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 Peter Birdsall Awarded British Waterski Lifetime Honorary Membership February 03, 2009 At the recent British Waterski AGM, MasterCraft International's co-founder, Peter Birdsall was presented with a highly prestigious and rare award, Honorary Lifetime Membership to the federation in recognition to his services to the sport over the last 4 decades. Although Peter's involvement with the sport goes way back to the late sixties, here’s the story of how the Birdsall legacy came about.
Ian and Peter Birdsall first met up with Rob Shirley way back in 1975 at the World Championships being held at Thorpe Park, London. The company was then known as A1 Marine, and was already established and well known within the waterski industry. Ian and Peter were at Thorpe with the full range of Delta ski boats and waterski equipment. Rob Shirley had shipped in two of his MasterCraft boats and was there to introduce his boats to the UK and European market. Rob's MasterCraft boats were already rocking the waterski scene stateside. Ian and Peter spent many hours test driving the boats, putting both them and Rob through their paces, checking every inch for build quality and innovation. Ian and Peter agreed that it was unlike any boat they had ever seen or driven. By the end of the weekend The Birdsall family were the European distributors for MasterCraft.
The Birdsall’s made a commitment to both Rob and themselves, a commitment that still stands today, to create and maintain a market for the MasterCraft range of waterski (and now performance and luxury) boats around the globe. Over the past 38 years, MasterCraft’s commitment to waterskiing and wakeboarding has been unrivalled, dedicating more time, money and effort to both professional and grass roots events and athletes - the Birdsall’s dedication and passion has played a vital part in developing the sport as we know it.
Despite retiring (well sort of!) ten years ago, Peter’s legacy lives on having grown from strength to strength by his son Ian.
Congratulations to Peter on receiving this truly well deserved award!  |
