Photo courtesy of Hanna Straltsova
Travel down Barnett Road, a winding, wooded thoroughfare off Route 64 about seventeen miles north of Baton Rouge, and the scenery is characteristic of rural Louisiana. Ramshackle houses set back from the road, yard dogs standing sentry. A small convenience store that would be called a corner store if it was in the city and was on a corner.
Round a bend, and a small sign announces Bennett’s Waterski and Wakeboard School, set back from the road in Zachary, a town of about twenty thousand residents. Down the road the site unfolds into an impressive beehive of activity. Dozens of sleek Master Craft boats are lined up like dominos, along with a bunch of parked cars and a couple of tractors. There’s a smattering of buildings, the owners’ home, a few rental cottages, dormitories for the kids eight and up who cycle through weekly ski camps all summer, and a swimming pool to keep the kids busy. A well-outfitted shop carries all manner of high-tech gear for water skiers and wakeboarders.
Straight ahead, there are several open-air covered patio areas facing the three man-made lakes that dominate the view: two 2100 feet long and one 1400 feet long, expanses of water that rarely sit unrippled. It’s these lakes that draw skiers of all stripes, from the beginners to the college teams to the international athletes that flock here every spring like purple Martins coming home to roost.
Bennett’s, owned by Jay and Anne Bennett, started up the road on Fausse Lake back in 1976. The newlyweds, who shared a passion for professional water skiing, wound up taking on two more partners and buying an abandoned catfish farm, which opened as the school’s official site in 1978. Bennett’s hosted the Water Skiing World Championships in 1984. “That pretty much put us on the map,” recalled Jay.
Both Jay and Anne skied competitively, holding a slew of titles between the two of them. Anne continues to compete in her age group, although she took a break this year to focus on another passion, competitive CrossFit. Jay switched competing for coaching. The school has a reputation for excellence, thanks to Jay’s knack for honing talent and helping athletes rise to the height of their abilities. Young water skiers from Canada, Sweden, Japan, the UK, Australia, and across the U.S. come to Bennett’s to train.
“I tried ice skating when I was five, then gymnastics, but I didn’t really like that...It wasn’t until I got on the water that I really knew it was what I wanted to do.” —Hanna Straltsova
Among these athletes is Hanna Straltsova, the International Water-Skiing Federation’s number-two-ranked woman in the world. Her powerful, take-no-prisoners style on the water distinguishes this athlete, who seems absolutely fearless behind the ski boat, attacking ramps of dizzying height.
From Novopolotsk, Belarus, Straltsova has dedicated much of her life to water skiing since she was seven years old. “I tried ice skating when I was five, then gymnastics, but I didn’t really like that,” she recalled. “It wasn’t until I got on the water that I really knew it was what I wanted to do.”
In 2017, Straltsova followed the advice of fellow skiers, and traveled to Louisiana to attend the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM). There, she planned to earn her masters in exercise science. And she wanted to train on the University’s renowned water ski team.
“Many schools have water ski teams, but not many have high level athletes,” explained Straltsova of her decision to attend ULM. “The Monroe team has won twenty-nine national titles, and many of their skiers have continued their careers professionally.”
In addition to the school’s success rate when it comes to producing professional skiers, it also offered a scholarship to members of its collegiate team, as well as access to a beautiful training grounds. “There’s a lake with a boat, with everything to train,” said Straltsova. “My country is not rich. We don’t have the best conditions in the world. As I was growing up in my sports career, I needed better conditions and more time on the water.” She has trained with Jay Bennett since 2018. “I had one semester of school left, so instead of going home for the summer I was taking classes. And there was nobody from the ski team at school. I asked Jay if I could work at his place and he said yes. He is an amazing coach.”
Since her arrival in the United States, two world events have directly impacted Straltsova’s goals. First, there was the global pandemic, which forced her to remain in Belarus for her typical training and competition season “I couldn’t go anywhere, so I just practiced every day.”
[Read about how a rare 1956 Ferrari landed in Baton Rouge here.]
Competitions started again in 2021, ushering forward Stratsova’s best career year to date. She won four pro tournaments, coming in second place in Jump and Overall at the World Championships, and winning Cable World Championships in Tricks and Overall. Bennett’s is one of her sponsors, along with D3skis, and Camaro Wetsuits.
Earlier this year, just before the training season began, Straltsova’s world was once again shaken, this time by the Russian attack on Ukraine. Although Belarus is considered an independent country, its president Alexander Lukashenko’s diplomatic reliance upon Vladimir Putin has put the country at odds with Western nations. Along with Russian athletes, Belarusian athletes are currently barred from international competition.
Because of this, Straltsova made the difficult decision to leave her country’s Water Ski Federation and move permanently to the U.S. She is currently competing under a neutral white flag, but in 2023, if things go as planned, she will be earning her world titles for the International Water Ski & Wakeboard Federation under the U.S. flag.
“Hanna is so talented,” said Jay of his driven trainee and the difficulty of the decision. “She has to do what she needs to do to make a living.”
For Straltsova, pandemics, world turmoil, and economic sanctions are mostly background noise. She’s left her family and her fellow athletes to live in a little Louisiana town almost six thousand miles away from home with her golden doodle Kona. “It took me some time to adapt to the heat here, especially training when it’s hot, but I’ve adapted,” she said. “At first it didn’t seem like home, everything was so different. But now I feel comfortable, and Zachary is home for now. I love skiing and being on the water. I love to compete. That’s what I know. . . It’s what I love.”
The training regime for a skier at Straltsova’s level is rigorous. She starts every day with strength training, critical to being able to master the technical challenges that come with high jumps. Then she does three to four fifteen minutes sets on the water: short high energy bursts where she’s focused on all three of her events: slaloms, tricks, and jumps. This is followed by recovery time, until the afternoon session. Whenever she is not training, she coaches at Bennett’s.
Although she has a slew of world records and titles under her belt, the one she’s most focused on these days is breaking the world record for ski jumping behind the boat, which is 203 feet. Straltsova’s record is 181. “It’s what I love to do, and I want to be the best.”
See Straltsova in action via videos on the Bennett's Water Ski & Wakeboard School Facebook Page, and learn more about the school's offerings at skibennetts.com.
