[electronic dance music] - Angela Fitzgerald: Wisconsin has more water ski show teams than anywhere else on the planet.
– Dan Dix: We've got the best darn tournament site here in the world.
- Every summer, Dan and Amber Dix help welcome 26 teams from across the state to Red Sands Beach on Lake Wazeecha.
[cheers and applause] - Dan: It's pretty heavy-duty competition there.
You'll see a lot of neat stuff, for sure.
- Big risks... [ski smacks water] ...can lead to big scores... [crowd cheering] ...or even bigger fails.
[crowd groaning] - Dan: All right, we're gonna bring in the rest of our team.
- Dan brings the voice as team announcer for the Wisconsin Rapids Aqua Skiers.
– Amber Dix: Jesse, Joe, Casey, Brennan, Reece.
- Amber is the team show director.
– Amber: You guys know your patterns.
You're just doing the same thing for jump, right?
I put it all together to run as smooth as possible.
[laughing] - One, two, three... - Aqua Skiers!
[cheers and applause] - Amber and Dan's decades-long love affair with skiing... [laughing] - Well, she was on the ski team when we met.
- ...has now become a family affair.
– Dan: All three of our kids started off skiing before they were two.
– Alexis Dix: So, it's just been in my blood.
I've skied my whole life.
– Announcer: Alexis.
- Daughter Alexis is a third-generation Aqua Skier.
- She is one of the most competitive skiers you can get out there.
– Alexis Dix: Our show consists of 13 acts, and I'm in 9 of them.
- She loves to compete.
– Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Alexis Dix.
– Amber: She loves to ski outside of the box.
- Her brother Colby also gets in on the action.
– Announcer: Let's bring in Colby.
– Colby Dix: I trick ski, jump, barefoot, and conventionals.
Me and Alexis get hot-picked.
We do a slider off the dock.
– Dan Dix: All right, let's do the hot pick.
[cheers and applause] - Colby: And then, we do a five-person jump.
[cheers and applause] [smack] - Announcer: ... sticking it!
– Amber: Colby, he is shy.
He's quiet.
– Colby: I don't know.
I'm always nervous for state.
- He does what he does naturally, and it's not hard for him.
- What is hard... - Dan Dix: We miss you.
We love you.
– Angela: For the first time in 21 years, one member of the Dix Family isn't here for the championships.
– Faith: Hi!
– Dan: Hello, sweetie.
– Alexis: Hello!
- Bet it's hard not being here for state.
– Faith: Oh, my gosh, it's so hard.
– Amber: Yeah.
– Faith Dix: Miss you.
– Amber: Yeah, I miss you, too.
– Angela: Faith couldn't be here because halfway around the world... [upbeat music] She's showing off her high-flying skiing skills along Australia's Gold Coast.
– Faith: I am currently skiing at SeaWorld in the Thunder Lake Stunt Show.
It's one of the only professional shows left in the world.
There's one in Florida, one in Texas, and one in Australia.
– Dan Dix: She's a showperson.
The smile is always there, and you need that for a crowd.
[water resistance] [cheers and applause] - Whoo!
- Yeah!
– Amber: She loves it, absolutely loves it.
[bird squawking] - Faith also loves coming home to train... [motorboat rumbling] ...where skiing at sunrise allows her to carve the water with bare feet and fierce determination.
– Alexis: Watching her skiing is phenomenal, and you're just like, "Wow!"
[upbeat music] - Faith works to perfect this trick called a "backflyer."
[splash] And she works at it time... [multiple splashes] ...and time again.
– Amber: The falls you take and the punishment your body takes to get up and keep going, it takes a special breed of these kids.
- Faith is that rare breed and made the USA Elite Barefoot Team.
– Faith: For Barefoot Team USA, there was only eight of us.
I'd only really competed for, like, a year and two months before heading to Worlds, so that was crazy.
[water and wind resistance] - Angela: But practice propelled her... - Australian Announcer: Faith Dix comes in over the ramp, holds on!
- To the Under-23 World Championships.
– Amber: That experience would be like if you're watching the Olympics and they pan to the family in the crowd, it's the exact same thing.
You hold your breath.
Your stomach's full of butterflies.
– Faith Dix: After my first round, that's when I was the most nervous.
– Amber: It was her final run, and it was just like, "Okay, if she makes this, she's gonna podium."
And I was on the dock, and I had to leave.
[laughing] I'm like, "I can't watch."
– Dan Dix: Yeah.
She couldn't watch a couple of them.
Just waiting for the crowd reaction...
If you hear the cheers, you know they did good.
– Australian Announcer: In first place, Faith Dix!
[cheers and applause] - Dan: This is just going beyond all expectations.
- Wisconsin's Faith Dix had just won the 2023 Barefoot World Championship.
– Faith: I won the overall, as well as won the slalom, and won jump, and I got third in tricks.
– Dan: To be able to pull that off, she made the finals of five out of six events, so it's pretty unheard of, really.
That's why they picked her to be on Team USA.
– Faith: I still feel like it's such a small sport.
It's not super crazy, but within the sport, it's pretty exciting.
– Amber: As a mom, I always knew she could do her goals.
I just never knew how high they actually would be.
[motorboat rumbles, music] - And there's no telling how high Alexis and Colby will go either.
Faith will make sure of that.
- I want to be able to show them that they can do anything that they put their mind to.
– Dan: This is Colby and Alexis.
– Faith: But I also don't want them to get discouraged and think that they're in my shadow 'cause I don't want them to be.
- And to imagine their family and love for skiing all started here.
- Amber: When you see what they can do together in one family, to me, that's a huge blessing.
It's a very neat experience for them.
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