"Well this was my backyard growing up," said Erin

"She had little skis that were called tadpoles that were about three feet long and her dad custom made her little bindings for her little feet, and she skied," explained Erin's mother Cindy Daugherty.

Daugherty skied, and skied all the way to a 2008 Slalom National Championship.

"I actually came out of the water really excited because I skied into a medal position, and I thought wow I got fifth and I was really excited and we watched the following four skiers go and they didn't surpass the score," stated Erin.

"Its just kind of what you build your whole life for, it was cool," said Cindy.

On average Erin is only in the water about an hour a week.

"You get tired pretty fast, so I'd say an average set lasts about 20, 25 minutes," stated Erin.

"It's just hard, there aren't any weights that can train you for skiing, you just have to be out on the water," explained Cindy.

The thing about waterskiing is as soon as you fall or miss a buoy, you're done, your score is how far you make it until you make a mistake," stated Erin.

But even if she fell, Erin's parents were always there to pick her back up.

"They are the reason I was exposed to the lake, the reason I was excited about doing it all my life and they've been motivating and encouraging and supportive and whether I won state or won nationals they were always waiting on the shore when I swam in and its the reason I want to keep doing it because I've got awesome people doing it with me," explained Erin.

"You can't ask for more to have your teenagers with you on weekends and want to be with you and we had that our whole life with our kids. They wanted to be at tournaments with the friends they had met and just loved it," said Cindy.

The families tradition of teaching them young continues with Erin's 3-year-old nephew Braden.

"He actually holds onto the handle and he's starting to do side slides, and he's really starting to enjoy that," said Erin.

"It's major deja vu, with the other two for sure, it was very cool," stated Cindy.

But Braden still has a long way to go before he can fill Aunt Erin's ski boots.

This is Erin's first Waterskiing Slalom national title.