Betty Bonifay is a professional

water skier Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...

and mother to professional wakeboarders Shane and Parks Bonifay. In 1976, she and Sally Winter were instrumental in developing the technique for skiing on a 360-degree swivel binding that allowed turning in a full circle while on a single water ski. The 360 swivel ski debuted in the

Cypress Gardens Cypress Gardens was a botanical garden and theme park near Winter Haven, Florida that operated from 1936 to 2009. As of 2011, the botanical garden portion had been preserved inside the newly formed Legoland Florida. History Billed as Florida' ...

' Super Show in 1977. She has been designing safer equipment for over 30 years and owns her own business in creating a new, foam-filled swivel ski. Bonifay is one of the first women to perform on a swivel ski, that has a rotating binding of 360 degrees. The Bonifay Ski School, located in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, is the only school in the world specializing in show skiing. She also travels all over the country to teach clinics to aspiring water skiers of any talent level.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonifay, Betty Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American water skiers American sports businesspeople