At What Moment Did You Realize You Were Going to be a Water Skier?

[SkiJay]

When I was six years old, my dad’s boss invited our family to join him for a day of water skiing. The beach, the sun, the water, the speed, and the power (all 70 blue-smoke-belching two-stroke horses), it was magic! It was the most incredible and exciting thing I’d ever done. My mom even gave it a try and she went the entire way around the lake dragging her butt on the water between her combos, too terrified to stand up. I thought I’d crapped myself it was SO funny to watch. But it wasn’t funny at all. It had doomed any chance I may have had to ever go skiing again as a kid.

 

It didn’t help that we lived nowhere near water, or that my dad’s idea of a good time on water was fishing. He was that guy shaking his fist at skiers from a 9 foot aluminum fishing boat while trolling lures up and down the lake on the morning and evening glass (and in the pissing rain for that matter). I guess it was a quiet sort of quality time, but I wanted to be holding a ski handle, not a fishing rod.

 

 

Truth is, I hated being in that stupid little aluminum boat with its gutless 6 horse engine putting around as slow as it would go. When skiers would streak by rhythmically launching rooster tails into the morning and evening skies, I wanted so desperately to be in THEIR boat. With all my heart, I wanted to be one of THEM.

 

That single solitary ski adventure with my dad’s uber cool boss had been an epiphany for me. I KNEW at the tender young age of six years old, that one way or another, I was going to be a water skier. The dream never faded. It was always there. I even bought a water ski in my teens just because I wanted one so much (an O'Brien Comp that got wet three times over many years). It wasn’t until age 50 that I finally got to pursue this life-long dream in earnest. What is it with water skiing? What makes it so alluring?

 

I’ve never waited this long for anything else I’ve wanted in my whole life. You’d think after this much anticipation, there'd be no way water skiing could deliver on expectations. But halleluiah, it’s been SO worth the wait! I LOVE this sport! And the people in it are just as cool as I thought they were fifty years ago.

 

[Razorskier1]

I started skiing when I was 4 behind a little aluminum boat with a 40 horse on it in a little pond outside Dyersville. Dad would pull us around the pond and it was a little longer one way than the other, so on the "long side", my older brothers could make 4 cuts before the boat had to turn and go the other direction, where they could again make 4 cuts. By the time I could get up on one ski I remember going around and around the pond on the outside of the wake. I was afraid to cut into it because that side of the wake had a curl on it and I thought I'd wipe out.

 

The pond was used by the local cement company to dredge sand, so it was very deep and had "cliffs" on all sides. On one side they piled the sand for later use. We had a lot of fun climbing the sand dunes and jumping back down them. Those days were great -- the whole family out at this little, quiet pond for an afternoon of fun with an old outboard and a cooler full of pop and sandwiches. Thanks Mom and Dad!

[6balls]

I'm younger than Jim so the pond days were gone and we were at a resort with cabins in Wisconsin where I also learned at 4 years old behind the "little boat"...the 12 ft alumacraft we rented and put our own 15 hp evinrude on it. Later, I graduated to "the big boat" which scared the hell out of me the first time. It was a 13.5 ft Switzer with a 140 hp evinrude belching angrily at me as I sat in the water. How tiny that boat would seem today!

Jim wouldn't let me slalom until I could clear both wakes on the wooden cypress gardens skis so I began there at 9 y.o., and barefooting at 12 which we all learned by going behind the boat in our vest and trunks, then stepping out of the ski.

We went to a 17.5 ft switzer, and then a Centurion Barefoot Warrior. Dad bought a portable course and we'd drop it in the lake in Wisconsin for 2 weeks and the addiction began.

[alex38]

Water skier.... Super young

Slalom skier.... First time I watched someone go down the rope from the boat at 36.

[andjules]

When I was 5 years old, we had neighbours at the cottage - they were probably 15-17 year olds, behind 65hp outboards. Wooden maharaja, if I recall, I watched one of them dip their elbow in the water around a turn and pull out of it. That was probably the moment. The next summer, my dad bought me a pair of wood combos, and the same neighbours taught me to ski. They moved away a couple of summers later, when I was still farting around on a wooden slalom ski, not much of a skier yet. They probably have no idea the influence it had on my life, almost 40 years later.

