won silver in slalom at the World Championships, and later added a bronze.

Fiona Nairn won gold in jump at the Junior World Championships in Canada.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1994 National Championships.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1991 National Championships. Grant Coyle returned to competition to win the men's overall title, ahead of fellow Aucklanders Gavin Broadbent and Jarrod Watson, and Suzanne Broadbent won the women's open tricks and jump.

Council's new Orakei Basin Bylaw appointed club members as enforcement officers, alongside the Orakei Sea Scouts and the Meadowbank Community Committee. A year later Council granted the club ten extra days of sole use, citing the "long standing cordial and responsible relationship" between the two.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1986 National Championships.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1981 National Championships.

Council renewed the clubrooms licence in 1981. In October 1985 it licensed the Orakei Basin East Reserve to the club for 25 years, backdated to December 1980, with sole use of the reserve for up to 40 days a year. Sole use of the water still needed separate approval.

After lengthy negotiations with Council, President Gordon Woods engaged Auckland lawyer Paul Subritzky, who secured permission to build the boatshed that still stands on the water's edge.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1975 National Championships.

After a big fundraising effort the club bought its first boat, a Fi-Glass Lightning with an outboard motor. It lived in a garage on Orakei Road, so whoever was rostered to drive had to collect it, launch it, drive all day, wash it and take it home again.

John Robb wrote of a national shortage of judges. A judging school had been run on the Basin, but a second planned alongside the Auckland Open Tricks was cancelled when no region signed up. With New Zealand skiers starting to qualify as first-class internationals, he argued judging had to keep pace.

The Basin hosted the Rothmans Masters, a New Zealand v Australia junior test for skiers under 17. Four of Australia's top young skiers took on New Zealand's best over three rounds of slalom, tricks and jump, with three sets of brothers in the field, including Auckland's Peter and Glenn Bartley. The trans-Tasman series was a forerunner of today's Oz-Kiwi Challenge.

Murray and Alison Eade, judging at the top level and serving on international water ski councils, introduced New Zealand skiers to inboard towboats and lifted the standard of judging, driving and skiing. At the Rothmans Junior Masters on the Basin, New Zealand beat Australia for the first time since 1968, led by 15-year-old Glen Bartley, who set two national junior records with a 91-foot jump.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1969 National Championships. Will Coughey won the men's overall title with a 123-foot jump, the longest of the tournament, and Janette Hole swept the women's slalom, tricks and jump. Auckland juniors dominated, with the Bartley brothers and the Carmichael and Wigglesworth girls among the title winners.

Responding to public concern about flushing, the Town Clerk confirmed that Council had not handed control of the Basin to the club. The club acted as Council's agent, emptying and refilling the Basin on the Director of Parks' instructions and overseeing safety on the water.

The Auckland Star photographed the Wigglesworth family of Lucerne Road on the Basin. Anne and Jane, 10, and Paul, 6, had skied since they were five, Sondra was the reigning New Zealand women's champion, and John went on to lead the national association from 1968 to 1972. At the club Christmas party, Santa arrived by boat with "fairies" towed behind.

The Basin hosted the 1966 Pacific Zone Championships, which incorporated the New Zealand Nationals. Heavy rain postponed the senior slalom on the opening day, and club member Sondra Wigglesworth set a record points score to win the women's tricks, with her husband John second in the men's. Vaughan Bullivant, skiing with cracked ribs, won both overall titles, a month after setting a national jump record of 139 feet.

The national association published its first official rulebook, with Bruce Douglas chairing the Technical Rules Committee alongside Gordon Pettit and Ken Hunt. There were 34 approved tricks, a back swan scored 40 points plus 60 more if you recovered, and jumpers earned up to 10 points for form. Slalom was judged from one tower, with a timekeeper on shore using a stopwatch.

A club newsletter congratulated five-year-old Mark Douglas on deep-water starts and crossing the wake in rough water, Glenda Mundell on skiing steadily on one ski, Serena Biggins, 15, on taking up jump, and Graeme Bowkett, 11, on stringing together 180 and 360 degree turns.

The club became Council's agent for emptying and filling the Basin through the sluice gates, a job it still does today. Stalwarts Lyn Carmichael and Gordon Woods worked the gates at all hours and in all weather.

Club members Will Coughey and Robin Fulton, with Keith Leushke, formed New Zealand's first official water ski team at the Zone 3 (Asia Australasia) championships. Leushke placed third in tricks.

A proposal to give the club exclusive weekend use of the Basin caused a community uproar. In good faith the club withdrew it, accepting preferential use while the public shared the water under the club's safety rules. Special events could close the Basin for up to 40 days a year.

Council approved the club building retaining walls and improving the Basin's surrounds at its own cost. The club also began advising Council on when to empty and fill the Basin to match peak tides.

The club joined the R Class Squadron and the organisers of two earlier shows to run the first Auckland Boat and Caravan Show at the Auckland Showgrounds. From 1962 the show's famous outdoor lake hosted water ski shows and powerboat races, and the club went on to own the show for decades as it grew into the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show.

Until now the sluice gates were left open over winter. The club agreed with Council to nominate days in June, July and August, and Council would keep the water in so members could ski.

Bringing the nation's best to Auckland's shores for the highly successful week-long 1961 National Championships. Only the second Nationals ever held, they ran on the Basin over Easter, with plans for a parade of boats and skiers down Queen Street and a carnival featuring a six-man pyramid. G. Ladbrook of Rotorua set a New Zealand jump record of 79 feet, and Robin Fulton won the men's overall title. On 1 April, organisers were woken after midnight by a prank caller claiming the Basin was draining away.

In 1954 the club and the New Zealand Water Ski Club (later Waipuna) called a meeting to form a national association, but could not agree on voting powers. In 1957 the club's John Whatnall, who was helping the Marine Department set up ski lanes on beaches and lakes, tried again. The presidents of the two clubs, G. Mason and J. Farrelly, then called a national conference at Wairakei, and the New Zealand Water Skiing Association was agreed in August 1959 with Jim Farrelly as President and John Whatnall as Vice-President.

Council leased the club a site on Lucerne Road for clubrooms and a boathouse. Working bees built the clubhouse, docks, jetties and 109 steps down from Lucerne Road, now part of the Orakei Basin walkway, and sealed the access road at the club's cost. Through the 1960s members added a second slalom course, a championship-standard jump, hot showers and a first aid kit.

Council granted the club use of the Basin year to year, with rent rising to ten pounds. The public could use the Basin at quiet times provided they followed the club's safety rules.

Council granted the club use of the Basin for a peppercorn fee of one pound a year. There was no clubhouse yet, and the first slalom course ran out from the railway line. Wash rebounding off the railway side made tournament skiing impossible, so the courses moved to where they sit today.

A group of enthusiasts already skiing on the Basin made it official. The Auckland Water Ski Club was incorporated by G. Mason and J. Whatnall, one of New Zealand's first water ski clubs.

Bruce Douglas was one of Auckland's first water skiers. He built his own boat and skied off Mission Bay at high tide, and when he came ashore up to 300 people would be on the bank watching. Early skiers often made do with fence palings and timber boards until commercial skis arrived from overseas.

Auckland City Council leased the Orakei Basin from the Auckland Harbour Board for 50 years, giving Council full control of the water. The lease was renewed for a further 50 years in 1983.