Members of the Enloe’s Outlaws race past the old RM 2900 bridge in Kingsland during an AquaBoom show. The ski team performed from 1980-92. Courtesy photo
What started as a tiny spark of a Fourth of July celebration more than five decades ago has become the biggest bang in the Highland Lakes: Kingsland’s AquaBoom.
Today’s Independence Day festival is a red, white, and blue bonanza of American pride in the Texas Hill Country. The lineup of activities includes a gigantic fireworks show over Lake LBJ, land and water parades, live music, a scholarship pageant, competitions, and much more on the days leading up to and after July 4.
MORE: Highland Lakes celebrates the Fourth of July.
Most of the 2025 action is Thursday-Saturday, July 1-5, at sites around Kingsland, including Wakepoint LBJ and the RM 2900 bridge.
That bridge connects AquaBoom to its past in more ways than one.
When the first RM 2900 bridge was completed in late 1968, a small community fireworks display the next summer became instantly more visible and easier to reach. One year later, the event was officially named AquaBoom, and the Kingsland Chamber of Commerce added a boat parade on Lake LBJ and an even bigger fireworks show that had spectators covering nearly every inch of land on the banks and the bridge.
That first bridge washed away in the October 2018 flood but was rebuilt months later and named the Enloe Memorial Bridge, just in time for the 50th anniversary of AquaBoom in July 2019. The name honors two important people in the festival’s history: Pat and David Enloe, the late founders of Enloe’s Outlaws ski team, which helped put AquaBoom on the holiday travel road map in the 1980s. David died in 2005. Pat passed away on June 6, 2019. Daughter Wendy Sue Enloe-Smith, one of the first Enloe’s Outlaws, cried as she watched floodwaters destroy the old bridge on the TV in her mother’s hospital room months before her death.
“(That bridge) is a gateway to people growing up in this area,” she told The Picayune Magazine, a sister publication to 101HighlandLakes.com, in a 2019 interview. “It’s a gateway of memories, not just for my parents but everybody.”
Enloe’s Outlaws performed during AquaBoom from 1980 to 1992, wowing huge crowds with stunts involving a six-person pyramid, ski jumps, and mixed-doubles routines pulled behind their red boat, the Donzi. Hundreds of area children learned how to ski and properly treat the American flag from Outlaws leader David Enloe.
“My dad had a passion and a love for kids,” Enloe-Smith said. “He taught honor, dignity, loyalty, respect. He was military, very strict, but he played around with the kids and joked, too.”
The Enloes moved to Kingsland in 1973 after building a successful career in water skiing. Enloe-Smith had been skiing since she was 3 years old. By 8, she was on the competitive circuit.
Ron Cunningham, another Enloe’s Outlaw, moved with his family to Kingsland in 1974. His father, Rudy, immediately become involved in the community, serving as justice of the peace and chief of the volunteer fire department. He was also involved with the Outlaws.
As a teen, Ron Cunningham worked at David Enloe’s welding shop, where he learned how to ski jump while helping build the ramp.
“(David Enloe) worked really, really hard, and when he played, he played really, really hard,” Cunningham recalled in 2019. “Work or play, he put everything into it.”
Training for the Outlaws started in the spring on land in the Enloes’ backyard with ropes tied to trees or a truck.
“Some of those kids had never seen a water ski,” said Enloe-Smith, “so their education had to come from a dry start.”
From land practice, ski team members moved to the water, where they learned how to handle distractions and waves.
“If you’ve got a six-man pyramid, you’ve got to stick it,” Enloe-Smith said. “There’s no falling.”
Enloe’s Outlaws built a reputation on Lake LBJ during the 1980s for their precision ski tricks.
“You don’t see that in small towns—that kind of talent and those kind of stunts—anywhere other than a place like Sea World or Busch Gardens,” Cunningham said.
David Enloe suffered a stroke in June 1991 and could no longer drive the boat or hold practices. The show did go on, however, and that year became a favorite AquaBoom memory for Enloe-Smith. She was a high school freshman at the time.
“It was perfect, that show that year,” she said of the July 4, 1991, event. “There was extra adrenaline, and in the back of our mind was, ‘We’ve got to do it for David.’ Every act was polished perfect.”
Past AquaBooms also created fond memories for participants in other events.
“What stands out to me is how involved the community leaders were,” said Bobbie Lou Gray, the first Miss AquaBoom, in the 2019 interview. The pageant was added in 1973. “There were 20 to 25 girls in the pageant that year, and they were all sponsored by local businesses. The business community was very much behind the event.”
As part of the Miss AquaBoom court, Gray waved greetings from a float in the lighted boat parade and watched the entire community on the shores waving back.
Seeing the crowds was an experience, Enloe-Smith recalled.
“You couldn’t see the buildings, just bodies,” she said.
People continue to flock to Kingsland’s AquaBoom with crowds numbering as high as 30,000 and the lineup of events growing every year, including some 2025 highlights below:
FRIDAY, JUNE 27
- 8 a.m.—Rubber ducky scavenger hunt begins (ends 8 p.m. July 3)
- 6 p.m.—Lil’ AquaBoom Baby Show
SATURDAY, JUNE 28
- AquaBoom pageants—Teeny Tiny through Young at 10 a.m.; Tween Miss at 4:30 p.m.; Teen Miss at 6 p.m.; and Miss at 7:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, JULY 1
- 9 a.m.—Spirit of Kingsland Contest
THURSDAY, JULY 3
- 11 a.m.-3 p.m.—Patriotic meal
- 8-11:30 p.m.—Street dance
FRIDAY, JULY 4
- 9 a.m.—Children’s parade; parade carnival
- 10 a.m.—Grand parade
- 10 a.m.-9 pm.—Arts-and-crafts show
- 11 a.m.—Lake Area Rods & Classics car show
- Noon to 9 p.m.—Children’s activities, games, dunking booth
- 12:30 p.m.—Patriotic costume contest
- 4-10 p.m.—Official AquaBoom Fireworks Watch Party at the RM 2900 bridge with food vendors, live music by The Motts, a boat parade, and fireworks at dark
SATURDAY, JULY 5
- 9 a.m.—Golf tournament
- 10 a.m.—Barbecue cook-off
The following are at Wakepoint LBJ
- 10 a.m.-4 p.m.—Poker Run on the River
- Noon—Washer toss tournament
- 1 p.m.—Hot dog-eating contest
- 3 p.m.—Cornhole tournament
- 7-10 p.m.—Live music by Donkey Daze
- Dark—Fireworks show
Find a full schedule of 2025 AquaBoom events at kingslandaquaboom.org.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Much of this story is from a 2019 article by Jared Fields, originally written for The Picayune Magazine, a sister publication of 101HighlandLakes.com.
