Resident of St. Cloud, MN. Grew up in Minneapolis, learning to water ski at the family cabin on Elk Lake, near Zimmerman. Life long interest in watersports, was a swimming champion in high school. Raced class A & B hydroplane boats with Mercury 10 & 20 HP Lightning engines in the early 1950’s.

Water Skiing Highlights

• Skied in the 1955 Minneapolis Aquatennial Water Ski Tournament. Also raced hydroplane boats in the races on Lake Calhoun.
• Competed in first Midwest Regional tournament in 1957, competing in slalom and tricks
• Tournament Chairman of the 1959 Midwest Regionals, held on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis
• Early innovator and experimenter with water skis and equipment. Worked with and developed fins, ski shapes, side bevels, and ultimately manufactured the first fiberglass water skis in the world.
• 1962 Nationals at Callaway Gardens, Georgia: competed in tricks, and practiced with Joe Cash, a top Mens competitor, who had a great influence on Dave’s trick skiing.
• 1966 and ’67 Midwest Region Mens Trick Champion
• Top finisher in many Nationals in slalom and tricks
• Early AWSA Century Club member (given to jumpers who have jumped 100’ or better in a sanctioned tournament).
• Crosby towboat owner, provided for use in tournaments with twin Johnson 90’s.
• Developed and skied at ‘Lake X’ (also known as “Lake Saucier”), his private, natural ski lake north of Elk Lake. The lake was used for tournaments from 1967 to the late 1970’s.
• Built a ski jump in 1967 with a stainless steel undercarriage, still in use in 2003.
• Designed and manufactured a wood and fiberglass trick ski in 1967, and foam core slalom and tricks skis in 1968 (EF).
• Started building water skis full time in 1970. Worked with 3M on a unidirectional fiberglass system to control strength and stiffness.
• Saucier Skis featured the first foam core and the first rubber edges. The rubber edges were considered to be revolutionary in that they prevented injury to the legs.
• Saucier became one of the top water ski manufacturing companies in the years 1970-75. George Athans, the World Champion from Canada, and many of the top skiers in the world were all seen at various times at Lake Saucier training and testing new equipment.
• Sponsored the Saucier International Cup in 1974, inviting the top skiers in the world to compete for $25,000 in cash prizes.
• Author of an article on ski tuning, published in AWSA’s The Water Skier in 1974, and still used as a reference.
• Saucier Ski Company declared bankruptcy in 1975 when resin costs skyrocked with the Arab oil embargo.
• Founding member of MWSA in 1961.
• President 19—???
• Member, Elk River Surf Aces.
• AWSA Senior Driver, Senior Judge.
• Co-Chair of the AWSA Technical Committee. During that time, the guidelines for the polypropylene black and white towropes were developed, and an early computer analysis program for jumping was developed.
• American Water Ski Association Educational Foundation Award of Distinction recipient, 2002. Click here to the AWSEF site's page for Dave Saucier.

Currently a mechanical engineer, working in St. Cloud. Dave was known as a premier trick skier, and a technical innovator. He also played a mean guitar. In many ways, he put Minnesota on the map in the waterskiing world. He was a great influence to skiers to skiers from all over the world