[bogboy]

I was about 11 or so. Our parents just bought us kids a 15 foot tri hull fiberglass crestliner with the new Johnson 55 loop charged triple, which my brother towed with his 66 mustang, which he still has. It took me almost all summer to get up on 2 skis because my muscles had not caught up with my body yet. That winter mom and dad paid a guy in Acapulco to take us skiing in the bay. They did not even have any life vests or even belts for us! It didn't take me long to mature after that, and after learning to slalom on lake Washington and the sound, I was hooked. I even towed the boat with my new pinto later, and took friends skiing.

[madcityskier]

Can't remember before I could ski. I really knew I wanted to be a skier when the guy up the street with a Nautique stopped by our dock after his ski buddies had to go to work. Took my brother and I out and started teaching us to ski the course. Came back regularly for 2-3 summers til he moved. He had twenty years on us, but became one of the best friends I have to this day.

Truly Jed Herbert is an ambassador of our sport.

 

[fu_man]

1985...fifth grade. My family would rent a little cottage at a "resort" outside of Montello Wisconsin on a small 90 acre lake. I had learned to ski on a blue plastic sled trainer and would follow the natural progression combos, drop a ski, deep water start, etc. This place was unique because you could rent the boat by the hour....boat, driver, and equipment was included. Basically you just show up for your time slot and ski. I learned to slalom on a wood Obrien comp because that's what they had. Because the lake is small there was a 70 HP limit do we learned behind a small 17ft orange fiberglass Lund. The driver was a local teenager named Dave Rowe and rather than pull skiers (tubes weren't really around yet) he actually taught people to ski. Great teacher, great motivator. On friday nights after the resort patrons were done skiing, he would ski with his buddy and look for the lightest spotter around which happened to be me. Keep in mind, I'm 5th grade and these guys were juniors or seniors in high school....very cool. They would slalom...big spray...drench the chicks on the raft. Then they would barefoot...bomb outs tumble turns all behind a 70HP motor. I was hooked!

[XR6Hurricane]

When I was 19 and finally got up after about 30 tries that were made over a period of about 10 years.

[PatM]

Can't say for sure, but when I was 14 I painted my parents barn, camp and a fence for a EP Comp X2. I thought DEAL! My father thought Sucker.

[GAJ0004]

Two events.. First seeing my cousins(Darren, Brian, Craig, and Dave) all ski when I was a kid. Age 12, skiing on Lake Latonka for the first time.

[SkiJay]

Nice technique despite the Smithsonian equipment @skibrain!

[Brady]

@SkiJay For me, it was two-fold. I first went with my Uncle Willy Tanner at a family reunion to Bear Lake in Utah when I was 8 years old. There was a group of around 15 cousins, and only one boat. He told us that because of the number of people who wanted to ski, we had only one chance to get up. When it was my turn I got in the water, put on skis several sizes too big and did my best to listen to his instructions. When I got up, I felt sheer exhilaration, and I was hooked! I bought my first ski (Connelly Short Line) when I was 12 and bummed rides off of everyone I knew had a boat. My dad bought a boat when I was 15 and I skied on that all the way thru College.

After college, life set in as well as marriage, as well as about 100 pounds (A lot of college athletes continue to eat like they did when they played football). I bought some big boats thru the years and pulled the kids on tubes and wake boards, but didn't participate much, and then I went on a boys trip to Lake Powell a few years back and there were some impressive skiers and the bug hit again. I said I wanted to ski, and pretty much everyone laughed. I was well north of 340 pounds, but I knew I had to try. I had my big 71 inch Triumph that had never been used, and in the water I went. The first several tries, the handle was literally ripped out of my hands, and so I got some rope from one of ski ropes and cut some strips and tied a lasso around each of my wrists and then looped the other end around the handle, much like the grips gymnasts use. I said hit it and hung on for dear life, and the rope snapped.

Getting a new rope and doing the same configuration again, and after about 12 attempts to get up, I did it one more time. I hung on with everything I had. I felt the handle starting to pull away from my hands with my fat ass dragging in the water behind. By the grace of God I hung on, and got up. The exhilaration I felt was equalled only by the first time I skied as a boy. I proceeded to do 3 or 4 turns and then let go in utter exhaustion. And that, my friend, was all it took.

