Found: Greetings from Minocqua, Wisconsin

The Min-Aqua Bats still exist claiming to be one of the oldest amateur waterski show teams in the US having chartered in 1952, the same year Tommy Bartlett got his show rolling. The war was over and dare devil stunts were in the air in Wisconsin. Growing up in 1960s Wisconsin around abundant fresh water lakes and with Tommy Bartlett's Water  Ski & Jumping Boat Thrill Show going on in nearby Wisconsin Dells, water skiing seemed a cool teenaged thing to do in the summer. After decades of Thrill Show success he owned a chunk of Wisconsin Dells and would be spotted sorting around in a shiny red Porsche. We both remember our cousins water skiing on the lakes where they lived. It looked sufficiently dangerous to us to be pulled behind a motor boat going full-throttle. Our older cousins never offered to teach us and the stray tire inner tube along the shore seemed a saner option for kids in bright orange canvas life jackets.