Legoland Ski Show Change dot org Petition - Daniel Conrod

Kid-themed Legoland park in Winter Haven says it's discontinuing water ski shows, which go back to the site's history as Cypress Gardens. About 1500 people have signed a petition asking the park to change its mind. We speak with Daniel Conrod, a former competitive water skier who signed the petition at change.org. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird herewith Beyond the News. You may have heard
the news that Legoland is dropping its ski show December thirtieth.
There is now a petition on change dot org with
more than fifteen hundred signatures as I'm recording this, urging
the kid themed park to preserve the water ski show.
Daniel Conrad is one of the petition signers. He's in

(00:22):
Winterhaven and he's been involved in water skiing since he
was a kid, and he joins us now on Beyond
the News. Daniel Conrod Welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you Gordon. Hello.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Now a little bit of a background about yourself. You
were first exposed to the sport when you came down
as a visitor when you were younger, and you've been
very involved in it over the years. If you could
tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
My parents brought me on vacation and we stayed at
Lake Roy motoladge and visited Cypress Gardens and I learned
to air for water ski on Lake Roy, part of
the Chain of Lakes, which is a to the lake
that Legoland is on. So I moved down to be

(01:07):
to water ski year round. It was a big draw
and by watching the ski show I met a lot
of the skiers and became active more in the tournament
the trick Sloman jump seen than show skiing. However, I
have done some show skiing, not at Lego Land, but

(01:29):
back then it was Cypress Gardens of course, so it's
a big draw. It caused me to move to Polk
County in winter Haven and the town has grown significantly
since then.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Now a little bit of background, as you mentioned before,
it was Lego Land, that park was known as Cypress
Gardens and it was one of the epicenters of water
skiing in the world and Polk County and winter Haven
kind of got branded as a hotbed of water skiing activity,
as you yourself know and participated in, and you know

(02:04):
is your point here, I guess that it's a part
of the history and it's a part of really the
culture of Polk County and winter Haven as something that
people do and they come down to see.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Absolutely it's a tradition. And not only do people go
to the park tours the show, you can also anchor
out in your boat and so a lot of people
have guessed from up north and you know, it's a
great it's a great thing to watch the magnificent show
and it's a healthy sport. So in this day and

(02:38):
age that kids are home on the computer, it'd be
great if we can get them out on the water
and get exposed to some healthy sports.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Well, I guess, I guess that kind of brings up
a point here in that the park as it is
now is operated by a corporation. It's an out of
town concern, and you know, this may or may not
fit into their business needs. You know, you mention the
people who are watching it on the lakes, they're probably

(03:07):
not paying admission as opposed to the people who are
in the theater setting where they have that now. So,
you know, is it realistic to expect them to continue
something that may have been part of the tradition on
that land at that time, at that park which closed
down for some time and had to be reopened with

(03:30):
another purpose. Is it realistic to expect them to hang
on to something that's kind of peripheral to their vision
and their marketing of the park at this point.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I believe so because when I sit in my boat
and watch the show, there's more people in the stands,
and that they have a relatively low budget show, so
it's not like they're spending millions upon millions to the
show alive. It's a nominal cost for them. They've added

(04:04):
other avenues of revenue such as Pepe Pig in the
parking lot and several others, but the draw is still there.
They might not realize it because they don't have a
way to count the people in the stands. You don't
have to go through a turnstile or a counter to
count the people that are coming to watch the show.

(04:26):
But the natural setting was the original draw for Cyprus Gardens.
The show came as an aftermap, so people came for
the gardens, the lakes, and then when the show came.
There's several movie shots there Easy to Love and several others.
And it has grown. Po County has grown, and it's

(04:51):
not always people like I'll eat at one restaurant tonight,
so the other might the other restaurant across the street
might feel not like patronized, but in a few days
I'll hit them too. So we all share on the
growth of Cook County.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Now, if people are coming here and they have over
the years for water skiing events, and if that's not
being offered at Lego Land, is there any effort of
community or private enterprise stepping up to find another venue.
There are literally hundreds of lakes in Polk County. People
give directions according to which le like they live on
or live near, so there's no shortage of lakes that

(05:31):
could potentially host a venue for a water skiing event.
So is that a more productive a more productive route
than to try to try to talk Lego Land into
reversing course.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
On this No, because you need a combination of things.
You need a quiet, protected waterway, which Lego Land has
the barrier up to keep rough water down from the public,
and then you need some type of theater seating. Now,
to their credit, the old Cypress Gardens ski team does

(06:11):
have a show. It's monthly though, so it's only monthly
and for the most part, and they put on a
great show on Lake Silver. But the history started and
that's where they developed from, and they are not for
profit corporation, so they're able to do a show that's
wonderful as well. But Legoland, again is the it's the history,

(06:37):
the tradition, the perfect venue for show skiing, and it's
exposed to all the park visitors and I think that's
real important.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Have you talked with anyone else in the community about
the petition about your efforts to try to save the
water ski presentation at Legoland.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yes, I'm not too active on social media, however, I
have shared it on Facebook, and the waterski friends and
other friends that I have I've talked to at length
and they all agree. And a lot of them are
either Polk County citrus growers from years ago, original visitors

(07:21):
to the park that drew them by the way to
move here, as well from the North in general. So
the park is history. My neighbor across the street works
for Lego Land and it's bought a lot of jobs
and we appreciate that. But I think that's a small

(07:44):
addition to their park that's more important than they might realize.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Right we're speaking with Daniel Conrod. He is one of
the signers of a petition by change dot org or
that's being hosted on change dot org. They're trying to
get Lego Land, which is the kid or in a
theme park that used to be Cypress Gardens, to reverse
their decision to bring the longtime water skiing show there

(08:09):
to an end on December thirtieth. And the reason that
this is such a controversial issue, and that this petition
exists is because winter Haven and Cypress Gardens have a long,
long history of connection to water skiing and it's been
one of the area has been one of the main

(08:31):
venues in growth areas for the sport, and we'll continue
to watch developments on this and see how the response
takes place. Daniel Conrad, thank you very much for joining
us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Absolutely thank you