Surf Cat

Alberta has lost a world champion water wizard and heartfelt human being.

Kreg Llewellyn, an extraordinary talent in the sports of water-skiing and wakeboarding, is being saluted as an innovator, inspiration and “hero” to loved ones and fans he leaves behind.

The Innisfail native died last week in his adopted home of San Marcos River Ranch, Texas.

He was 52.

“Kreg was my hero and an inspiration to so many around the world,” said Llewellyn’s younger brother, Jaret. “Anyone who had the privilege to know Kreg could see he had a huge heart, because he wore it on his sleeve. His faith in God has always been deep, and in recent years he was sharing his faith to help others who were looking for spiritual guidance.

“Kreg was the strongest person I have ever known, and I will miss him every day.”

Llewellyn will be missed on the water, given his massive ability and the show he put on whenever he geared up for competition.

He was a master, setting 24 Canadian records while winning seven individual world championship medals and 18 Pan American medals as an integral member of the Canadian national water-ski squad.

Llewellyn also helped design and test the first ever ‘Skurfer,’ a precursor to the evolution of the wakeboard, and won the first ever world wakeboard championships in Hawaii.

“Kreg was an innovator and was willing to try anything, doing tricks that couldn’t be done to doing them fast,” Jaret said. “Kreg will always be the most talented athlete I have ever seen, not only on the water but in any sport you asked him to try.

“He could do anything he set his mind to . . . and he always made the most difficult things look easy,” said Jaret, who was listed as a water-ski idol of Llewellyn’s on his profile page of worldwaterskiers.com for proof that the adoration went both ways. “Watching him inspired me to try my best every day, both on and off the water, to live up to the standard he set, even though things always seemed much harder than he made them look.

“But that was the most beautiful thing about Kreg — he not only set the standard for me, but he stopped along his own path to help others excel with him. Kreg made me the skier I wanted to be and helped me become the best man I could be.”

Others took to Facebook in the days since his death to remember Llewellyn.

“My cousin left a mighty legacy,” wrote Zoii Topia. “This is such a huge loss . . . may you ski in heaven, Kreg.”

“You still own that street we grew up on and yelled CAR!!!” wrote Colin Stangness. “Pulled our nets, replaced them and game on. Please RIP, my old friend.”

“The world, but especially Canada, has lost an outstanding athlete and human being,” wrote Nancy K Horton. “He was mostly a son, brother, husband and uncle, and his family will miss him the most.”

Llewellyn began water-skiing at age four at the family cabin on Sylvan Lake before blossoming into a competitor in the sport in the late 1970s and winning the Alberta junior boys’ overall title.

He went on to win three world championship gold medals in team events and become a two-time overall US Open champion, the overall Moomba champion and trick champ in both the Masters and the US Open.

But he’s mostly being recalled as a man who brought joy and harmony to others.

“He showed (that) through his grace in all aspects of his life,” Jaret added. “Right now, I can’t imagine how we will continue without Kreg’s leadership, but I know he would want us to come together as a community and as a world to use the lessons he taught us and to love one another with all of our hearts.”

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

Twitter: @ToddSaelhofPM