I came home and immediately started a diet, and dropped 90 pounds, bought a beautiful ski boat, and have never look back! I have about 30 more to go to look as sexy as @Klundell, and I need so much more time on the water. I am eager, anxious, and absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to progress, and as I have said on some posts before, this sport has literally saved my life!!!!

 

[MISkier]

My grandparents had a cottage all my life (my parents have it now). They had a 14 foot 1949 Chris Craft with a 15 HP Johnson. My mother had been persuaded by her brother in the late 1950s to buy a 25 HP Sea Bee motor and some 72 inch Cypress Gardens wooden jump skis. The 25 HP motor was unreliable and we used the 15 HP most of the time. My cousins were all older than me and I saw them ski when I was young. At age 9, I decided I wanted to do it. I put the huge jump skis on, strapped the life belt around my waist and grabbed the double handle tow rope. It took a few tries, but I got up that day. Each summer I would progress to cross the wake, etc. As I saw the others progress to slalom, I tried it (probably around age 11 or so). We just put the back foot flat on the jump ski with no boot or toe piece. Eventually, some real slalom skis (EP, OBrien) showed up and I tried those. First one hand slalom turn at age 16. It continued from there, although I never really had access to a course or good boats. Took some lessons and skied my first inboard at age 25 and ran the course at 15 off 30 mph on the first day. That really did it as far as being hooked on buoys. I couldn't devote much time or money to it for a while, but I never lost interest in it. Finally, I had the resources and ability to pursue it again. I bought my first real tournament boat at age 38, joined a ski club at age 42, and competed in my first tournament at age 44. I only see more participation in my future.

 

 

[Than_Bogan]

If I have to pick one moment where I became an addict, it was at the Swiss Ski School in roughly 1990 when I was a sophomore in college.

 

I fell at the first buoy at 32 mph three times in a row.

 

But let me back up a bit. I grew up with access to a slalom course. We skied almost every morning. As a little kid I hadn't been very into it, but around 15 or so I started to have a lot of fun chasing the buoys. But, unbenounced to us, we were Slalom Wallys. We skied on a 15' Whaler with 70 hp. The top speed would average to about 32 mph; we had no clue how much slower that was than 36. And we could pull it waay down -- as a passenger in the boat it felt like the driver had hit the brakes every time one of us loaded the line. And we had a 4' bridle in the back, so 38 off was really 34 off. And we didn't have sub-buoy on the arms of our accufloat course, so over the years they had become horribly curved and our course was probably narrower than Dr. Jim's.

 

So one year, my cousin and I headed off to the Swiss Ski School around Christmas. I thought I was pretty good; he had more high-level athletic experience than I did so was probably a little more realistic. Still, neither of us were prepared for what we discovered. I hadn't done anything longer than the yellow line nor anything slower than 32 mph in years, but I figured this was totally unfamiliar so I better start with something easy, and backed it up all the way to -15.

 

Which brings me to the moment where I crashed at one ball three times in a row. Then I backed it off to 30 mph, and got slightly further. Finally, at 28 mph I was able to complete the course.

 

I don't know exactly what it says about my personality, but at the moment that I realized I still completely sucked at this sport, I knew I must dedicate the rest of my life to being as good at it as I possibly could.

[Nando]

My whole extended family skied but for some reason I didn't want to- I think it was because one of my buddies had broken his leg skiing and missed the whole baseball season and I didn't want that. For several years my dad would bug me to try it, but I always refused. Then one day late in the summer when I was 14, I decided to give it a shot. Got up on my second try on an ancient pair of White Bear skis that had bindings that would cut into your ankle in about 15 seconds. Skied until my ankles were bloody, then got some band-aids and socks and went at it again. Next day I wanted to try my cousin's slalom ski, but was discouraged as I had only skied for one day. Got up on my first try and that was it- I was hooked. The next spring I got some time with a buddy that had an older brother in law who skied some tournaments and once I skiied with those guys, I was really hooked.

[xrated]

First time was behind a Boston Whaler on some old sea green combos. Swear they have a seagull on them. That was around 10.

