Water skier refuses to quit after accident

A little more than a year ago, a boat exploded off of Beer Can Island, which left several people injured, but all survived.

One of the injured boaters was Mike Atherton. Atherton was a professional water skier before the accident and although he lost a few limbs in the incident, he refuses to give up.

"There's a lot of physical struggles going through therapy," he said. "Doing therapy three times a week for many months, almost a year."

Before the accident, Atherton performed weekly with the Tampa Bay Water Ski Show Team. Now, he has returned to performing with the team after working hard during the past year to get back on the water.

"It's been so much of my life," he said. "My wife and I met skiing and my kids are involved in it. It means a lot."

The explosion took both of his legs and one of his arms, but Atherton didn't let it take his passion.

"I was so nervous going into it. I thought 'If I can't do this it's going to be so devastating,'" he said. "Luckily, I was able to get up right away again and after that I started doing some tricks and stuff on water, so it was more mentally a relief, being able to get back to doing it again."

Atherton also has some even higher goals for the future.

"Right now I'm doing a sit ski so that I'm not using my prosthetics because they can't get wet," he said. "But I'm in the process of getting water legs and a water arm made so I can actually stand up."

The Tampa Bay Water Ski Show Team does a free show every Saturday night at 6 p.m. They're also planning a special show in honor of the September 11 tragedy.