BallOfSpray

DARTFORD’S Damien Sharman is set to compete for Great Britain in this week’s European water ski championships at Thorpe in Surrey.

Sharman will compete in the jump competition individually and as part of the Great British team.

He is ranked number two in the European and number four in the world elite rankings and will join 150 of the top water skiers in Europe for the most high-profile water skiing event held in the UK for 20 years.

Skiers from 30 countries will take to the water to do battle at the highest level for team and individual discipline glory, and the highly successful British jump team known as British Air Force, is expected to continue its winning streak.

The disciplines of slalom skiing, jumping and trick skiing will all be on show and the action will culminate with some nail-biting finals on Saturday and Sunday.

Britain’s team features many European and world champions in all disciplines and will be keen to make a mark in their home event.

To follow Sharman’s progress at the event, visit 2010europeans.com

ST. PETERSBURG — As delighted spectators watched on the beach, a man buckled into a harness and kite and flew 350 feet above St. Pete Beach.

Hal Elgin couldn't see them, however. By the time he was in the air he was stone cold unconscious.

Doctors would later tell him he had been flying with a broken neck, an injury sustained from a fall earlier the same day.

When his wife turned the boat, he failed to adjust and plummeted into the Gulf of Mexico.

A priest at Palms of Pasadena Hospital gave last rites. The hospital told Mr. Elgin's family that he had died.

That was 35 years ago. Since then, Mr. Elgin, the Tampa Bay area's pioneer of trick water skiing, hang gliding and parasailing, has been injured many more times and gotten back up.

On Sunday, Mr. Elgin , a St. Petersburg firefighter and daredevil, died for the second and final time. He was 75. His ripples of influence have spread as far as Europe and Japan.

"Basically anyone within a 150-mile radius of St. Petersburg who has skied professionally at Cypress Gardens, Sea World Orlando or any of the professional ski shows in the country at one time or another have learned from or skied with Hal in ski shows," said Gary Stout, a former top-tier water skier in California and Florida.

His legendary exploits include skiing 1,600 miles with nearly a dozen other skiers from St. Petersburg to the 1964 New York World's Fair. The St. Petersburg World's Fair Water Ski Team cut across the Cross Florida Barge Canal and up the coast. Skiers went over ocean swells higher than the boat, through fields of jellyfish and around debris that included floating logs.

After moving from Ohio in 1953, Mr. Elgin taught himself to ski. Following a stint in the Air Force, he opened a ski school in St. Pete Beach to help get through St. Petersburg Junior College. He founded an amateur team, the Aquamaniacs, and a business, Hal Elgin Holiday Water Sports.