 

Next time was around 15-16 when a cousin got sober and decided to start skiing again. I spent that summer on a pair of cypress gardens behind a 17' Star Craft (still my favorite boat to ski behind for some reason). Took lots and lots of diggers learning to drop a ski and trying to cross the wake on those old things. Progressed to the old EP Honeycomb that same summer and I haven't looked back since. Neither my cousin or brother who started skiing at the time ski anymore but I have made some good friends and continue to crave time on the rope. Even got the wife and kids joining in now as I approach 30.

[Skoot1123]

I believe I was 9 yo when I first got up on a combo pair of ski's that came with our first boat. When I finally got up on the skis I was so bent over I was basically looking at the water going between the skis. That was the start of it. The boat was a Larsen Lazer 20' I/O. Made lots and lots of memories on that boat!!! Two years later at 11 yo on the river not to far from us my dad and mom and me stayed later on the water while I tried my hand at slalom skiing. Don't know how many tries it took, but I eventually got up and was elated!!! It must have made quite the impression because I wrote a story about it in detail for one of my school projects. Didn't start the slalom course until 7 years ago - although I had wanted to ever since I started slalom skiing. First time on the course I was hooked - couldn't wait to get back out there. Today? Just as hooked, if not more, and BOS fuels the addiction!

[gjohnson]

I started water skiing around the age of 14. Being on the water was the coolest thing. It wasn't until I skied in my first tournament some thirteen years later that I realized, or maybe didn't, that it was going to be a life changing experience. I transformed from a person who enjoyed water skiing to someone that would spend endless summers chasing buoys, a water skier. Since then, I've spent countless hours practicing, judging, scoring, announcing, and skiing in tournaments. Along the way I've lost friendships as a result of my passion, yet gained new ones. People just like me...Water Skiers.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Summer of '68....ten years old....Higgins Lake Michigan behind a neighbors Boston Whaler....two years late discovered "slalom" on Lake Winnebago...Never even saw a slalom course "live" until I was in my 40's....didn't have access to one regularly until I was 50 (about 5 years ago). I am hooked for life now...still trying to make a full pass at a full 34.2 mph at 28 off but loving every attempt.

[Marco]

I got hooked first time I ever tried to ski. I was about 30 years old, it was at Lake Powell, and my friends said that 2 skis were for wusses, so my first ever attemt was on 1 ski. Got up on my second try and was hooked for life. The only problem was the 10 years or so free skiing (before I ever knew what a course was) and engraining bad habbits, which I am still trying to rid myself of today.

[6balls]

@fu_man was that blue plastic sled trainer a "captain zip sled"? Jim and I each still have one...he has the one that countless kids got their start on in Wisconsin...my Dad's zip sled.

[lpskier]

When did I realize I was a skier: An intriguing question, one that I could not immediately answer. So I went back through the water ski journals I have meticulously kept throughout my skiing career to see if I could find the answer. I came across an entry from August 19, 1969. I was 13. The water was 68 degrees, though the air temperature was a sunny 73. I skied an afternoon set with some older kids on the lake behind a 13' Boston Whaler with a Johnson 40. Shelby was driving. I wore cut offs and a yellow rubber Cypress Gardens life jacket.

 

I was riding my then new Taperflex. Fins were fixed with no wing angle to add, but my notes indicate that I had my red adjustable front binder one "click" tighter, meaning, I now understand, that I effectively had my binding adjusted 1/8" forward. The wind was 8 out of the south, light wind for an August afternoon, but nonetheless a straight head/tail for the line we were skiing. We had no course, but my notes indicate that I was laying down what we now call "a toe side turn" in front of the Scudders' dock.

 

The turn resulted in massive angle and, according to those on the shore, an epic spray. When the rope came tight, I, in my stacked pulling position, felt the tug of the boat and then the quick release of the rope breaking. It was the third rope I had broken that summer (at $12.95 each, including the handle and the little plastic float) and my friends' parents refused to buy another if I wasn't asked to ski elsewhere. So, I had to go ski with even older kids, including the famous, no, infamous @Otisg. So, long story short, when I entered his group, I realized I was a skier.

[jipster43]

My parents bought a little cabin on Lake Cushman in the Olympic Mountains when I was seven or eight. It was awesome. Swimming. Horse shoes. Hiking up the mountains. Hang Gliders skipping off our roof and into the lake. Homemade ice cream. Playing pinochle late at night with my grandpa. But we didn't have a boat and it was torture watching the waterskiers all day. It didn't help that the course was practically a stone's throw from our property.

