A lifelong athlete, Chet Kuskowski enjoyed hockey, hunting, fishing, scuba diving, water skiing and snow skiing before suffering a paralyzing gunshot wound at the age of 18. Shortly after being released from the hospital in 1982, he was introduced to wheelchair basketball and began meeting other disabled athletes who "proved to be a priceless resource" for continuing his rehabilitation and re-entry into various kinds of athletic competition.

The following summer, Kuskowski came across a magazine article about disabled water skiers. The article fired his imagination, but the sport was so new that there weren't many types of adapted water-skis available. So, he developed his own sit-ski.

His enthusiasm for water skiing has led him into national and international competition, as well as into teaching. He owns an amazing list of water-skiing accomplishments. Dating back to 1989, Kuskowski has been a regular competitor in the National Disabled Water Ski Championship and was twice selected as a member of the US Disabled Water Ski Team (1991 and '95). He established a world record jump at the 1994 National Championships, and then set another world mark at the 1997 World Disabled Water Ski Championship.

A recognized leader in the sport, he has been a board member of the American Water Ski Association's Committee of Disabled Water Skiers (1985 to 1995), and was a member of the local organizing committee for the first three National Disabled Water Ski Championships (1989-91). Kuskowski was instrumental in bringing the third annual World Disabled Water Ski Trophy competition to Ann Arbor, Michigan. He also served as president of Michigan Handicapped Sports and Recreation Association (now Michigan Adaptive Sports).

As a certified instructor for the American Water Ski Association, he has directed and taught numerous learn-to-water-ski clinics for disabled athletes in Michigan and throughout the Midwest. His greatest accomplishment has been "the effort and dedication that I have put forth to make water skiing a reality for many disabled people."