Put together a ski and a life jacket, add some rope, a speedy boat and a lot of water and you’ve put together the ideal sport for a pair of driven brothers from Clayton.

Sixteen-year old Bradley Pinkus grew up playing just about everything there was to play in the sports genre. But after picking up water skiing at the age of 8, his attention was drawn more and more to the water. Younger brother Daylon sat idle at first, watching his brother glide over the water, with a big spray of water close behind. But by the time he was 6, Daylon was ready to give the water a shot as well.

Six years later, both are state champions.

Bradley Pinkus took home his fourth N.C. State Water Skiing Championship (this one in Boys III, ages 15-18) over the weekend on the lakes of the Coble Ski School just south of downtown Lillington over the weekend, while 12-year old Daylon grabbed his first state championship, prevailing in the Boys II (ages 11-14) classification.

Bradley won his state championship by one gate, running through the course two-and-a-half times at 32 off.

“I’ve done a lot better, it wasn’t anything great to remember,” Bradley said. “But I got one buoy more and it was just enough to win it.”

This past weekend’s state championship appearance was Daylon’s fourth but his first that included a gold medal. Daylon’s state title came through three gates at feet off. It was his first state championship and it matched his personal best run.

In addition to sharing his brother’s love of the water, Daylon Pinkus is being drawn more and more to water skiing competitions. He’s played baseball, basketball and football for the past few seasons and says he hasn’t completely ruled out continuing those pursuits.

“It’s like a by-yourself sport,” Daylon said of skiing. “You don’t have to depend on anyone else like you have to in team sports. If you mess up, it’s your fault, not anybody else’s.

“And I can do stuff at my own pace and keep getting better.”

Bradley’s now sole devotion to water skiing followed the path that Daylon’s is starting to follow now. The older of the two skiing sons of Robert and Sandi Pinkus enjoyed other sports but couldn’t turn away from the thrill he got out on the water.

April Coble-Eller, the lead instructor at the Coble Ski School where the Pinkus brothers train, says the individual achievement the sport offers is a draw for many skiers.

“It’s very self-motivating,” Coble-Eller says of the sport. “There’s no team to lift you up when you fall short and you learn this is something you can continue to do for the rest of your life. In team sports, you get to a certain age and there aren’t any more teams around to play on.

“We had an 87-year old skiing out here this weekend.”

The battle with the slalom gates was one Bradley wanted to continue. The lack of a scoreboard, time limits and the ability to constantly change the variables involved (speed, rope length, course difficulty) all brought him back to the lake again and again.

“It’s not a team sport and I can push myself to be my best without having to think about what’s going on with my teammates,” Bradley said. “It’s a whole lot easier to come out here and ski and just ski against yourself.”

“I pretty much liked it right from the start. I just started going out more and more and just got better over time.”

The Pinkus brothers keep their focus on slalom skiing in competitions. “Everything else is just for fun,” Bradley says, referring to the jumps and tricks that other competitive water skiers focus on.

It’s the constant changing of factors and challenges that slalom skiing presents that keeps the Pinkus boys motivated. In competitions, slalom skiers, who compete on a single ski, progress by upping the speed of the boat pulling them and by shortening the rope that pulls them behind the boat.

Bradley Pinkus will next be off to regionals in Tallahassee, Fla., later this month. He already has two second-place finishes at the regional level as well as a pair of national runner-up honors. At the state championships this past weekend, he competed under the same conditions as most professionals do. The boat pulling him was set at 36 mph, which is the fastest slalom boats go, even at the pro level.

“He only had five feet of rope to spare in his last run,” Coble-Eller said of Bradley. “He had a very good run. Once you get to that level, it starts to get really difficult.”

So it’s easy to see why he’s likely to draw interest from the professional ranks, which he can join when he turns 18.

“It’s something I’ve started to think about more and I’d really like to do,” Bradley said. “The pros are the best there is.”

Sounds like the Pinkus brothers have found their next challenge on the water.