Winter Haven, Florida
· Small Town Locals
Winter Haven grew up on the water. This is the Chain of Lakes City — lakes linked by canals, so a boat ride here isn't an out-and-back, it's a journey, lake to lake to lake, under the Florida sky.
And then there are the skis. Winter Haven's water ski shows put this small town on the map generations ago — pyramids of skiers behind a roaring boat, a whole town that grew up on skis. Around here, the best skiing in Florida never touched a flake of snow, and nobody misses it.
Glass-calm water at dawn, a tow rope, and a town still proud of what it taught America to do on a lake. That's Winter Haven.
Your turn
The comments are open — post your Winter Haven below:
- Your lake on the chain — and your route through the canals
- Your ski show memory, from the shore or the water
- Your dawn on glass-calm water
Locals, homesick locals, and anyone who visited once and never quite got over it — all of you. The best stories will find their way into the future stories we tell here.
The pieces we made for Winter Haven live in the Winter Haven collection — souvenirs of the story, not the other way around.
