OPINION: Why I will miss performing with Portland Water Spectacular in Lake Oswego

A Lake Oswego tradition over 20 years is no more this year. Sadly, Portland Water Spectacular that normally performs their waterski show in Lakewood Bay will not be performing this 4th of July holiday.

First, let me say I am writing on behalf of myself, not the team. Although I serve as treasurer, I am not officially writing on behalf of the team. I joined the team about six years ago, and I previously lived in Lake Oswego 15 years ago. Since I moved, I missed being able to be on the lake to watch the waterski show. Since I joined the team, I have looked forward every year to getting back out onto the beautiful lake and performing in the show I used to watch when I lived in Lake Oswego years ago. I love that all the residents that live on the bay can watch the show from their yard, and that boaters circle our show pattern to watch us perform. It saddens me that this will not happen this year.

I don’t know what went wrong and why we were not asked back this year. Lake Corporation just told us that they were “going in another direction” this year. If any of our team or board members did anything to offend or upset Lake Corp organizers, I wanted to personally apologize. I can’t speak to any of the other board members or their conversations with the organizers. I know we had some last-minute mixup happen last year that had us scrambling right before the show. I don’t know if this is what caused us not to be asked back. Or perhaps, it really is a matter of wanting to do something different. I can totally understand that. I just wanted to make sure that if it was something the team did, that we publicly apologize to the organizers. Our board does change over year to year, but I do think the board knows how important this show is to us and to the Lake Oswego community. We would not have purposely done anything to jeopardize this relationship. Again, if it is something that we did, I would like to personally apologize and hope that we can mend this relationship and hope to perform again for the Lake Oswego community sometime in the future.

We will miss you this year, Lake Oswego! If you wanted to see Portland Water Spectacular perform, we still have four shows at the West Linn Old Time Fair July 13 and 14. I hope we can mend any broken relationship and see you in the future!