The USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Hall of Fame Selection Committee is pleased to announce the 2022 inductees to the USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Foundation Hall of Fame. Tara Hamilton-Wynne and Zane Schwenk will be formally enshrined at the 39th Annual USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Foundation Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, March 5, 2022.
Tara Hamilton-Wynne helped push the sport of wakeboarding into the future. Raised in Lantana, Florida Tara's parents were avid three-event water skiers and Tara did her fair share of water skiing and kneeboarding, but nothing really clicked until she took a ride one day with Darin Shapiro. At age 14 she started wakeboarding. At age 15, she was the world champion. Going "Big" took on a whole new meaning with Tara. She went on to three more world championships and dominating in the X-Games. Tara exposed the sport of wakeboarding to a whole new audience with breakthrough sponsors and mainstream media articles. She was even a character in a video game produced by ActiVision for Playstation and XBox.
Zane Schwenk is an athlete, entertainer, and water sports ambassador who has inspired thousands of people to get on the water. Described as someone who "Bleeds towed water sports," Schwenk has spent much of his life doing what he loves... and spreading the love through the initiative he helped start: "Pass the Handle." Schwenk is well-known as a pro tour wakeboarder who medaled in the X Games and won the 2000 America's Cup but he also barefoots, slaloms, jumps, trick skis, hydrofoils, shoe skis and is a legend in freestyle jumping. Schwenk is the only person to land a double front flip ski jumping... ever. If you can do it behind a boat, Schwenk can do it better than most. In 1999, he was named "World's Greatest Water Skier" at Cypress Gardens, in a kind of decathlon of water sports. Schwenk was also a driving force in the boating industry, instrumental in designing the very first wakeboard boat with MasterCraft and he holds patents along with MasterCraft for surf systems and towers. But what makes really makes Zane a champion is his drive to give back to water sports. "Teaching people to wakeboard, water ski, wake surf... that's my legacy... and that means more than winning anything," says Schwenk. Huge Congratulations to Zane and Tara and we can't wait to celebrate with them in March!
Established in 1968, the USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Foundation preserves and celebrates the history of all towed water sports and promotes these sports through our Scholarship Programs and the Water Ski & Wake Sports Hall of Fame. In 2022, we will be marking the 100th Anniversary of Water Skiing with special events, including the Hall of Fame in March... details to be released soon.
