Harry Costa helped launch Petaluma Water Ski Club

Picture a hot summer afternoon, the type where the best escape from the heat would be a quick dip in the water, ideally, water skiing behind a motorboat. If you had the proper equipment, where would you go? If you said Petaluma Creek (as the river was known), you’re probably of a certain age because you remember when daring local residents braved the creek’s murky water for the thrill of water skiing close to home.

These days, recreation on the storied waterway is limited to floating craft, but there was a time, about a half a century ago, when water skiing on it was a popular pastime. So popular that one enthusiastic group of townsfolk, numbering 15 families and 75 individuals, formed the Petaluma Water Ski Club to enjoy the exhilaration of the sport without having to travel out of town.

Harry Costa, 86, was one of the ski club’s founding members, and although he no longer water skis or races go-karts and off-road motorcycles like he used to, he’s still very active. I first met him in 1953 when our family moved next door to his house in east Petaluma.

A native of Sebastopol, Harry was just 7 years old when he moved to Petaluma in 1930, along with his recently widowed mother, Elsie, and his sister, Lucille. As a kid, he worked pulling weeds for people and at several gas stations before landing a high school job at Baccala’s Grocery, where his pay went mostly to reducing his family’s monthly grocery tab. That led to a truck driving job for Casperson & Sons Egg Co. In 1945, he and the former Ann Fehler, the daughter of a Cotati chicken rancher and Poultry Producers employee, were married. After a two-year stint in the Army, Harry took a job at the local Kaiser-Frazier auto dealership, but when his father-in-law decided to quit his Teamsters truck driving job, Harry was surprisingly moved to the top of the hiring list and landed that job, which he kept for 18 years.

Back in 1947, Harry’s sister and her husband, Ed Avila, bought a ski boat and both families began water skiing at Clear Lake. Within a couple of years, more locals bought or built their own boats, mostly powered by inboard automobile engines, and they began what became a summer ritual of spending practically every weekend at the Edgewater Resort at Soda Bay on Clear Lake. Substantial time was also spent skimming over the waters of the Petaluma Creek, where the skiers, occasionally dodging debris, could venture up into the turning basin, ducking their heads under the D Street bridge if the tide was in, and out to Gilardi’s or Mira Monte.

Around 1950, the group, which included the Costas, Ed and Rich Avila, Jim and Remo Ricci, Court Pelton and Manuel Roche, joined together and purchased a small parcel near Haystack Landing. Heavy equipment operator and club member John Graves brought in an excavator to gouge out a boat ramp, a small clubhouse was added and the Ski Club was formed. Competitive skiing and boat races, both here and at Clear Lake, were regular activities. Ed Avila, who had one of the fastest boats in town, once towed 11 skiers simultaneously. The club had its own ramp for ski jumps and the members, with much practice, perfected the difficult five-man pyramid. The Costas’ first boat was a 14-foot wooden inboard powered by a six-cylinder Hudson motor.

In 1966 Harry began working for Coca-Cola Co. in Petaluma, a job that led to him taking over the vending machine concession at Sonoma State College. The business grew to more than 80 vending machines and Harry became known on campus as the “candyman.” After retiring in 1988, Harry and Ann have kept busy camping out with the Golden Roosters RV Club and exhibiting their pristine 1956 Ford Thunderbird at car shows throughout California.

(Harlan Osborne’s column, Toolin’ Around Town, appears every two weeks. Contact him at harlan@sonic.net)