April Coble-Eller
Super Mom

Article from West Marine

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By John Gregg Watsonville, CA. (September 26, 2007) — Knifing through the water like whip saw blade it is difficult not to notice the look of determination on April Coble-Eller’s face. 

For thirty years the part-time coach, part-time skier, and now full-time mom has been rocketing over the water with a passion for her sport that has rarely been seen water skiing.   She is a combination of grit; grace and greatness all wrapped up in a 125-pound package. 

At a point a point in her career when most people would be easing off the throttle, Coble-Eller has picked up some more speed as she continues to redefine her passion and her love for her sport.  Recently she took second place at the US Open at Lake Buena Vista, Florida in the slalom event while skiing at night in front of raucous fans.   Prior to that second place finish she was part of the US Elite Team that captured a Gold medal at the Worlds in Lintz, Austria. 

Pretty good for a 34-year-old mom with a four-year-old daughter Kamryn and 1-year-old son Landis, to go along with her husband Chris Eller, who has encouraged her to continue skiing with a renewed athletic zeal. 

“The US Open has been transformed into one of the greatest events in the world right now because of Disney,” Coble-Eller explained.  “We are skiing at night with thousands of people on the bank and another 50,000 people watching a webcast.  The US Open has always been a prestigious event and it has always been good prize money.  It is hard enough just to get there and once you get there they only take the top four to the finals.  Then to ski at night in adverse conditions with lights and a screaming crowd it is just phenomenal.” 

The fact that she finished in second place, well, the Lillington, North Carolina native would be the first to tell you it took another lady from the Tar Heel State to knock her off. 

“The louder they screamed the harder we went.  I got second place and I lost to Karen Truelove, a North Carolina girl as well,” Coble-Eller said.  “We skied together growing up and I lost to her by one buoy.  That was the best slalom finish I ever had at the US Open.” 

April also played a critical role as part of the U.S. Elite Water Ski Team that won its fourth consecutive world team title at the 2007 Water Ski World Championships.  The biennial event included more than 120 athletes from 40 countries and Coble-Eller had not been part of the US Team since 1997, when she skied in Bogota, Colombia.  Since then of course, she had gotten married and had two children so it was a bit of a stretch to think she could turn back the clock and compete at such a very level.

“It was awesome to be honest.  Because I am a US Team coach now and coach the Junior Team, I went to the Team Trials to support the team.  It is very, very rare that a slalom specialist will get chosen for the team and you have to ski very well,” Coble-Eller confided.  “I left the children at home with my husband and his parents and skied and had a really good weekend.  The Worlds only happens every other year, so you only have an option to make the US Team every other year.  I made my first US Team when I was 14 and that was the Junior Team.  It has been ten years since I made the Elite US Team, ’97 was the last year I made the Elite team.”

After a ten-year absence from the Worlds, April approached the championships with a new sense of purpose.  The last Elite Team she had been part of narrowly lost the gold medal so this time around it was with a burning desire to win.  Spend anytime with Mrs. Coble-Eller and you soon learn that she doesn’t like to lose.

“The ironic thing until 1997 every team I had been on we won the gold medal, so to be honest I got use to winning.  I do not like to lose,” Coble-Eller said.  “In ’97 when we lost it was an absolute heartbreaker for me because it was the first time I had ever been on a team and we had lost.  So coming back I had ambitions number-one to ski well but also number-two to be on a winning team again because I did not like loosing last time.  Then to win by the closest margin ever was pretty phenomenal.”

April has literally been winning championships going back to 1985, when she was the National Girls slalom, jumping and Overall champion, however, the victory this year in Austria seemed very sweet.  With time and age and children of he own, she couldn’t help but choking up a little while representing her own country.

“When we stepped on the podium and they put the gold medals around our necks and played the National Anthem I don’t even know how to explain the excitement,” Coble-Eller recalled.  “It wasn’t who even had the best day it was who skied the closest to their personal best because that is how elite the event is and that is how you have to ski in the World Championships.  France was the one so close to us and even Belarus, they were third and they did a phenomenal job.  It was crazy and to know that we had to go out and do the same thing there was a lot of pressure but at the same time to win when everyone had to ski well just made it even better.”

As a youngster, April first was taught to ski by her dad Gary Coble and she has never lost that desire to ski competitively.

“I like to win [laughter].  I like to win and there’s only one winner!  So if you are going to win on the weekend you have go home and train again.  I like to travel and I love the people in the sport,” Coble-Eller explained.   “My family is still very involved in the sport, my husband [Chris Eller] is a driver and he just drove at the US Open.  Obviously with the business [Coble Ski School] I just love the sport of skiing.  I can’t even imagine not showing up to a pro event right now and wanting to get out there.  I guess that day is going to come and that has happened for other girls and they don’t have that drive anymore but I’ve been competing for 30 years.  When I sit on the starting dock my heart rate goes from whatever it is resting, 70 to 200, as soon as I put my boots on.  I still have that drive to go out and ski just as hard as I can.”

Perhaps what is most remarkable about her passion for the sport is that April believes that she is still improving.  Despite balancing time between her family and the family business, you can still find her out on the water looking for that extra edge.

“I still think I am getting better.  My scores this year are better than they have ever been before and I don’t think I’ve peaked yet,” Coble-Eller confided.  “Someone was asking me at 34 how do you get better?  I said number-one you still continue to strive to stay fit and I feel like I’m as fit as I have ever been.  Number-two, I feel like I am still learning every day.  For so long it was experience and talent and for the longest time, my dad just pushing me harder, harder and harder.  However, I didn’t have the mental focus.  It has just been in the last two years that my husband put his foot down and he said, ‘look, in order to get out of this sport what you think you should, you have to learn to focus when you are out there more than you’ve ever done in your life.’  It has taken two years but every split second when I go through the slalom coarse I know where my ski is, where my eyes are, where my arms are and where my handle is.  I have body awareness because of concentration that I never had before.  It is pretty fun and I feel like I have started over and I am learning so much now.”

April now has changed her philosophy has become far more aggressive on the water and has begun attacking the buoys. 

“Before I was a defensive skier.  Before I didn’t want to mess up, I just wanted to ski as hard as I could but I didn’t want to mess up.  That is not how you win,” Coble-Eller confided.  “That isn’t how world records are broken, you have to go on offense.  You have to go as hard as you can and if you fall fine but there’s that one out of every fifty tries where that almost fall if you were playing defense you would have just stood up.   However, that almost fall is going to take you further than you’ve ever been.  That’s where I kind of am right now.”