 

Then late in the summer one of my dad's buddies showed up with a Glaspar with a 75hp Evinrude. He grew up on Lake Sammamish and was immediately one of the best skiers on our little lake. He taught all of us to get up on the Cut & Jumps that he brought and even taught my mom and dad how to drive the boat. It was the best day of the summer and we were getting more than a little bummed when it was getting time for him to leave. Until we realized the boat and the skis were not going with him.

 

I had the same passion for waterskiing at that time as I do now. My access to the sport has ebbed and flowed, but I feel that day every day I slip a ski on - or smell a two stroke!

[fu_man]

@6balls Yes! It was. I just googled zip sled and saw a picture. Wow brings back memories.

[MichaelGoodman]

First skied at 8 years old behind a 12 foot boat with a 18 hp Johnson. We would mow lawns

for $5 then go buy gas at .27 a gallon ski all day some times burning 18 gallons a day. Then when I was 12 they banned motor boats on the little pond we lived on, needless to say I was crushed. Maybe skied once a year after that since I did not know any one with a boat. My senior year in college at the spring boat show with out a full time job but one lined up after graduation I bought a a 17 foot Galaxy with a 145 hp I/O what a piece of junk would barely pull me up out of the water. About 6 years later I bought a new 1986 Nautique but still did not know what a ski course was. That fall 1986 I heard about a little place in Uxbridge MA that had a course and a guy giving lessons (Randy Youngsma) made the course at 30 mph first set and was hooked. Still had no idea how to set up a course even though I lived on a pond. That winter met new buddy who was a good skier with lots of time in the course that next spring we installed a course I was 31 years old now 57 and still addicted to those stupid little orange balls.

[MrJones]

Saw a flyer for a "Beginner/Novice" Water Ski Tournament at the boat shop when picking up a fuel filter for our I/O. They practice on Friday afternoon before the tourney. Ran the first pass I ever tried at long line 26 mph. I was 17 years old and hooked.

[swc5150]

I grew up on lake from day 1, and enjoyed basic recreational skiing until age 11. It was summer 1984, and I saw my first MC pulling "real" slalom skiers on our lake. The boat was the coolest moving vehicle I'd ever seen, and the skier's speed across the wake, with the walls of water they made completely hooked me. A couple of years of hardcore begging, and my parents bought us a new '86 MC. I made more progress in the first 3 months of having a ski boat, than in my entire life prior. That boat also changed the relationship I had with my brother from me being just "the little brother", to best friends. That relationship continues to this day. I just wish we still had the time to pound 150 hours per summer on our boats!

[xrated]

@skibrain you forgot to add most seem to have started and got hooked on public water, I'd bet with a boat full of people.

[otisg]

I can't remember ever not thinking that I was going to be a Water Skier. My father and his friend Tad Salmon were making their own skis out of wooden barrel staves & cutting up fire hose (presumably discarded but not too sure) and cutting up Lake Placid in the Thrirties.... So it was a forgone conclusion as to how I would be spending my summers.

I pursued the sport with great enthusiasm because it was way better than doing chores or my summer reading list from school and I got a lot of "Atta-Boys" from the old man....

There was a Ski School at the South end of the Lake and I used to hang around there being as helpful as possible so that the Guys would give me a pull through their course with boats that could actually get out of their own way. Try running slalom (or Bare Footing) behind a Mahogany '48 Chris Craft Utility with a 95 hp. Gray. It eventually made a man out of me.

I loved it when the the conditions got a little gnarly at tournaments - I knew that I would move up a few places...

The older Guys, Billy Humes, Bob MacD. and Billy Grimditch who helped me have remained my life long best friends.

Then when I was about 12 - God himself (Warren Witherell) moved on to the Lake and bought a house about 10 doors down from us... I was in heaven. By then I skied well enough that God was impressed and needed a third... So I got ski with him and learned how to put a slalom course in - under the shadow of Whiteface Mountain! It does not get any better than that. Or, so I thought.

There have been a few humbling and gratifying experiences here at BOS - when one of the Snot -Nosed kids (who used to hang with my brother) came to my defense or let me know in ways that I never would have imagined that I made a positive difference in his life and in that of others...

