This is the photo for which Canberra's waterskiers have been waiting three years. The ACT Water Ski Association will return to the Molonglo River this weekend for its first tournament since 2009.
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Littered by logs, thanks to flooding, the popular ski site was officially reopened on Wednesday, allowing this weekend's national Malibu Series event to go ahead.
The president of the ACT Water Ski Association, Gary Gray, said it was a big relief for local skiers, particularly the territory's promising juniors. The ACT has five national junior champions, three in an Australian development squad for next February's World Junior Championships in Victoria.
''We've had to drive them all over NSW to get them to training because they haven't had a home site to train on,'' Gray said. ''The ACT Government's been working like mad to clear the area for us and we've finally done it.''
More than 40 skiers will compete this weekend in tricks, slalom and jump events. Gray said it would take time for interstate competitors to come back to Canberra
''We usually have a lot more competitors but we only got the go-ahead on Wednesday afternoon, so a lot chose other options just to be safe, so they were skiing this weekend. You can't blame them.''
This weekend's tournament will be a test for next year's Australia v New Zealand waterski championships, Molonglo River, on February 8-10.
