At a school on the west side of the Great Lakes State, a mere 20-mile drive to Lake Michigan, it’s only proper that a group exists to take advantage of the coastline that wraps around the state.

That group is the Grand Valley State water ski and wakeboard club, and, fittingly, the Lakers have a strong team.

The GVSU club is a group of about 45 members who thrive off hitting both waves and peak performance. The Lakers are slated to compete in the 2015 Collegiate Water Ski National Championships from Oct. 15-17.

The event will feature 12 teams from Division I and 12 teams from Division II. The Lakers will compete in the Division I portion of the tournament.

National team champions will be declared in both divisions, while individual medals for slalom, tricks and jumping will be awarded.

The Lakers have a strong history in the sport, qualifying for national championship competition each of the last four seasons. The team, however, is not just for experienced skiers. In fact, a number of the club’s members did not know how to water ski prior to joining the squad, although a few have had time to learn and contribute.

“Half our team is people learning and developing their skills while the other half is proven skiers. We have A-team skiers going to nationals who didn’t know how to ski starting off,” said club president Bryan Condra.

The Lakers enjoy the small, tight-knit environment in their sport. At nationals, they will be competing with world record holders from around the globe — a unique experience to end the season.

“Everybody has a chance to be with the best of the best,” said junior Jack Phillipson,

The weeks of competition leading up to nationals for the squad were a grind. However, the grind pales in comparison to the literal journey the Lakers are taking to the site of nationals themselves.

The team is carpooling with Michigan State in a brigade of minivans on their trip to Cypress, Texas in order to save money on gas and travel. The estimated driving time from Allendale to Cypress is 18 hours and 30 minutes without stops, so the team anticipates roughly a 20-hour trek.

Luckily for the Lakers, the members of the team are close enough to each other to make the lengthy journey more bearable.

“We’re always supporting each other. We’re like a family,” said senior Megan Atkins.

The Lakers have high hopes for both the trick and jump events on the men’s side, and jump on the women’s side. Condra and Phillipson will lead the men’s squad in trick, while Atkins and senior Alison Saunders should shoulder the load for the women’s jump event.

The team is currently ranked 11^th in the nation in Division I, and expect that ranking to more or less reflect its finish once nationals conclude.

“I think we’ll probably sit at 11, maybe jump up to 10 if we ski well. It’s tough taking five days off school, so we couldn’t bring all our top skiers,” Condra said. “The No. 1 Division II school gets a smaller trophy than No. 12 in Division I, so making D1 was enormous. Big fish, little pond to big pond, little fish.”

Texas may not be as water ski-friendly as Michigan, but the Lakers will do their best to represent their school and home state in the Deep South.