ORLANDO, Fla. – Jennifer Leachman LaPoint began her competitive water skiing career on the Ohio River.

Not exactly a place where many people launch successful water skiing careers.

But LaPoint, a Parkersburg native, displayed water skiing skills early on – her first tournament was at the age of 6 – that have led to an outstanding professional career, culminating in her recent selection to the Water Ski Hall of Fame Class of 2015 in Florida.

LaPoint, along with three other world-class water skiers, will be inducted into the hall of fame on April 18, 2015, at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Fla.

LaPoint, 50, of Orlando, Fla., will be joining her husband, Kris, who was inducted in 2008, as a member of the Water Ski Hall of Fame as selected by the USA Water Ski Foundation.

Her daughter, Taylor May Woolsey, 20, is a professional water skier and they are competing in events. Each has won one event against the other in water skiing competition.

LaPoint is a 1982 graduate of Parkersburg High School and has been a professional water skier for 30 years. She is a three-time world record holder in water skiing.

She began water skiing at the age of 5 with her parents, Bill and Karen Leachman, on the Ohio River in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Her first tournament was at the age of 6 at the Athens Boat and Ski Club in Hockingport, Ohio.

LaPoint credits her father with teaching her to ski. Karen and Bill Leachman skied and judged skiing in the Ohio area, LaPoint said in an email.

In 1979, at the age of 15, she won her first U.S. National Water Ski titles in slalom and jump. In 1981, LaPoint won the Girls U.S. National Overall title.

Along with water skiing three months of the year as a teenager, LaPoint was a three-time first team All-State selection in volleyball and a two-time first team All-State selection in basketball at PHS.

LaPoint won her third consecutive National Girls water skiing title in 1982. She accepted a full athletic scholarship to Georgia Tech to play basketball, “because water skiing was not yet a thriving professional sport.”

LaPoint said she decided to concentrate on water skiing in 1985 “after the Coors Light Tour began to take hold.” She was asked to represent Mastercraft Skis, a ski company being developed by Bob and Kris LaPoint.

After four months on the LaPoint-designed skis, Jennifer LaPoint said, she tied her first Women’s World Slalom record. After that, she moved to Florida to ski year-round and become a full-time professional skier.

LaPoint accepted a full water skiing scholarship to the University of Central Florida in Orlando where she won two collegiate slalom titles and graduated with a degree in business.

In 1987, she opened the Jennifer Leachman Training Center and O’Town WaterSports, a school and retail store in Orlando.

“O’Town was a hot spot in Orlando, hosting some of the first slalom league events and was the first wakeboard school in Orlando,” LaPoint said in an email.

LaPoint held or shared the world record in water skiing in 1985, ’87 and ’96, according to the Water Ski Hall of Fame. Since joining the professional water skiing tour in 1985, LaPoint said, she has been ranked in the top 5 in the world and number one seven times.

The highlight of her career was winning the Michelob Light Professional World Tour Champion Title in 1991 after winning over half the events that year, LaPoint said.

She has won more than 30 professional skiing events and has more than 60 podium finishes in her career. LaPoint said she is the only West Virginia native to compete as a professional water skier.

Tragedy struck LaPoint in 1998. She was leading the Cafe De Colombia World Cup standings when her ski broke in half during a competition in New York state, causing a fall that broke her tibia and fibula.

She spent three weeks in a hospital, 11 months in a cast and had two bone grafts in her leg.

LaPoint returned to water skiing two years after the accident.

“The doctors saw my recovery to ski again as a miracle after such a devastating injury,” she said.

LaPoint won the Senior World Title in Mexico in 2012.

“Skiing was ripped from my life and then given back to me so I don’t intend to give it up again, even if I can never get back to the top; life is just better when I am skiing,” she said in an email.

“The journey to get there is what it is all about; it never was a destination. Some mountains along the way are higher than others but all worth climbing,” she said.

LaPoint vowed to ski until her daughter Taylor May could ski on the professional tour against her.

At age 48 and 18, Jennifer and Taylor were the first mother and daughter to ski at a professional event together, LaPoint said. They hope to ski in the Open World Championships against each other someday.

LaPoint considers her founding of the Women of Water Skiing in 1992 as one of her most important accomplishments. This organization was dedicated to teaching women and children to ski through free clinics across the United States.

Beginning in 1996, she was co-founder of Women of Water Sports, which produced over 50 televised shows of women’s water skiing competition in four years after women skiers were dropped from the televised coed professional tour, LaPoint said.

Women water skiers later rejoined the men on the professional tour, she added.

LaPoint said she has helped to design ski products for O’Neil Wetsuits, Body Glove Wetsuits, Rip Curl Wetsuits, Mastercraft Clothing, Mastercraft skis, O’Brien skis and HO Skis. Through Fogman Bindings, she co-owns a U.S. patent for rotatable bindings on water skis being licensed by ski companies, she said.

Jennifer and Kris LaPoint own LaPoint Ski Park in Orlando that provides ski instruction and a private, man-made lake for skiers to rent.

Jennifer, Kris and Taylor also are real estate agents for Realty Executives of Orlando.

“My mother has been amazingly supportive throughout my water skiing career,” Taylor said in an email. “When I was young, she would give me that extra little push that I needed to train at a competitive level. I have since developed my own drive and determination yet she continues to encourage and motivate me on a daily basis.

“She drives the boat or coaches me even in the worst of conditions because she is about as passionate about my success as I am,” Taylor said of her mother.

Taylor called Jennifer her biggest inspiration.

“I can only hope to be as brave, driven and successful as she was and is still.”

Taylor learned to water ski at 4 years old and began competing at 12. She skied in her first professional event at 16 and competes worldwide.

Taylor said she hopes to win a world championship someday besides having business aspirations.

“My biggest goal is to balance a career in the business world with my water ski career,” she said.