It was another successful season on the water for North Bay's Jaimee Bull.
The 21-year-old pro waterskier recently captured her second straight pro tour slalom title.
"It's for the most dominant skier who received the most points throughout the year based on placement," explained Bull.
"I had a pretty solid season again this year.I was able to get four wins and podium finishes in all the events I entered except for the first event of the year. It was another pretty solid season."
Recently Bull made a visit to Chippewa where she went to high school while continuing to develop into a world class water skier.
"School played a huge role and they played a big role in allowing me to juggle high school as well as skiing so my teachers in high school were super supportive," she explained.
"They did a lot for me when I was missing almost two months of school in the spring and it puts a lot of extra work on the teachers to email work and support me while I was away. There are a lot of teachers who helped me out in this journey.
"Your teachers and your coaches have a huge influence on your life and they help shape you and they definitely supported me, it is always awesome to go back there and catch up."
Bull just finished off a degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in biomedical engineering at the University of Louisiana where she competed on the water as well prior to turning pro.
"I was prioritizing my school while I was competing in sports.I definitely wanted to make sure I had a solid degree and I was going to set myself up well for the future while I was there," she said.
Bull says most of her focus was on projects in school connected to biomedical engineering.
"Where you are using engineering to help people and benefit their lives. I would like to have something where I still would have a little bit of 'patient connection' to see the impact of building something that would benefit somebody's life. Whether that is through prosthetics or a hip implant, or even just a device for doctors that ends up helping people," she said.
Bull is now working on getting her engineering degree accreditation in Canada.
"I am still trying to find out where I fit in the biomedical realm. That is why I am taking this year off, transferring to Canada and exploring some of those career path options," she explained.
"Right now I am skiing full-time but I am getting my degree transferred to Canada as I have a full engineering degree from the U.S., but because Canada has different standards are a little different. They have to go through a process. All the courses that I took have to match with Canadian courses and they need to feel comfortable giving me my degree here."
Bull is back in North Bay for a couple of weeks and this winter she plans to spend a couple of months in British Columbia training at the national team gym in Whistler, B.C.
"I will be snow skiing and working part-time as a snow-ski guide so I am kind of taking advantage of the off-season and the ability and the resources that I have for being a national team member to go to Whistler and to take advantage of the facility there and I will be able to have some fun, enjoying winter since it is the first time in a few years that I will be able to spend the winter here in Canada," she admitted.
She says it has been hard because she really enjoys winter in Canada.
"Going to school in the States I was only getting Christmas break and maybe a couple of days in March to be in the snow so I am looking forward to a more complete and long winter."
