HEALESVILLE AND GOLDEN FALLS CELEBRATE A VERY SPECIAL LIFE
Following the Celebration of Ray Stokes life in Healesville, Victoria, in Australia on Thursday, Golden Falls Members met today in Dublin to also share some memories on Ray’s visits to the Club in Ballymore Eustace over the past 20 years or more. Some tears and lots of smiles !
Australia’s Ray Stokes made an enormous contribution to the sport of Waterskiing in his short 51 year life. He revolutionised Jump Ski design, converted almost all to a much safer way to score big Jump distances, coached almost every major international Jumper and five National Teams, brought Emma Sheers and June Fladborg all the way to setting World Jump Records, and most of all made global friendships on a scale never seen before in our sport. With over 30,000 individual messages on his CaringBridge pages, his impact was exceptional. Irish Federation President Des Burke-Kennedy was invited to organise his Memorial Ceremony with the Stokes family in Healesville, Australia on Thursday.