The simple fact that one can not pursue this sport alone forces us to get out of ourselves and "Pay it Forward & Backward" to those coming behind and accepting wisdom & help from those "in the know" makes Water Skiing a great sport to learn many of life's lessons.

I have been a life long skier but once again I became a better human being this morning thanks to LPskier.

Glad to know we helped each other.

Thanks again for getting me out there again in '83 and pushing me into doing something I would have thought impossible. It is my proudest achievement in this or any endeavor.

 

[Than_Bogan]

Yeah, I can't believe how many Boston Whalers are mentioned so far! I honestly thought I'd be the only one.

 

Can't quite figure out what that means, but seems a bit beyond pure coincidence.

[SkiJay]

If my dad was anything to go by, likely more dad's are into fishing than skiing. Certainly more dads can afford a fishing boat than can afford a ski boat.

[Skoot1123]

@skijay - I hear ya on dad's into fishing. But have you seen the costs of the Nitro fishing boats? They rival the ski boats on cost. At least the last time I walked into Bass Pro Shops.

[xrated]

@Than_Bogan probably because Whalers are such a fine boat. I'd love to get one.

 

@skibrain, guess I'm a little guy and was even smaller as a kid so even with a 35 on the whaler the whole family could ride.

[Porkfight]

I was 10 or 11 the first time I got up on some ancient wooden combos behind my dad's '79 closed bow semi-v with a Mercury 200 V6 on the back. This was a house boating trip to Lake Mead. First, I got up on the homebrew barefoot boom on two, then behind the boat on two, then back to the boom for the single ski, then back behind the boat on the single. That took place in the span of about a half hour, and that was the last time I skied on combos.

 

We never had acces to private lakes or courses. All I knew was that my dad could launch a massive wall of water into the air and I thought that looked cool. For about 10 years, that's what slalom was to me. We would do 3-4 lake/river trips throughout each summer until the boat fell into a state of disrepair and my sister and I started college. Roughly 10 more years went by before I strapped on my dad's early '80s Jobe Open Class and realized how fun skiing was. My dad gave me the "boat" and I had to spend the last 2 years restoring it before it was usable and presentable again. I finished it this year and bought two 2013 model year skis after finding this site and reading for endless hours.

 

So here I am now, addicted to BoS, trying things I read about here roughly once a week on the open water at Lake Elsinore behind the same 70 mph outboard I learned to ski behind 25 years ago or my buddy's Yamaha AR230, neither of which is allowed on Elsinore's slalom course. For the first time in my life, I want a direct drive ski boat so I can ski a course at will. Maybe this summer is when I decided I want to be a skier.

[SkiJay]

Boston Whalers rock!

[6balls]

The inboard ski boat is now obviously the bomb...but I have a very special place in my heart for small outboard powered alumacrafts and whalers. I also have a very special place for the high HP outboard, 70 plus mph rocket boats. What a riot. @skibrain cool pics. @porkfight love the story.

 

[MISkier]

This picture shows the basic type of ski I used (handle too). It is from a 1954 Evinrude manual that talks about skiing with their "Big Twin" engine. It is a how to manual written by Bruce Parker. In the back, there is an application for lifetime AWSA membership for $50.00. I wonder if it is still good.

[MichaelGoodman]

Skibrain great pic's I learned to ski off a very similar boat except we had a 1964 18 hp

Johnson looks like you had the Merc. We could get two kids up salom never tried three

thats awesome on a 20 hp.

[BCM]

Waterskier - When I was a kid and my parents would take us out to the lake after baseball/soccer/football practice and we would go up toward the river and ski until the sheriff told us it was too dark. Also, while in highschool the mornings I was fortunate enough to wake up on the houseboat and get a quick ski ride across the lake on my way to school.

 

Tournament/3-event skier - Second collegiate tournament. Bakersfield, it was about 8000 degrees that weekend and the water was hot enough to cook pasta. I was happy to turn a few at 34mph 15off and land my first jump. I was given some advice by a few guys I didn't know, later watched them run 35 and jump 150+... I was hooked, it also gave me a reason to stay in school... believe it or not I credit my degree to collegiate waterskiing... Getting dropped off at class with your ski while wearing wet shorts... It was a blast...